Signal transduction is the process by which nerve cells communicate. Each winning neuroscientist looked at changes that occur within nerve cells. The prizes will be presented in Stockholm, Sweden, in December of 2000. 77 years Arvid Carlsson showed that dopamine was an important neurotransmitter in the brain.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit signals from one nerve cell to another.
Carlsson figured out how to measure levels of dopamine in certain tissues in the brain, and discovered that dopamine was concentrated in different areas than where noradrenaline was found. It turned out that dopamine was a neurotransmitter in its own right. Carlsson found that dopamine was in high concentrations in the basal ganglia, parts of the brain that are important for movement. Research animals given reserpine lost control of spontaneous movement. To find out, Carlsson gave the animals that were treated with reserpine a precursor to dopamine called L-dopa .