MICRO-STIMULATION OF NEURONS

This project encompasses the basic understanding of neuropharmacology. Neuropharmacology is the study of how drugs affect cellular function in the nervous system, and the neural mechanisms through which they influence behavior. There are two main branches of neuropharmacology: behavioral and molecular. Behavioral neuropharmacology focuses on the study of how drugs affect human behavior (neuropsychopharmacology), including the study of how drug dependence and addiction affect the human brain.Molecular neuropharmacology involves the study of neurons and their neurochemical interactions, with the overall goal of developing drugs that have beneficial effects on neurological function. Both of these fields are closely connected, since both are concerned with the interactions of neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, neurohormones, neuromodulators, enzymes, second messengers, co-transporters, ion channels, and receptor proteins in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Studying these interactions, researchers are developing drugs to treat many different neurological disorders, including pain, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, psychological disorders, addiction, and many others.Before understanding the effect of drugs we studied firing rates of neurons and neural networks. Initially we started off understanding firing rates and at what frequencies spikes will be recorded on the SpikerBox. We found that at low frequencies we can observe spikes. Later we started stimulating muscles in the cockroach’s leg using music. Upon varying bass, treble, etc we noticed the difference in spikes and recorded the same. After understanding the spikes we injected Nicotine and Mono Sodium Glutamate with control (water) at intervals of 2-4 minutes to observe which drug would have an effect on the neurons. MSG is present in 80% networks however for insects we found Nicotine stimulates and MSG does not