Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Mental Health

Why are some people more resilient to stress than others? The answer may lie in the amygala, an almond-shaped cluster of neurons in the brain that plays a key role in processing emotions—from pleasure to fear—and how we respond to stress, new research suggests.
In a new study published in Nature, an international team of neuroscientists reports the discovery of a chemical pathway that appears to spark the stress response. Stressful or traumatic events stimulate the amygala to crank out higher amounts of a protein called neuropsin. That sets off a cascade of chemical changes that heighten amygala activity and switch on a gene linked to the stress reaction, the study found.
These stress-related changes caused mice to become anxious, avoiding brightly lit open areas of a maze when they felt unsafe, the researchers found. However, when the stress pathway was blocked by medications or gene therapy, the mice no longer showed those fearful reactions, an insight that might ultimately lead to improved treatments for stress-related disorders, conditions that affect about 20 percent of Americans at some point in their lives.


1 comments:

Lily said...

After analyzing your article you have to recognize what I surely have written here apple banana orange fruit salad . This one is being written after you have a proposal from you.

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Elf Coupons