Weather and brain chemistry

[C10H12N20]

I wonder if there is any identified mechanism in the brain that regulates our mood according to weather. For example, during rain people seem to be more mellow.

I am talking about something similar to SAD, where the amount of serotonin in your brain gets reduced as a result of lack of sunlight during winter.

If mods feel this is inappropriate for this forum, feel free to move it.

 

[Slaughterhousefive42]

UV light I have read has rewarding effects in terms of stimulating dopamine in the Nucleus accumbens. It also produces Vitamin D, which is the precursor of melanin-probably not causative. I think it might be due to the overall geophysical location, varying globally. Not every place has winter, like the equator (i think but i've never been). If you go outsides in the "winter" just as much as summer, then you will be fine?

Is it proven that a lack of sunlight is sufficient to reduce the amount of 5HTP? I think that people work out less in the winter and as you said, get out less, so they don't get the opioid cannabinoid dopamine norepeninephrine - rewarding rush as much, and lower the serotonin levels.

 

[BilZ0r]

I can't find any information that shows that UV light causes dopamine release. I would have thought that would be a hard study to do, cause you couldn't use rodents, as they don't like light.

But the answer to the OP is a definate yes. Most recently as far as I'm awear is this study, which showed a huge increase in serotonin (5-HT) turnover on sunny days, but not dark days.

Theres also an interesting seasonal cycle, where children born in winter/spring are far more likely to have schizophrenia.

 

[C10H12N20]

I believe they actually use luminotherapy (exposure to bright light)for people with SAD quite successfully. We are probably years away from defining exactly how light converts into increased serotonin, but the fact that digital cameras directly convert light into electricity might be the clue. I wonder if there could be a drug that activates the mechanism without light and hence treat SAD. I believe they give SSRIs now for that.

Another example of effects of light on our brain chemistry would be production of melatonin from serotonin when it becomes dark.

I was also wondering about atmospheric pressure. I have noticed that on overcast days I feel less energetic. I think it is quite different from the fact that overcast days produce less lights, as I have noticed that I always have trouble waking up when it is overcast. The mechanism that links atmospheric pressure with brain chemistry would be more complicated than light I would assume...

 

[fastandbulbous]

Theres also an interesting seasonal cycle, where children born in winter/spring are far more likely to have schizophrenia

That's almost in the realms of giving people who believe in astrology scientific proof that it's not all bollocks .Actually, I do believe it's a possibility (schizophrenia, not astrology!), as all the people I know who suffer from SAD to the point of requiring treatment, are all people who were born in either May, June, July or August (as I do, and I was born at the end of June)

I believe they actually use luminotherapy (exposure to bright light)for people with SAD quite successfully

I've found that I can get by without using antidepressants in the winter, but it required 2000W of halogen bulb lighting. Not bad in itself, but the rooms would get stiflingly hot, and my wife ended up feeling hyper (like she'd had a small dose of amphetamine) from the treatment.

That, and the fact that from outside, it was so bright that it looked like we'd just detonated a small nuke in the front room (like the light from outside, shining in, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind).

If you have unpredictable weather patterns on a large scale, you end up with morose/strange people (it's my pet theory to explain why the British have an eccentric national character!)

 

[BilZ0r]

Yeah, luminotherapy definatly works, but it won't be anything to do with UV light, more visible light... I wonder if its a melatonin related thing...