ALPHABETICAL BRAIN VOCABULARY Flash Card #63 - Details WHAT ARE YOUR "ACETYLCHOLINE NEURONS" AND WHY ARE THEY SO IMPORTANT? Your ACETYLCHOLINE NEURONS stimulate your muscles to "contract" (tighten). They originate mostly in your BASAL GANGLIA, which is in your FRONTAL LOBES and LIMBIC SYSTEM ("forebrain region"). They are distributed ("projected") through many neural pathways including your CEREBRAL CORTEX, HIPPOCAMPUS, AMYGDALA, and OLFACTORY BULBS. Their actions enable you to control how well you move around by stimulating your muscles to contract, and they also allow you to learn and remember things, and they regulate your attention and mood. Anything, therefore, such as a drug or disease that alters their functions, has the potential to negatively impact (upset and damage) all of the special brain and bodily functions that keep you feeling normal! Book Source = (Your Brain on Food, pages 23-24) Return to #63: ACETYLCHOLINE NEURONS or BRAIN FACTS MATRIX