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Properties leading to the susceptibility of nervous tissue include a high surface area of neurons, a high lipid content which retains lipophilic toxins, high blood flow to the brain inducing increased effective toxin exposure, and the persistence of neurons through an individual's lifetime, leading to compounding of damages. [21]
In some cases the level or exposure-time may be critical, with some substances only becoming neurotoxic in certain doses or time periods. Some of the most common naturally occurring brain toxins that lead to neurotoxicity as a result of long term drug use are amyloid beta (Aβ), glutamate, dopamine, and oxygen radicals.
Toxic encephalopathy is a neurologic disorder caused by exposure to neurotoxic organic solvents such as toluene, following exposure to heavy metals such as manganese, as a side effect of melarsoprol treatment for African trypanosomiasis, adverse effects to prescription drugs, or exposure to extreme concentrations of any natural toxin such as cyanotoxins found in shellfish or freshwater ...
The area postrema, one of the circumventricular organs, [10] detects toxins in the blood and acts as a vomit-inducing center. The area postrema is a critical homeostatic integration center for humoral and neural signals by means of its function as a chemoreceptor trigger zone for vomiting in response to emetic drugs.
Sleep is an essential requirement for the body and brain and allows the closing down and resting of the body's systems. There are also findings that suggest that the daily build-up of toxins in the brain are removed during sleep. [96] Whilst awake the brain consumes a fifth of the body's total energy needs.
The pineal gland is located in the epithalamus, near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two halves of the thalamus join. [4] [5] It is one of the neuroendocrine secretory circumventricular organs in which capillaries are mostly permeable to solutes in the blood. [6]
The vomiting center of the brain refers to the groups of loosely organized neurons in the medulla that include the CTZ within the area postrema and the nucleus tractus solitarii. [2] One of the ways the chemoreceptor trigger zone implements its effects on the vomiting center is by activation of the opioid mu receptors and delta receptors. [6]
The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals.It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for special senses such as vision, hearing and olfaction.