Dopamine: Everything you need to know (and quite a bit more)

Guess you don't need to know that dopamine was originally called "prolactin-inhibiting hormone" and strongly suppresses prolactin-driven physiology and behavior.

You also apparently don't need to understand how dopamine is made in melanated substantia nigra cells whose overall proliferation is cocontrolled by proopiomelanocortin breakdown products.

(The dopamine-prolactin-melanin linkage is why "big t**** goth gf" is a stereotype.)

In this post, I attempt to dispel all of them while presenting an up-to-the-minute picture of what we do actually know about dopamine.

It's long but it's thorough.