Increase Neurotransmitters in the Brain

 There are many reasons why neurotransmitters might be increased in the brain. One is that a person may have been administered certain drugs. There are also people who practice meditation, which can create an increase of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in their brains. While meditation isn't typically thought to produce results within twenty minutes, some methods could theoretically affect neurotransmitters rapidly.

A second reason is that a person may have had his/her brain stimulated in certain ways to increase levels of neurotransmitters. For example, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been shown to affect the release of serotonin and dopamine.

A third reason is that a person may have experienced some sort of emotional or spiritual event, which can also lead to an increase in neurotransmitters. One good example of this would be the phenomenon known as 'falling in love'. Falling in love has been shown to cause an increased release of dopamine and norepinephrine within the brain.

A fourth reason is that a person may have had the experience of something called 'flow', which occurs when one's skills are optimally matched to the environment. When this happens, it has been shown to lead to an increase in dopamine.

A fifth reason is that a person may be engaged in an activity that involves high levels of concentration and focus. Such activities have been shown to cause an increase in the release of neurotransmitters.

A sixth reason is that a person may have had the experience of achieving something difficult or worthwhile. This too has been shown to cause an increased release of neurotransmitters.

Some people will also use supplements which help increase neurotransmitters, such as L-glutamine and other amino acids. Others will simply have to wait for their brain chemistry to re-balance itself naturally after a period of stress or depression.

What is the purpose of neurotransmitters? They transmit information. A message from one place to another. There are connections between neurons which carry these messages, and the neurotransmitter chemicals along those connections can be thought of as a 'wire', or 'channel' through which this information passes.

The information is passed from one place to another by the channel of a neurotransmitter, and it doesn't matter whether that chemical or electrical information was encoded into an action potential (electrical) or into a change in the concentration of chemicals (chemical). The message itself is what matters. And so, if you are trying to increase the number of messages passing between neurons in your brain, there will be two different ways: either increasing the quantity or quality of messages.

Increasing quantity would be increasing the number of messages being sent. This could mean an increase in frequency (more and faster action potentials), or it could mean an increase in amplitude (bigger, more powerful signals).

Increasing quality would be increasing the amount of information content in each message. This could mean an increase in the size or complexity of your individual neural connections, which are the 'wires' that transmit these messages, or it could mean an increase in how much information can be encoded into a given number of action potentials or neurotransmitter concentrations.

Of course, increasing the size and complexity of connections between neurons can only ever increase the information content in a given action potential or neurotransmitter concentration, but this is not true for all types of neural connections. There are some types of neural connection that can encode much more information into it than would normally be possible with other kinds.

As an example, consider a neuron that connects directly to another neuron - in this case, the 'dendrite' of one neuron connecting to the 'axon' or 'receiving terminal' of another. This connection is called a "synapse". There are many different types of synapses: some involve neurotransmitters and others don't; some involve only electrical signals and others both electrical and chemical; they can either be excitatory or inhibitory (either increasing or decreasing excitability, respectively). But no matter what kind it is, synapses encode information into their connections and allow for more complex messages.