"You would certainly feel stimulated, since one of your brain's main "brakes" would be disabled. But other brakes, such as GABA, would still be functioning and in the absence of any extra direct stimulants overall activity wouldn't kindle into the kind of neural conflagration that can occur with overdoses of drugs like cocaine and amphetamine."
— Braun, Stephen
Author
Place of Publication
Oxford
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Date
1996
Metaphor
"You would certainly feel stimulated, since one of your brain's main "brakes" would be disabled. But other brakes, such as GABA, would still be functioning and in the absence of any extra direct stimulants overall activity wouldn't kindle into the kind of neural conflagration that can occur with overdoses of drugs like cocaine and amphetamine."
Metaphor in Context
Among other things, this explains why it's almost impossible to overdose on caffeine. Even if every adenosine receptor in your brain were blocked by caffeine, you could still function. You would certainly feel stimulated, since one of your brain's main "brakes" would be disabled. But other brakes, such as GABA, would still be functioning and in the absence of any extra direct stimulants overall activity wouldn't kindle into the kind of neural conflagration that can occur with overdoses of drugs like cocaine and amphetamine.
(p. 130)
(p. 130)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Stephen Braun, Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine (Oxford: OUP, 1996).<Link to OUP>
Date of Entry
08/29/2014
