Background: The biogenic amine neurotransmitter dopamine acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter when binding to excitatory receptors. Dopamine...

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Psychology

Background: The biogenic amine neurotransmitter dopamineacts as an excitatory neurotransmitter when binding to excitatoryreceptors. Dopamine aids norepinephrine in the â€œfeel goodâ€ effectin the brain. As the levels of dopamine are altered, differentdiseases/disorders can occur.
1. In patients with schizophrenia and psychosis,dopamine levels are often very high. This is known tocontribute
to symptoms of hallucinations, delusions and unorganizedspeech and thoughts.
a. Knowing dopamine is an excitatory neurotransmitter,what is happening at the neuron level to cause
these symptoms?
b. What do you hypothesize could work best to treatthese symptoms?
c. Research known pharmaceutical treatments forschizophrenia. Name two and how they workphysiologically.

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a Our brain uses prior experiences to generate sensory expectations that help fill in the gaps when sounds or images are distorted or unclear said Guillermo Horga MD PhD assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at CUIMC and a research psychiatrist at NYSPI In individuals with schizophrenia this process appears to be altered leading to extreme perceptual distortions such as hearing voices that are not there Furthermore while such hallucinations are often successfully treated by antipsychotic drugs that block the neurotransmitter dopamine in a brain structure known as the striatum the reason for this has been a mystery since this neurotransmitter and brain region are not typically associated with sensory processing The researchers designed an experiment that induces an auditory illusion in both healthy participants and participants with schizophrenia They examined how building up or breaking down sensory expectations can modify the strength of this illusion They also measured dopamine release before and after See Answer

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