New images of the brainstem show chemical pools that drive winning or losing reactions you’ll bring to work today. It's often the difference between packing a punch at work ... or getting punched out of a winner's circle. Been there?
News is out about pools of natural chemicals ... that lead you toward self-control or addiction. What’s new about this discovery?
Scientists for some time now … assure us that work tends to go well … when chemicals fuel your mental energy for adventure. In contrast, the brain’s flame can get doused by floods of chemicals that work against well being. Yet chemical storage areas appeared obscured in former imaging techniques. It’s a new look deep into the brain’s treasury. How so? 
Researchers at Princeton University just devised new functional images of the human brainstem, which hold brain chemicals that determine disorders or mental well-being.
Check out this month’s edition of Science, to see how brain experts are now tracking brain chemicals that lead to promotions on one day … and cause compulsive behavior on another.
The Princeton team developed images to show activity of tiny clusters of dopamine neurons. The brain stem, located at the lower part of the brain above the spinal cord - controls breathing, digestion, heart rate, and blood pressure.
New images into the distribution center of brain chemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin will help researchers to record and measure brain cell activity. Could this discovery lead to more peak performances – based on a healthier flow of chemicals?
What do you think?
This neuro-metabolic stew we call life is ultimately governed by our vascular biology. Normal neurochemistry without "spot-on" autoregulation of cerebral blood flow and it's all flash and no fun. I thing the Chinese understood it best with the nebulous and yet strangely familiar concept of "Qi". In it we live and move and have our being--so to speak!
Posted by: Kerry D. Friesen, M.D. | February 28, 2008 8:04 PM | Permalink to Comment