The Mind-Body Connection in Neuroscience

Below are excerpts from a best selling book “Molecules of Emotion”, Pocket Books, (1999) by molecular biologist Dr Candace Pert, who also took part in the docu-film "What the bleep do we know?". They explain the basic building blocks of mind and body function.

In her research, Dr Pert uncovered the chemical processes that trigger our moods, behaviours and beliefs. She explains how receptors function as sensing molecules- scanners. Just as our eyes and ears, nose, tongue, fingers, and skin act as sense organs so, too, do the receptors only at a cellular level. Different cocktails of neurochemicals cause different emotional experiences and changes in behaviour.

(a) Receptors
"The first component of the molecules of emotion is a molecule that is found on the surface of cells in the body and brain called the opiate receptor….

Measurement! It is the very foundation of the modern scientific method, the means by which the material world is admitted into existence. Unless we can measure something, science won’t concede it exists which is why science refuses to deal with such “non things” as emotions, soul, spirit, the mind…

The receptors are molecules and are made up of proteins, tiny amino acids strung together in crumpled chains looking something like beaded necklaces that have folded in on themselves. If you were to assign a different colour to each of the receptors that scientists have identified, the average cell would appear as a multi-coloured mosaic of at least 70 different hues- 50,000 of one type of receptor, 10,000 of another, 100,000 of a third and so on. A typical neuron (nerve cell) may have millions of receptors on its surface…

Basically, receptors function as sensing molecules- scanners. Just as our eyes and ears, nose, tongue, fingers, and skin act as sense organs so, too, do the receptors only at a cellular level. They hover in the membranes of your cells, dancing and vibrating, waiting to pick up messages carried by other vibrating little creatures, also made up of amino acids, which come cruising along-diffusing is the technical word- through the fluids surrounding each cell. We like to describe these receptors as “keyholes”, although that is not an altogether precise term for something that is constantly moving, dancing in a rhythmic, vibratory way. (p.21-23)

(b) Ligands
If receptors are the first components of the molecules of emotion, then ligands are the second. The word ligand comes from the Latin ligare, that which binds, sharing its origin with the word religion.

Ligand is the term for any natural or man made substance [pharmaceutical] that binds selectively on its own specific receptor on the surface of a cell. The ligand bumps onto the receptor and slips off, bumps back on, slips back off again. The ligand bumping on is what we call the binding, and in the process, the ligand transfers its message via its molecular properties to the receptor…

The receptor having received a message, transmits it from the surface of the cell deep into the cell’s interior, where the message can change the state of the cell dramatically …In short the life of the cell, what it is up to at any moment, is determined by which receptors are on its surface, and whether those receptors are occupied by ligands or not. On a more global scale, these minute physiological phenomena at the cellular level can translate to large changes in behaviour, physical activity, even mood…


(P 25) Ligands are generally much smaller molecules than the receptors they bind to, and they are divided into three chemical types.

The first type of ligand comprises the classical ‘neurotransmitters’ which are small molecules with such unwieldy names as acetylcholine, norepinephrine (noradrenaline), dopamine, histamine, glycine, GABA, and serotonin.

These are the smallest, simplest of molecules, generally made in the brain to carry information across the gap or synapse, between one neuron and the next. Many start out as simple amino acids, the building blocks of protein, and then get a few atoms added here and there. …

A second category of ligands is made up of ‘steroids’, which include the sex hormones testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen. All steroids start out as cholesterol, which gets transformed by a series of biochemical steps into a specific kind of hormone…hormones, such as cortisol, … are secreted by the outer layer of the adrenal glands under stress.

…the largest category, constituting perhaps 95% of them all, are the peptides. As we shall see these chemicals play a wide role in regulating practically all life processes, and are indeed the other half of the equation of what I call the molecules of emotion. Like receptors, peptides are made up of strings of amino acids…visualize the following: If the cell is the engine that drives all life, then the receptors are the buttons on the control panel of that engine, and a specific peptide (or other kind of ligand) is the finger that pushes the button and gets things started."

The Chemical Brain
…But the yet-to-be-named neuroscience was so focused, for so long, on the concept of the nervous system as an electrical network based on neuron-dendrite-neurotransmitter connections, that even when we had the evidence, it was hard to grasp the idea that the ligand-receptor system represented a second nervous system, one that operated on a much longer time scale, over much greater distances. Especially difficult to accept was that this chemical-based system was one indisputably more ancient and far more basic to the organism. There were peptides such as endorphins, for instance, being made inside the cells long before there were dendrites, axons, or even neurons-in fact, before there were brains.

…The peptides, on the other hand, while they sometimes act like neurotransmitters, swimming across the synaptic cleft, are much more likely to move through extracellular space, swept along in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid, travelling long distances and causing complex and fundamental changes in the cells whose receptors they lock onto.

…In the wake of discoveries in the 1980’s, these receptors and ligands have come to be seen as “information molecules”- the basic units of a language used by cells throughout the organism to communicate across systems such as the endocrine, neurological, gastrointestinal and even the immune system. Overall the musical hum of the receptors as they bind to their many ligands, often in far flung parts of the organism, creates an integration of structure and function that allows the organism to run smoothly, intelligently.” (P.26)

Here is an animated version of this receptor-ligand activity.

