It’s not unusual to hear people describe themselves as emotionally 'colder'

It’s not unusual to hear people who have undergone sympathectomies describe themselves as feeling emotionally “colder” than before. Among psychologists and neurologists alike there is concern, but no evidence, that the procedure limits alertness and arousal as well as fear, and might affect memory, empathy and mental performance. Professor Ronald Rapee, the director of the Centre of Emotional Health at Sydney’s Macquarie University, says he’s counselled several people who complain of feeling “robot-like” in the long-term wake of the operation. “They’re happy they no longer blush, but they miss the highs and lows they used to feel.”
(John van Tiggelen, Good Weekend Magazine, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, 10th March 2012)
https://archive.today/uURge

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Dopaminergic regulation of cerebral cortical microcirculation

Nature Neuroscience 1, 286 - 289 (1998)
doi:10.1038/1099
Leonid S. Krimer1, E. Christopher Muly III2, Graham V. Williams1 & Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic1
1 Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA
2 Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USU
Functional variations in cerebral cortical activity are accompanied by local changes in blood flow, but the mechanisms underlying this physiological coupling are not well understood. Here we report that dopamine, a neurotransmitter normally associated with neuromodulatory actions, may directly affect local cortical blood flow. Using light and electron-microscopic immunocytochemistry, we show that dopaminergic axons innervate the intraparenchymal microvessels. We also provide evidence in an in vitro slice preparation that dopamine produces vasomotor responses in the cortical vasculature. These anatomical and physiological observations reveal a previously unknown source of regulation of the microvasculature by dopamine. The findings may be relevant to the mechanisms underlying changes in blood flow observed in circulatory and neuropsychiatric disorders.

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