Serotonin, which you’ll hear a lot more about in later chapters, is often called the policeman of the brain because it helps keep brain activity under control. It influences mood, impulsivity, anger, and aggressiveness.

Learning requires strengthening the affinity between neurons through a dynamic mechanism called long-term potentiation (LTP).

Norepinephrine, which was the first neurotransmitter scientists studied to understand mood, often amplifies signals that influence attention, perception, motivation, and arousal.

Once it became clear that BDNF was present in the hippocampus, an area of the brain related to memory and learning, researchers set out to test whether it’s a necessary ingredient in the process.

A memory, scientists believe, is a collection of information fragments dispersed throughout the brain. The hippocampus serves as a way station, receiving the fragments from the cortex, and then bundling them together and sending them back up as a map of a unique new pattern of connections.

Broadly speaking, the prefrontal cortex organizes activity, both mental and physical, receiving input and issuing instructions through the brain’s most extensive network of connections. The prefrontal cortex is the boss.

Learning requires strengthening the affinity between neurons through a dynamic mechanism called long-term potentiation (LTP).

During pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone levels remain exponentially higher than normal, and in some cases this stabilizes mood and alleviates anxiety and depression. Indeed, pregnancy can change a number of different systems for the better.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS),