Serotonin is one of the happy hormones that our body produces, with the others being oxytocin and endorphins. And it is with good reason that serotonin belongs to the group. This hormone promotes good sleep, and helps in regulating appetite in mood. But it seems that serotonin can do much more than these.
The researchers now report an additional, novel role of the happiness neurotransmitter serotonin which is known to function in the brain to mediate satisfaction, self-confidence and optimism—to act cell-extrinsically as a growth factor for basal progenitors in the developing human, but not mouse, neocortex. Due to this new function, placenta-derived serotonin likely contributed to the evolutionary expansion of the human neocortex.
Amazing.
More about serotonin over at Neuroscience News.
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