Barretto, Rhea Mae C.

Assessment 1
BS PSY 2-7 Physiological & Biological Psychology

How do neurotransmitters influence behavior, and how do drugs and other chemicals
affect neurotransmission?

Our neurotransmitters are our body’s chemical messenger inside our brain which
transmits one signal from one nerve cell to another nerve cell. They say that there are
more than 40 neurotransmitters in a single human nervous system and some of the most
important are acetylcholine, adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, GABA, etc.
the acetylcholine is essential primarily to our muscle functioning and sleep cycle a person
could get. Dopamine is the pleasure transmitter, it is the behavior of when you receive a
reward or feeling motivated while, serotonin which is a mood neurotransmitter that helps
manage our moods, appetite, the cycle of sleep, and people’s behavior. Drugs and other
chemicals may also affect the transmission of signals and may shift the effects of the
neurotransmitter to which may result in an altered way of how people think, feel, and
behave in some ways. Some drugs can copy or mimic the neurotransmitter such as
cocaine. Cocaine is an addictive stimulant drug and it acts as an indirect-acting drug that
influences the transmission of the neurotransmitter dopamine which is the pleasure
neurotransmitter.