Importance of Neurotransmitters

Introduction

I was thinking the other day about all the different structures of the brain that I was the most interested when learning about the brain in psychology. I think that most people know about neurotransmitters but not so much about how important they are. I always talk about how important something is in every blog post, and it might sound as if I am just exaggerating. This is because it is true every part of our brain, central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, and more, are all vital components in our lives! I guess that is not a surprise to hear that, even so, I want to eventually share with you all about the lesser known parts of these systems. For now, neurotransmitters are the topic for this week’s post. I’ll try to keep it brief and fun! I am also looking for some feedback on my blog posts so far, if anyone would like to share anything feel free to message me and I would really appreciate any feedback! Let’s get into the topic now!

What are neurotransmitters?

According to Cleveland Clinic, “Neurotransmitters are your body’s chemical messengers. They carry messages from one nerve cell across a space to the next nerve, muscle or gland cell.” In my opinion, it is pretty easy to remember what neurotransmitters are because they are just messengers! They are involved in helping the many functions that take place in our body and without neurotransmitters it would be hard for us to live the way we do. I can see how someone could mistake the job of neurotransmitters to be seen as something that is not needed, yet there are a lot of actions that require them.

Why are they important?

We know that neurotransmitters are messengers but how are they significant? As stated by Cleveland Clinic, neurotransmitters help control: “Heartbeat and blood pressure, breathing, muscle movements, thoughts, memory, learning, feelings, sleep, healing, aging, stress response, hormone regulation, digestion, sense of hunger and thirst, and senses.” These are more things than I even expected! This proves that there is great deal of things to learn about our body. It is obvious how essential every process is so I won’t talk about that. I do want to mention a fun fact from Cleveland Clinic that says that there is at least 100 neurotransmitters. If I am going to be completely honest, when I first learned about neurotransmitters I assumed that all of them were the same and there were no types. If anyone thought this same thing as me comment below! A pretty well known neurotransmitter you may be familiar with is serotonin. Can you guess what it does? As explained by Cleveland Clinic, "Serotonin helps regulate mood, sleep patterns, sexuality, anxiety, and pain." What happens when we do not have enough serotonin? I remember learning in my psychology class last year about SSRIs which stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. This causes there to be more serotonin and this can improve your mood! Notice how not having the right amount of serotonin can be concerning because it will affect your over all self. I think that serotonin is one of the great examples to show the significance of neurotransmitters! Now, when you think about all 100 of them it sounds a little crazy, nonetheless I hope you will notice from just that one example of a lack of serotonin, how our body needs a good balance of them. There is so much that I can say about neurotransmitters and covering all 100 of them would make this incredibly long so I strongly encourage you all to go research more about neurotransmitters if they really interest you. If there is anything you would like to know that I did not cover, I would recommend finding out for yourself because neurotransmitters are really fun to learn about!

Conclusion

To wrap everything up, neurotransmitters are chemical messengers and involved in controlling many of the actions we need in our everyday lives. It's not surprising that I will mention how important something is in a blog post because everything that happens in our nervous system is crucial. It's fun to wonder about what the neurotransmitters are doing in our brain even as you are reading this so maybe that is something I will try to cover in the future! I could wonder about many processes and that is one of the reasons why I started this blog, to be able to listen to my curiosity. Finally, I want to thank everyone who is supporting my blog and I really appreciate anyone who spends even 10 seconds looking or reading my blog. Please look forward to my next blog post and I hope everyone enjoyed this week's post. Remember you are not alone!

Works Cited

professional, Cleveland Clinic medical. “Neurotransmitters: What They Are, Functions & Types.” Cleveland Clinic, 19 Mar. 2025, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22513-neurotransmitters.