Who Ordered Pizza with Extra Dopamine?

We have downloaded an app to order our favourite food - pizza of course! But something went wrong and now we are waist-deep in pizza. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing! This can happen in the brain too; we need the chemical called dopamine for normal brain function, but too much dopamine can lead to mental health problems including psychosis. Psychosis is when people lose contact with reality. This might involve hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that other people cannot see or hear) and delusions (believing things that are not actually true).

Scientists from Imperial College London are trying to find new drugs to treat the symptoms of psychosis, but it’s a challenge. Maybe you can help us! At this interactive exhibit you’ll learn how an imbalance of chemicals in the brain can cause psychosis. You can also help us think of how new drugs might work to treat psychosis by brainstorming solutions to our pizza problem.

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