Alright, I know what you animals really want. You want that hit of this stuff – the good stuff. Social media, gambling, narcotics, sky diving – all comes down to putting this in your brain.
I got the idea of posting this after finding a line diagram on Mastodon that just said, “Congratulations. You found the dopamine.”
I stopped scrolling. It was pretty good.
This 3D model came from Wikimedia Commons. The same artist has a stick-and-ball version that makes for a clearer map, but this one shows more of how this neurotransmitters fits (or doesn’t fit) with things like cellular receptors or drugs. If you care about the ingredients, the black bits are carbon atoms, the white bits are hydrogen atoms, the red bits are oyxgen atoms, and the blue bits are nitrogen. Put them together in a different order, and you’ll get alcohol, or brain tissue, or gasoline. So be careful mixing it up at home.