Chinese, Japanese Researchers Publish New Info On Dopamine
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Chinese and Japanese scientists, in separate published studies, have elaborated on the role of dopamine in the brain and its relationship to sleep. Their studies suggest dopamine increases when a person has not had enough sleep, a natural response to the drive to sleep. The amount of the increase in dopamine of sleep-deprived people could be involved in their ability to cope with sleep deprivation. One of the two new studies, at Osaka Bioscience Institute in Japan and the Fudan University in China, showed the drug modafinil used for treating narcolepsy is effective because of the presence of two dopamine-sensitive proteins. The work suggests that instead of being the end point itself, dopamine could be merely a link to other molecules involved in the brain's response to sleep loss. (Click here for more