Sublime

Low levels of serotonin and norepinephrine show up as depression, low dopamine as attention and behavior disorders, low acetylcholine as Alzheimer’s, and low GABA as anxiety. These are literally the chemical messengers of mood, learning, attention, memory, and overall brain function—they determine how you feel, how fast you learn, and how much you

But in day-to-day life, unintentional overload can occur at the expense of our executive function. The modern world can be excessively excitatory—music, electronic billboards, the light from a smartphone screen, the flickering of a TV screen, or simply the sound of a train entering the station. These are all factors that, when combined, can overloa

Located at the base and back of the brain in two kumquat-shaped lobes, the cerebellum is small—it occupies only 10 percent of brain volume—but it is powerful: it contains a full 75 percent of the neurons of the brain.

“I’m trying to get my prefrontal cortex to squirt GABA-goo over my amygdala.” GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric

Gray’s data showed that the sensitivity of the amygdala depended, at least in part, on the amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin in that part of the brain. Animals with low serotonin levels were hyperreactive to stressful stimuli (like loud sounds), while higher levels of serotonin dampened their fear system, making them less likely to become ag