By Nathalie Boutros, Ph.D. and Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.

The brain is an almost inconceivably complex system of billions of neurons interlinked via trillions of connections that work to coordinate everything you do, think, and feel (Zimmer, 2011). This system works via the chemical regulation of electrical activity. Chemicals called neurotransmitters are created in one brain cell and released into the tiny space between brain cells, called the synaptic cleft. When the neurotransmitter binds to the neuron on the other side of the synaptic cleft, that post-synaptic neuron may change in some way.

Neuroscientists are continuing to discover just how brain cells communicate with one another. Over 40 known chemicals act as neurotransmitters. These different chemicals have different effects on brain cells and are present in different concentrations in different parts of the brain. For example, glutamate is the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter; it has the effect of making individual neurons more likely to generate electrical impulses. In contrast, Gamma-aminobutyric Acid, or GABA, is an inhibitory neurotransmitter; it has the........

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