Our (Mother's) Mitochondria and Our Mind.
Peter KramerPaola BressanPublished in: Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science (2017)
Most of the energy we get to spend is furnished by mitochondria, minuscule living structures sitting inside our cells or dispatched back and forth within them to where they are needed. Mitochondria produce energy by burning down what remains of our meal after we have digested it, but at the cost of constantly corroding themselves and us. Here we review how our mitochondria evolved from invading bacteria and have retained a small amount of independence from us; how we inherit them only from our mother; and how they are heavily implicated in learning, memory, cognition, and virtually every mental or neurological affliction. We discuss why counteracting mitochondrial corrosion with antioxidant supplements is often unwise, and why our mitochondria, and therefore we ourselves, benefit instead from exercise, meditation, sleep, sunshine, and particular eating habits. Finally, we describe how malfunctioning mitochondria force rats to become socially subordinate to others, how such disparity can be evened off by a vitamin, and why these findings are relevant to us.
Keyphrases
- cell death
- endoplasmic reticulum
- reactive oxygen species
- physical activity
- oxidative stress
- cell cycle arrest
- induced apoptosis
- high intensity
- high resolution
- mental health
- mild cognitive impairment
- risk assessment
- weight loss
- working memory
- single molecule
- mass spectrometry
- body composition
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- signaling pathway
- heavy metals