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Types of neurotransmitters

This video explores the diverse world of neurotransmitters, the molecules that transmit information between neurons. It categorizes neurotransmitters into amino acids, peptides, monoamines, and others, highlighting their structures and functions. Key neurotransmitters like glutamate, GABA, glycine, serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine are discussed, emphasizing their crucial roles in the nervous system. Created by Matthew Barry Jensen.

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  • winston default style avatar for user David
    If one has a lot of monoamines, does it mean that they are better thinkers (or more creative) than people who don't have that much monoamines?
    (6 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user david.burrell
      There's a lot to consider, but to put it bluntly, no. There is a fine balance that allows us to function well. Too much dopamine and that's schizophrenia normally (psychotic issues), too much serotonin and you'll be numb/apathetic and not attentive (sleepy) and etc. This is why mental issues are so difficult to solve. Nobody really knows what a good balance is and there's no way to measure your monoamine levels. You can get a monoamine blood test but it'll only give you an idea of neurotransmitter levels in your blood, not in your CNS, which is what matters.
      (28 votes)
  • winston default style avatar for user David
    I've heard that mast cells release histamines and that's what causes an allergic reaction, then why do we need mast cells or histamines?
    (5 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user Jeff H
      Briefly (as much of their role in the body remains to be clear), mast cells aid in the immune response. Simple example: pathogen enters the nasal passage, mast cells are engaged, pathogen is swept away by excess watery mucus.
      (18 votes)
  • male robot hal style avatar for user Julian Bellavita
    So how exactly does the release of neurotransmitters from one neuron to another cause something like emotion or pain?
    (7 votes)
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  • female robot ada style avatar for user neha
    In the text box, it says that Matthew meant to say 'glutamic acid', but does it really matter? In other words, would being deprotonated (and therefore calling it glutamate) make the NT non-functional?
    (6 votes)
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  • primosaur sapling style avatar for user Flying Pig
    At , isn't opioid an overdose drug?
    (3 votes)
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    • orange juice squid orange style avatar for user briancsherman
      It can be. Matthew is talking about what are called endogenous opioids here, which are substances that your body makes naturally. Your central nervous system and pituitary gland produce endorphins, which are opioids. The opioid drugs that people have overdosed on are refined from poppy plants or synthesized in a laboratory. The reason these drugs have an effect on people is because we have receptors for them, designed to work with the opioids our bodies naturally produce.
      (7 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user enceph131
    1 thank you. 2 Im a nurse. In the ICU, when we give epinephrine IV drip and norepinephrine IV drip, are we giving neurotransmitters in the bag? just wondering how it works
    (4 votes)
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    • leaf grey style avatar for user Sean Zilligen
      While epinephrine and norepinephrine are released by neurons as neurotransmitters, they are also released by the adrenal medullae into the general circulation as hormones. Thus, when patients are given EPI and NE in an IV drip, it is for their systemic effect (increased heart rate, blood pressure, glucose mobilization, etc.), rather than as neurotransmitters. These catecholamines are unable to cross the blood brain barrier anyways.
      (4 votes)
  • female robot grace style avatar for user Veronica Viticella
    I see both NH2 and H2N. What's the difference? Are they bound in a different order? Or is one of them 3d?
    (3 votes)
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  • primosaur ultimate style avatar for user obanister
    Would Steroids be classified as "Other"?
    (3 votes)
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    • leaf green style avatar for user Joanne
      Sometimes it is hard to understand the question and I think that is why no one tackled your question. But here we have a video about neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, acetylcholine, GABA, etc. These are chemicals one neuron releases that bind to receptors on another neuron. They travel a short distance and affect one or at the most a very few other cells. Steroids are a large class of chemicals that are hormones. Hormones such as cortisol or testosterone, both steroids, are released by glands into the blood and they change the activity of many many cells. Hormones also bind to receptors on cells. So there are similarities between neurotransmitters and hormones as well as differences. And you can point to the adrenal medulla releasing norepinephrine and epinephrine so those neurotransmitters become hormones because they are travelling in blood and changing the whole body so we can fight or flee (adrenalin and nor adrenalin). Perhaps a medical dictionary will help. I will try to find a link, however, there is always wikipedia as a place to start. https://medlineplus.gov/mplusdictionary.html
      (3 votes)
  • hopper jumping style avatar for user Lucy Z.
    I know that the hexagonal shape in some of the neurotransmitter structures is benzene. However, I see that some have a pentagonal shaped object, too (ex., 2nd monoamine in the row, histamine). What exactly is that? Thanks!
    (2 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Jason Fakidis
    Why do neurotransmitters not leave the synaptic cleft?
    (2 votes)
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Video transcript

