Brain creates its own marijuana-like chemicals, scientists find
Will brains become illegal ????
SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - Mother Nature created a way to "tune in, turn on" long before pot-smokers rolled their first joint, Stanford scientists have found.
Eavesdropping on the conversations between brain cells, the research team found that neurons make their own marijuana-like chemicals called cannabinoids, which indirectly alter the way that information is received and filtered.
When the chemicals are released, "neurons have a harder time deciding which are the relevant things to pay attention to," said investigator John R. Huguenard, associate professor of neurology and neurologic sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.
For a long time, scientists thought that marijuana altered the mind in a messy and random way that didn't involve any particular part of brain chemistry.
Now they've identified an elegant modus operandi. It adds to a growing body of research that explains the mechanism behind getting "high." Marijuana mimics the cannabinoids made naturally by our brain - chemicals that influence a smorgasbord of body functions including movement, thought and perception.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...on/9674085.htm
Eavesdropping on the conversations between brain cells, the research team found that neurons make their own marijuana-like chemicals called cannabinoids, which indirectly alter the way that information is received and filtered.
When the chemicals are released, "neurons have a harder time deciding which are the relevant things to pay attention to," said investigator John R. Huguenard, associate professor of neurology and neurologic sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.
For a long time, scientists thought that marijuana altered the mind in a messy and random way that didn't involve any particular part of brain chemistry.
Now they've identified an elegant modus operandi. It adds to a growing body of research that explains the mechanism behind getting "high." Marijuana mimics the cannabinoids made naturally by our brain - chemicals that influence a smorgasbord of body functions including movement, thought and perception.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...on/9674085.htm
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