Over the past few weeks, I have been working on an accumulation of all the techniques that I’ve learned in this class and applying them to a final art project on Serotonin. For this project, I built a bust out of clay and hollowed out the head where the brain would go. I then filled the hollow space with 2D representations of serotonin molecules.
During the presentation I wanted to get a few main points across:
What is serotonin?
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter (a chemical used to help neurons communicate) made of C10H12N2O.
Why serotonin matters:
- • Contributor to happiness and well-being feelings
- • Regulates mood, sleep, appetite, and mostly- intestinal movements
- • Helps memory and learning
- • important role in sleep, mood, appetite, temperature regulation, and pain perception
- • Aids in our ability to digest food
Everybody is born with serotonin. Sometimes, however, people are able to decrease the amount they have. Things that can deplete serotonin include
- • Genetic defects can make receptors unable to receive and release serotonin
- • Stress
- • Unbalanced Diet
- • Drug Use: Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine- serration initially rises, then drops lower than normal
- • Ecstacy- after initial high, causes severe and permanent depletion of serotonin
- • Lack of sunlight
This list is pretty scary to see, and it looks pretty easy to decrease your serotonin levels. Luckily for us, it’s just as easy to keep those levels up. Some things you can do to keep up your serotonin levels include
- • Exercise
- • Balanced Diet
- • Sunlight
- • Recalling Good memories
MYTHS ABOUT SEROTONIN:
With this art project, we wanted to bust some myths. It’s been widely said that foods like turkey and bananas will increase your serotonin levels because they contain tryptophan. This is FALSE. While these foods do contain tryptophan, they do not increase your level of serotonin because of something called the blood brain barrier. The blood brain barrier is a mesh of tight junctions between specialized endothelial cells lining brain capillaries that prevent foreign particles from entering the brain. This protects our brains from foreign or harmful substances entering. However, it can also prevent drugs from being delivered to treat the brain, and prevents delivery of certain helpful food contents from reaching the brain.
While the visitors were interested in serotonin, their interests were especially piqued by our “Myth Buster” type approach, and it seemed that everybody left our table having learned something new.