Neurotransmitters & Learning
Exploring the Chemicals of Human Behavior, Mental Health, and Learning
Understanding Neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters may seem complex, but their functions are integral to everyday life. They are chemical messengers in the brain that transmit signals between nerve cells, impacting our mood, sleep patterns, learning ability, and decision-making. They play a critical role in how we feel, react, and process information from the world around us.
Our brain is made of cells called neurons, which have gaps called synapses. We use neurotransmitters to communicate across these gaps and create or strengthen neural connections.
Here’s a breakdown of the primary neurotransmitters involved in learning:
1. Norepinephrine/Epinephrine: This hormone often drives us to action, preparing our bodies for movement and quick responses. This is also known as adrenaline. We release adrenaline as a response to threats or the unexpected.
2. Dopamine: A critical player in motivation and reward, dopamine makes us pursue goals by masking the effort involved, making challenging tasks feel more achievable. Our brains release dopamine when we see ourselves moving toward a goal or are surprised. It signals us to do more of what we just did—beneficial or detrimental. Dopamine reinforces the neural pathways that were just right before the moment of dopamine release.
For example, if we work hard towards a goal and accomplish it, we will release dopamine to reinforce the neural pathways that were used to work hard. Now, we are more likely to work hard in the future. This is how dopamine can start a positive momentum success spiral.
On the other hand, if we lie to our family to do drugs, the drugs will release dopamine to reinforce the lying, and we are more likely to lie again in the future.
Dopamine is the molecule of more - we do more of whatever we just did.
3. Serotonin: This neurotransmitter is associated with feelings of safety and calmness. It often works alongside oxytocin to stabilize our mood. It also helps with sleeping, eating, and digesting. We release serotonin when we hug our family or pet our dog.
In contrast to dopamine, serotonin doesn’t necessarily make us want more, but it allows us to enjoy what we already have. For example, when we pet our dog, we don’t necessarily want more dogs but are happy that we have this dog in particular.
We need a certain level of serotonin to feel safe, which is critical for learning.
4. GABA: Known for promoting relaxation, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) helps reduce neural activity, leading to a calmer state of mind. It’s the brain's calm-down signal. GABA helps us filter our unnecessary noise, allowing for better focus and clarity. If the brain is too active, it could be challenging to pay attention.
5. Acetylcholine: Essential for focusing, acetylcholine makes us pay attention to tasks that intrigue or interest us. In the learning process, acetylcholine is released after epinephrine. The epinephrine lets our brain know that something is wrong, and the acetylcholine helps us focus to figure out what went wrong.
Acetylcholine is critical for attention, memory, and motivation. It can also be considered a spotlight, helping us direct our attention to something specific. When we learn something new, we make new connections in our brain, and acetylcholine is like the glue that holds these new connections together—at least until we can consolidate them into our long-term memory.
Here are a few of the other neurotransmitters and a short explanation of what they do:
Glutamate - The primary excitatory neurotransmitter that is important for learning and memory.
Histamine - Plays a role in the sleep-wake cycle and allergic responses as a neurotransmitter.
Endorphins - Involved in natural pain relief and to induce feelings of pleasure.
Anandamide - Plays a role in the regulation of feeding behavior, and the generation of motivation and pleasure.
Adenosine - Generally acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, helping to promote sleep and suppress arousal.
Diet and Neurotransmitter Production
Our diet can influence our neurotransmitter production.
Fasting increases levels of norepinephrine and dopamine, enhancing alertness and the ability to learn. Fasting helps jump-start the learning process but could impact information retention if we fast for too long.
Carbohydrate Consumption triggers the release of serotonin, which promotes feelings of well-being and calmness. This helps us feel safe enough to start learning.
Eggs, nuts, and nicotine are known to increase acetylcholine production.
Real-time Strategies for Stress Management
Everyone, from five-year-olds to adults, encounters stress and can benefit from effective management techniques:
Intentional Breathing: Andrew Huberman, Stanford medical school professor, emphasizes the 'physiological sigh'—a double inhale followed by a long exhale. This pattern helps calm the nervous system by reducing heart rate and lowering blood acidity, which can otherwise lead to agitation.
Exhaling calms us and signals the brain to slow down the heart rate. Exhaling also helps us release extra CO2, lowering our blood's acidity. When our blood gets too acidic, we get agitated.
Inhaling hypes us up and signals to the brain to speed up the heart rate. Inhaling can increase the concentration of CO2 in our blood, which increases the acidity.
Neurotransmitters and Learning
The release of epinephrine and acetylcholine can significantly enhance neuroplasticity, making it easier to learn new information quickly.
Interestingly, the discomfort from adrenaline when transitioning from stillness to action is a natural process designed to boost our readiness for movement and learning.
Learning can be thought of as a three-step process that starts with the release of epinephrine, which is uncomfortable but lets us know that we don’t understand.
Next, we release acetylcholine, which helps us determine what to focus on.
Finally, we release dopamine to strengthen what we just did.
While this process is happening, we need proper serotonin levels to help us feel safe enough to learn and proper GABA levels to help us block our unnecessary stimulus or germane load.
Cultural and Behavioral Insights
Winners Keep Winning: Andrew Huberman brought up a study that explored why winners have a higher probability of winning, and losers have a higher likelihood of losing. Even if it’s artificial, with cheating, it is believed that the frontal cortex activity increases in winners, takes the feeling of stress and arousal, and converts it into more steps of forward movement per unit of time.
I wasn’t able to find the exact study he was referring to. Still, research has shown that neural activities in the primary motor cortex and supplementary motor areas increase during the preparation and execution of voluntary movements. This could relate to winners' increased frontal cortex activity (Suzuki et al., 2008).
The prefrontal and premotor cortices also exhibit increased activation during movement preparation and execution. This suggests that these brain regions are heavily involved in enhancing performance, potentially contributing to the phenomenon where winners continue to excel (Mitsuo Suzuki, I. Miyai, T. Ono, K. Kubota, 2008).
Belief Systems and Dopamine: Our beliefs are deeply tied to dopamine release. When we think about our deeply-held beliefs, we get a dopamine hit that reinforces these convictions, making them hard to change after age 25. This suggests that adults can influence their neuroplasticity through their beliefs.
Understanding neurotransmitters provides critical insights into the mechanisms responsible for our responses, emotions, and learning processes.
The symphony between neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and acetylcholine shapes our immediate reactions and influences long-term behavioral patterns and learning capabilities.
Factors such as diet and stress management techniques are crucial in optimizing neurotransmitter function and enhancing our overall well-being and cognitive performance. Chemical messengers profoundly impact our daily lives and highlight the potential for targeted strategies to improve mental health and educational outcomes. By understanding the complexities of neurotransmitters, we have tools for fostering resilience, promoting positive habits, and ultimately, understanding the human experience and learning at a deeper level.