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Have you ever wondered how your * insecticide kills mosquitoes and cockroaches? What does the dense, choking compressed liquid do to them? Is it a respiratory poison, or does it just suffocate them? If you’ve ever seen a cockroach lie flat on its back after insecticide has been sprayed, kicking sporadically at the air with all fours in a much uncoordinated manner, then you have a sense of what neurotransmitters can do to an organism, howbeit small.
The bodies of many species in animal life are subject to physiological processes, many of which are biochemical in nature. Digestion of food into ‘metabolizeable’ forms and their respiration as well, are both governed principally by biochemical forces that drive the engine of life, maintaining, and at the same time depending on functioning physical anatomical structures and systems. So are the mental and emotional tendencies of our bodies.
The stimuli generated by factors such as work stress, heartbreak, frustration and even bad weather, to name a few, draw various corresponding responses from our bodies. Why does the body feel sleepy at certain times of the day, particularly at night? And why do you feel sleepy after eating certain foods? I remember a breakfast meal of corn porridge in a boarding school I attended briefly in Tema. The porridge was good, and we were never given very much of it, but after eating it, we found, when we went to class, that almost every boarder was either deep asleep or seriously, irredeemably dozing off. This situation remained like that till about eleven o’clock when we went out for break. Many boarding schools in Ghana serve such meals, which, unlike home Banku whose sleepy effects can easily be attributed to the consumption of large quantities, set students to an early bedtime even in very minute quantities.
A first - time smoker typically experiences mild rejection signs from his or her body; vomiting, coughing… the symptom experienced varies per smoker, but after a few times of smoking the same brand of cigarettes, the smoker soon acquires a dire need for them, a case which often leads to addiction to cigarettes. Why does the smoker’s body respond like this, and how does addiction set in? Environmental and social factors are the experts to consult on the lay level, but thanks to a still small but somewhat sufficient knowledge of some of the biochemical complexities of the nervous and endocrine systems, science can propose a scientific account of the machinery of not only drug addiction in biological systems, but also the phenomenon of “Falling in love.” – Well,
to some extent.
PART I
The Chemistry of Drug AddictionThe claim that the brain is the functional powerhouse of the body has been drummed up in science sufficiently to make it very probable that you have heard something along that line at least once in your life. To what extent, though, does the brain dictate the actions and inactions of a human being? When I feel like having a bowl of Fufu, am I simply experiencing a self willed desire or craving? Or am I just reacting to a state that my mind has only now just entered? To what extent is my brain me?
Scientists have long battled with this very question, even though it’s been acknowledged for centuries in the world of science that the brain controls and coordinates almost every affair of the human body. How the mind collects, retains and relates information, and the specific different ways in which different people perceive the world around, are issues that still need a lot of explaining in the world of biological science. These issues sum up to what is called cognition, which simply means ‘knowing’.
However, apart from the ‘boss’ role of the brain, the brain is also subject to biochemical, electrical and other operations of the body. In this case, its role becomes one of a responsive coordination of activities to ascertain the source and purpose of such an operation, and having interpreted a response or feedback, to address the problem or issue risen by the initial operation. Such operations usually come in the form of a stimulus; an electrical impulse that reaches the brain fractions of a second after being generated by a point in the human anatomy. It is the journey of such an impulse, from a place such as the skin, through a network of carriers that help it along its path, to the brain that
will lead us to an initial and essential appreciation of the nervous system of the human body, which is the basis, really, of any understanding of things like mood and drug addiction.An Overview of the Nervous System
The nervous system, essentially, is a system of nerves. Honestly speaking, it is nothing else. Strange that what is probably the most complicated system in the mammalian body is also the most simply defined. But that’s only on the cellular level. In practice, no system in the body can be explained without due recognition of the role of hormones, gases, and in this case neurotransmitters. In the meantime though, it serves our purpose to cal impulse that reaches the brain fractions of a second
after being generated by a point in the human anatomy. It is the journey of such an impulse, from a place such as the skin, through a network of carriers that help it along its path, to the brain that
will lead us to an initial and essential appreciation of the nervous system of the human body, which is the basis, really, of any understanding of things like mood and drug addiction.An Overview of the Nervous System
The nervous system, essentially, is a system of nerves. Honestly speaking, it is nothing else. Strange that what is probably the most complicated system in the mammalian body is also the most simply defined. But that’s only on the cellular level. In practice, no system in the body can be explained without due recognition of the role of hormones, gases, and in this case neurotransmitters. In the meantime though, it serves our purpose to stay on the cellular level and classify the nervous system into two parts:
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