Limbic System
The emotional core of the brain, and androgen-receptor rich. This is where mood, threat response and aggression are set, and where steroid mental effects are thought to land.
Relationships
20 connectionsLimbic System expressed in
Androgen Receptor
The receptor every anabolic-androgenic steroid is designed to hit. Binding moves it into the nucleus where it switches on genes for muscle protein synthesis, and in other tissues for hair loss, prostate growth and oil production.
Dopamine D1 Receptor
The other main dopamine receptor family, tied to reward learning and drive. Altered receptor density is one of the more reproducible findings in animal studies of nandrolone.
Dopamine D2 Receptor
The dopamine receptor that holds prolactin down and carries reward and motivation signalling. Losing D2 tone raises prolactin and flattens drive and sexual response.
Estrogen Receptor beta
The second estrogen receptor, common in brain, bone and vascular tissue. Part of why estradiol is needed for mood, libido and bone density rather than being purely a side effect to crush.
FGF Receptor
Fibroblast growth factor's receptor. In the brain, NCAM signals through it to grow new neurites, which is the route FGL is designed to take.
GABA-A Receptor
The brain's main calming channel. Some androgen metabolites sit on it as neurosteroids and change anxiety and sleep quality without touching the androgen receptor at all.
Glucocorticoid Receptor
The cortisol receptor. Some androgens bind it too, and whether they act as agonist or blocker at a given tissue is a large part of why compounds with similar AR affinity feel so different.
HGF Receptor
Hepatocyte growth factor's receptor. In the brain it drives new synapse formation, which is the mechanism claimed for dihexa.
IGF-1 Receptor
The receptor that carries almost all of growth hormone's anabolic effect, one step downstream of it. It is also the reason the IGF-1 analogs are the peptides with the most serious theoretical cancer question: the same signal that grows muscle grows anything already growing.
Melanocortin 3 Receptor
A central melanocortin receptor involved in energy balance and sexual arousal. It is one of the two receptors PT-141 works through.
Melanocortin 4 Receptor
The melanocortin receptor that controls appetite and central sexual arousal. It is why the melanotans suppress hunger and cause spontaneous erections, and why PT-141 works in the brain rather than in the blood vessels the way a PDE5 inhibitor does.
Oxytocin Receptor
Oxytocin's receptor, and it is not only in the brain. The uterus, heart, gut and T-cells all carry it, which is why an intranasal dose taken for mood also has cardiovascular and gut effects.
Progesterone Receptor
The progesterone receptor. 19-nor steroids are structurally close enough to progesterone to activate it, which is why nandrolone and trenbolone produce progestogenic side effects that an aromatase inhibitor cannot touch.
Serotonin 5-HT2A Receptor
A serotonin receptor involved in mood, impulse control and aggression. Androgen exposure shifts serotonergic signalling in animal work, which is the mechanistic case behind steroid irritability.
TrkA (NGF Receptor)
Nerve growth factor's receptor. It keeps sensory and cholinergic neurons alive and drives neurite outgrowth, which is what the porcine brain-extract peptides are claimed to mimic.
TrkB (BDNF Receptor)
What BDNF binds. It is the main receptor behind the claim that a nootropic peptide improves learning or protects neurons: almost all of them are described as raising BDNF, which means acting here.
Limbic System increases risk of
Hypomania
Elevated mood, high energy, low sleep need, impaired judgement. The best-documented psychiatric effect of high-dose androgens, seen in a minority under blinded conditions.
Mood Swings
Fast shifts between states rather than a sustained one. A different claim from either raised or lowered mood, and it is the one most often reported by partners rather than by the person taking the compound.