TALKEETNA, Al. (KTUU) - A cat named Stubbs has been the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska for nearly all of his life. It's been that way for more than a decade in the small tourist town that boasts nearly 900 residents.
DAT is an integral membrane protein that removes dopamine from the synaptic cleft and deposits it into surrounding cells, thus terminating the signal of the neurotransmitter. Dopamine underlies several aspects of cognition, including reward, and DAT facilitates regulation of that signal.
Lets start with the basics. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, one of those chemicals that is responsible for transmitting signals in between the nerve cells (neurons) of the brain. Very few neurons actually make dopamine. Some, in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra, are the cells that die during Parkinsons disease.