Biological foundations of mental health. Biological & Biomedical Sciences Article

Biological Foundations of Mental Health
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Biological Foundations of Mental Health
Image showing the brain and the nerves or branch-like structures that facilitate information flow.
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The Brain Functioning and Mental Disorders
Mental disorders emanate from inconsistencies in brain processes, which prevent smooth information transfer from one center to another. Causes of psychiatric disorders have been a challenge to scientists and medical researchers. This predicament called for further research on the functioning of the brain that began from its development to the way it accurately coordinates activities. The researchers identified that the brain has a series of projections called dendrites, which receive information from other similar structures to function properly. These structures have branch-like structures that spread out to the rest of the body from the head, running through the spine.
During brain development, these structures constantly turn over from time to time. However, when one reaches adulthood, the brain stabilizes for months, years, or even decades. Medical research evidence suggests that this stability is important for proper functioning and any loss of it is linked with mental disorders. Therefore, it is important that these brain structures are stabilized. Gang-Yi and Hollis sought the possibility of achieving this stabilization in the laboratory using specific protein enzymes that catalyze the transfer of phosphate groups from phosphate-donating molecules to specific substrates. This specific protein enzyme is called protein kinase.
Each of these enzymes have a specific role to pl...