Category Archives: Drugs and Neurotransmitters
Your Brain: By the Numbers [Video]
Here’s a collection of interesting brain facts from PhD Comics’ YouTube Channel. Could be a useful starter for E5 Human Brain – practice with calculators to convert all the imperial values to metric.
Thai Kids Anti-Smoking Ad [Video]
This is well done.
I wonder what would happen if a young orangutan asked this adult for a light? (Indonesian zoo aims to stub out orangutan’s smoking habit, Guardian).
Tori the smoking orangutan, from the Guardian
Jellinek – Drugs and the Brain
Thanks to Roger Allison for pointing out this one.
Jellinek is a Dutch drugs education website that has some great, accessible resources for neurobiology of drugs and the brain. Animations are available in multiple languages.
For more details on the brain, neurobiology and behaviour, see the DP Bio Linklist.
Neurons and Synapses: linklist
Here’s a jazzy introduction from Discovery Channel, with a soundtrack inspired by Tubular Bells:
And now for the serious animations.
Neurons and Action Potentials:
Excellent Flash from Children’s Hosital Boston
Good introduction from Harvard
Excellent comprehensive tutorial (Harvard Outreach)
Another good AP tutorial (can’t be saved) (Jordan Kerr University)
Generating Action Potential (MRothery, Watford Girls’ Grammar)
Comparing continuous and saltatory transmission (Matthews/Neurobiology)
Propagating an AP (McGraw Hill) (More from this source)
Synaptic Transmission:
Nice clear intro (McGraw Hill)
Another clear one (though missing the post-transmission ‘cleanup’) (BishopStopford)
Some Chemsketches of neurotransmitters (Harvey Project)
Neuromuscular Junction:
Neuromuscular junction step-through (Sinauer Associates)
Simple line-drawing animation (Harvey Project)
Muscle Contraction:
Nice animation of sliding filaments (Matthews/Neurobiology)
A good interactive diagram (Thomson/Brooks/Cole)
Neurotransmitters and Drugs:
Excellent, accessible overview from Jellinek, a Dutch drug education website
Good powerpoint from HHMI
Excellent overview of effects of drugs (Harvard)
Amphetamines, Cocaine, Nicotine as excitatory psychoactives (McGill ‘The Brain’)
Benzodiazepines, Cannabis, Alcohol as inhibitory psychoactives (McGill ‘The Brain’)
Parkinson’s Disease:
Short Introduction (from UPenn/ADAM)
Simple interactive – effects of lesions on inhibitory or excitatory ganglia (San Diego State College of Science)
Sample Questions: have a go at these NeuroBioHL_Qs
i-Biology 