Status Updates From The Heart of the Brain: The...

Paradoxically, we have become more intelligent as our neurons became less complex. Nevertheless, the neurons of the hypothalamus retain the multifunctionality of their distant ancestors, along with their multitude of sensory abilities.

Paradoxically, we have become more intelligent as our neurons became less complex. Nevertheless, the neurons of the hypothalamus retain the multifunctionality of their distant ancestors, along with their multitude of sensory abilities.

Whereas neurotransmitters are whispered secrets that pass from one neuron to another at a very specific time and place, peptides are public announcements, broadcast to whole populations.

It is a widespread presumption that neuropeptides are an extended class of neurotransmitters: that they act at synapses, that their effects are tightly localized, and that their important effects, like those of classical neurotransmitters, are to alter the excitability of postsynaptic cells. This presumption, in all its facets, is wrong.

Even unrealistic models can help to inspire hypotheses, and these can be better than the pedantically complex models that serve some as a kind of archive in which to deposit tedious facts. Modeling is also a test of the completeness of our understanding.