Molecules of emotions

Drugs had long been seen as a means of normalizing consciousness when its perceptual, affective, or emotional balance was tipped in the direction of psychosis and/or disabling anxiety. But prior to 1955, most of the drugs that were tried were nonspecific brain depressants like chloral hydrate, bromine, and the barbiturate sedatives. By reducing the brain s activation level, these drugs reset all of the molecules of consciousness simultaneously and unselectively. 

FIGURE 1.1 (a) Brain chemistry in the human head. Although I am using Einstein s head, these molecules exist in all brains (designed by M. Michman and executed by Ms Z. Cohen copyrighted by the author), (b) A map of emotional organs in the brain. Adapted with permission from Chemical Engineering News, June 2, 2003, p. 36. 

I think that in their richness and variety molecules are to be compared with people. This is what I like about riding the subway in New Yorkthe incredible range of ethnic type, physiognomy, clothes, and emotions. I see tired swarthy men, women with henna-dyed hair, people reading Korean and Russian newspapers,... 

Mood changes continue to be reported in association with corticotropin (15). Emotional instability or psychotic tendencies can be aggravated, while euphoria, insomnia, and personality changes such as hypomania and depression can be precipitated, sometimes even with psychotic manifestations. Although it seems reasonable to assume that one is dealing here mainly with an effect of the glucocorticoids secreted in response to corticotropin, it should be recalled that segments of the corticotropin molecule themselves have effects on brain function and could conceivably play a role. 

In this extensive array of synaptic connections 11e the mechanisms for plastic adaptations of the brain to the external environment — modifications that subserve the processes of sensory reception, memory and learning, emotional responses, and abstract thought. A major task of neurochemists 1s to sort out molecules participating 1n the myriad synaptic connections and to Identify them. 

Organic molecules are minute, nonobjective sculptures, or are considered abstract when they resemble familiar, identifiable objects. They have shapes that are curvilinear, angular, or geometric (or a combination). Just as in macroscopic sculptures, these shapes can express movement and direction. If one considers organic molecules to be amazing tiny sculptures of the stuff of which matter is made, such a microsculpture can evoke an emotion or set a mood in the same way that a macrosculpture evokes emotions and sets moods. 

Considering the tetrahedral shape of methane, construct a multiple-methane-molecule sculpture, or draw a picture of such an arrangement. Explain why the sculpture or drawing is abstract or nonobjective. How do the shapes in the sculpture or drawing evoke a mood or emotion How do the shapes show direction or movement ... 

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