Discover the scale and effects of the chemical ingredients in cigarettes. What are smokers breathing in to their lungs, and what effects are these chemicals having on them? Biology - Healthy Living - When a cigarette is burned it...

Ketamine is a controlled substance approved by the FDA for use as an anesthetic. It is also used recreationally to create a dissociative state. But what about ketamine for depression? The FDA has approved Spravato (esketamine) for...

Chewing gum activates the receptors in our gums that send information to the brain. The added bonus of an increased heart rate also allows the muscles to receive more blood. This is why so many professional footballers and basketball...

In this video, Justin from the Institute of Human Anatomy discusses the devastating toll cocaine consumption has on the body.

We crave unhealthy foods because they contain lots of sugar and artificial additives, which taste delicious, and therefore trigger the release of certain pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters. Furthermore, we are evolutionarily programmed...

Why do antidepressants kill your sex drive? Sexual side effects are a common unwanted medication side effect. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter or nerve chemical that plays a role regulating your mood. But it also does affects...

Short video testing autonomic nervous system (ANS) #shorts (Part D) sympathetic, parasympathetic, T1-L2, brainstem, S2-S4, lateral horn, white ramus communicans, gray ramus communicans, sympathetic ganglion, sympathetic chain, NE, EPI,...

While some people do appear to have a naturally good memory, and can accurately summon names, events and dates from thin air, there is a lot more nuance to memory than simply labeling a person’s ability as “good” or “bad”. Memories are...

"The program starts off with an explanation of what alcohol is, how it’s produced, and its role as a celebratory beverage in our society. Students will come to understand the reasons alcohol is illegal to consume for persons...

GABA Shunt or GABA Catabolism

Sometimes neuroscience terms can be hard to say. With the New Year just starting off, we thought it would be fun to kick off 2017 with Alie messing up her lines and other hijinks! It's also a kind of recap of all of the episodes we've...

Signaling across synapses--the tiny gaps between neurons, over a thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper--requires multiple molecules to work together. To learn how neurons communicate, and ensure they pass across the synapses at...

The program starts off with an explanation of what alcohol is, how it's produced, and its role as a celebratory beverage in our society. Students will come to understand the reasons alcohol is illegal to consume for persons under...

In this video, we explore the mechanism of action and metabolism of the illicit drug, ecstasy, scientifically known as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

In this video, we explore the basic mechanism of action of the major endocannabinoids, 2-AG & anandamide.

Melatonin Catabolism 1

For a century, scientists thought migraines were a vascular disease. But now it is thought that migraines are related to a wave of overactive neurons that spreads across the brain, which in turn affects blood vessels. Researchers hope to...

Serotonin Biosynthesis from Tryptophan

We've learned about epithelial tissue, connective tissue, and muscle tissue, so now it's time to learn about the fourth and final type, nervous tissue! That means all the neurons that send signals around your body. These make up the...

Alcohol is a double-edged sword. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." However, some people say that drinking three beers means losing 10,000 brain cells. But is it true that alcohol...

In this episode, I talk about the visual processing that happens in the retina, starting with the rods and cones, going to the bipolar cells and then the ganglion cells. Watch to learn how this process works.

In this video I talk about the two types of receptors - the ionotropic and metabotropic receptors and show how the result in different types of responses. Enjoy!

Serine Racemase: Mechanism and Inuition

When the action potential reaches the axon terminal, this triggers a series of events that result in the release of neurotransmitter to the synaptic cleft. Neurotransmitters bind to the receptors on the postsynaptic membrane causing a...