How Much Is It Worth?

Some people are disgusted by the thought of pornography and its associated behaviours, others are indifferent. But there is a growing number of men, and surprisingly perhaps, women too, who regard it as a harmless distraction. Porn videos probably seems like any other YouTube video when the pressure is on and the viewer needs a few moments of relaxation. What appears to be ‘free’ entertainment, a perk of the job with a computer, an oasis of fun in an otherwise stressful environment, can end up costing them a lot…their jobs.

Such may be the fate of certain employees at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States according to a report last week on ABC News.[1] The SEC is the watchdog of the financial industry, looking for crimes such as Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

“A new government report has concluded that some senior employees spent hours on the agency's computers looking at porn sites as the financial crisis was unfolding. One senior attorney at SEC headquarters in Washington spent up to eight hours a day accessing Internet porn, according to the report, which has yet to be released. When he filled all the space on his government computer with pornographic images, he downloaded more to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices…

One (female) SEC accountant attempted to access porn websites 1,800 times i;;n a two-week period and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.
Another SEC accountant used his SEC-issued computer to upload his own sexually explicit videos onto porn websites he joined.

And another SEC accountant attempted to access porn sites 16,000 times in a single month…
The investigation, which was conducted by the SEC's internal watchdog at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, found 31 serious offenders during the past two and a half years. That's less than 1 percent of the agency's 3,500 employees but 17 of the alleged offenders were senior SEC officers whose salaries ranged from $100,000 to $222,000 per year.”

To the average Joe earning a great deal less than those salaries, anger and moral indignation towards those highly paid civil servants would be a common reaction. But everything is relative and comprehension of this event may be more a matter of understanding the power of the biological drives to which we are all prone, than condemning a simple moral choice.

Imagine the stress involved in supervising people who earn more in a month than you do in a year, that is before the bonuses are added on, and, to make matter worse, hold you in barely-veiled contempt. “Let’s face it,” said one hedge fund manager, formerly of Goldman Sachs, “if they were any good, they wouldn’t be in the public sector, and what’s more, they know it.” An uncomfortable reality, especially when the public mood is volatile and looking for scapegoats. So, how to relieve the stress? The freely available images at the end of a computer terminal maybe just too convenient.

What starts out as a harmless distraction can quite quickly become a habit, then a slide into addiction, without us even realising it has taken control of our attention. “Just one last time then I’ll give up,” we promise ourselves. The danger with any addiction is that it tends to affect our judgment detrimentally.

Why do we do what we ‘know’ is not in our best interests? Because forbidden fruit tastes sweetest? Because rebelling against authority gives us a modicum of power and control? Because we just want a taste of pleasure, especially when we feel unloved, unappreciated or the underdog?

We rationalize: “it can’t do us any harm,” “everyone does it”, “no one will see me”, “it’s a free country and I can do what I please,” “I’m anxious/depressed, a few moments on my favourite sites will help me concentrate again,” “ I deserve it,” “It’s fun and I’m not hurting anyone…” The more we give in to its demands, the more powerfully our chose "medication" snares us.

Even when we try to exert our will, we can still be defeated, especially in the absence of knowledge of what is going on at a deeper brain level, and without a preplanned strategy to quell those siren calls.

So how can viewing porn change our perception and choices? It probably works by desensitizing the reward circuitry in the limbic or mid brain so it doesn't feel satisfied. This primitive region of the brain colours how we see the world. When it's in balance we tend to see things with greater clarity and optimism. When it's out of balance our impressions are often distorted and our ability to control impulses, a function of the long-term strategic- thinking neocortex, or new brain, is hijacked. we want relief. at any price.
However imbalance sneaks in, our focus, priorities and even our values can shift—all without our awareness. In the case of too much stimulation, the shift is in the direction of overvaluing superstimuli. As biologist Robert Sapolsky explained in Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers:

"Unnaturally strong explosions of synthetic experience and sensation and pleasure evoke unnaturally strong degrees of habituation. This has two consequences. As the first, soon we hardly notice anymore the fleeting whispers of pleasure caused by leaves in autumn, or by the lingering glance of the right person, or by the promise of reward that will come after a long, difficult, and worthy task. The other consequence is that, after awhile, we even habituate to those artificial deluges of intensity. ... Our tragedy is that we just become hungrier. That insatiable hunger in the emotional mid brain drowns out the sounder judgment of the new brain. We are all susceptible to grabbing for superstimuli until we learn to stay in balance. "

Today, advertising and commerce constantly bombard our minds with enticing "rewards." Taking back control can be tough. We can start by finding what works for us. Is it vigorous exercise? Daily mindfulness meditation? Friendly interaction with others (instead of cutting ourselves off)? Less sugar? More affectionate touch? All of these help keep the mid brain in balance.

Sadly, it looks as if increasing numbers of people will lose a great deal before those lessons are learned.

[i]http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sec-pornography-employees-spent-hours-surfing-porn-sites/story?id=10452544.)