Voiceover: In this video I want to talk about the different types of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are molecules that communicate information between neurons and their target cells and chemical synapses. There may be hundreds of different types of neurotransmitters and they can be categorized in a number of different ways, but probably the most common as to divide them up by their molecular structure into amino acids, peptides, monoamines and others. I'm gonna mention a bunch of chemistry terms next. Don't worry about them if you don't know them but if you are interested there are many great videos on these topics on the Khan Academy. The first category of neurotransmitters I'm gonna represent with these three neurotransmitters right here and this category is the amino acids. Amino acid neurotransmitters. Amino acids. That's these three right here. Amino acids have an amino group, this guy right here and they have a carboxylic acid group. This part right here. There are lots of different types of amino acids but just a few of them function as neurotransmitters in the nervous system. The next category of neurotransmitters I'm gonna represent with this one right here and these are the peptides. Peptide neurotransmitters and I'll just have this one representative here. Peptides are actually polymers or chains of amino acids. A bunch of these amino acids get strung together in these chains, these polymers and we call them peptides. Peptides are much larger molecules than all the other types of neurotransmitters. Sometimes people divide up neurotransmitters just into peptides and they lump together all the other neurotransmitters and call them small molecule neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters in this row will represent our next big category which are the monomines. Monoamine neurotransmitters, monoamines. That's this whole row. I've picked out five representative neurotransmitters for the monoamines. These are also sometimes called biogenic amines. Either monoamines or biogenic amines. The monoamines are organic molecules with an amino group here and here and here, here and here connected to an aromatic group here, here, here, here and here. The amino group and aromatic group are connected by a two carbon chain, this part here and here and here, here and here. Some of the monoamines, these three. Draw little stars next to these three, are also called by a different name and that name, and let me draw a little star. That name is the catecholamines. Catecholamines. Catecholamines are a subgroup of the monoamines and the catecholamines have a catachol group which is this part right here which has a benzine, this ring and two hydroxyl groups. Here's one hydroxyl group and here's another hydroxyl group. This catechol group, all the catecholamines have this group these three right here. There are many other types of neurotransmitters that are not amino acids or monoamines or peptides and this neurotransmitter right here is gonna be the representative for that. I'll just call this category other. These are the other molecular types of neurotransmitters. Now I'm gonna introduce some important neurotransmitters in these different groups and I'm gonna mention some of their functions. Don't worry too much about their functions right now because they do so many different things in different parts of the nervous system that we'll come back to all of that in other videos. I just want to briefly introduce the different important neurotransmitters in each of these classes. Starting with the amino acids. Important amino acid neurotransmitters are this one which is called glutamate. Glutamate. This one which is called gamma-aminobutryic acid which pretty much everybody just shortens to GABA. G-A-B-A for gamma-aminobutryic acid. This one which is glycine. Glycine. Glutamate is the most common excitatory neurotransmitter of the nervous system. Let me just draw a big plus sign above glutamate here because most of the time in the nervous system when a neuron is releasing a neurotransmitter that it's exciting its target cell most of the time that neurotransmitter is glutamate because it usually causes depolarization of target cells so that it excites them. GABA and glycine are the most common inhibitory neurotransmitters of the nervous system. Let me just write some big minus signs above GABA and glycine because they usually cause hyper polarization of target cells and inhibit those target cells. GABA is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain while glycine is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter in the spinal cord, so that the amino acid neurotransmitters are really involved in most functions of the nervous system. Pretty much if you think of anything the nervous system is doing at some point in the chains and networks of neurons glutamate, GABA and/or glycine are probably involved in moving information through those networks. There are many important monoamine neurotransmitters but I'm just gonna mention these five that are arguably the most important. The first one here is serotonin. Serotonin. The next one here is histamine. Histamine. The next one is called dopamine. Dopamine. Then this one is epinephrine. Epinephrine. Right next to epinephrine is its close cousin norepinephrine. Norepinephrine. All five of these are monoamine neurotransmitters but these three dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine are also called catecholamines. The monoamines play a lot of different functions in the nervous system and in particular a lot of functions of the brain including big things like consciousness, inattention and cognition or thinking, and emotions or us having feelings. Norepinephrine is also released by some autonomic neurons in the peripheral nervous system. Many disorders of the nervous system involve abnormalities of these monoamine neurotransmitters systems, and many drugs that people commonly take affect the monoamine neurotransmitters. There are many important peptide neurotransmitters including a group of peptide neurotransmitters called the opioids. Opioids. The opioids are a group within the bigger group of the peptide neurotransmitters. This one is one example of an opioid. This is endorphin. Endorphin. The peptide neurotransmitters play a role in many functions of the nervous system but the opioids in particular play a big role in our perception of pain. A number of pain medications affect the opioid neurotransmitters. Last but definitely not least are the other neurotransmitters. Usually when there's an other category of anything that means it's not very important but in the case of neurotransmitters there are some really important neurotransmitters that are not amino acids, monoamines or peptides. For example, this neurotransmitter right here is called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is definitely one of our most important neurotransmitters. It does a number of functions in the central nervous system, and then in the peripheral nervous system it's released by most neurons in the autonomic nervous system. Let me just right ANS for autonomic nervous system and it's released by neurons called motor neurons that synapse on skeletal muscle and tell our skeletal muscle to contract to make us move. Again, don't worry too much about these functions because in other videos we'll go more into the structure and the function of the nervous system and talk about specific neurotransmitter pathways. I just wanted to introduce the different types of neurotransmitters here and start to give you a feel for the huge variety of functions all these different neurotransmitters have in the nervous system.