Dysphoric milk ejection reflex to nipple/areolar stimulation, thoughts of the baby or of breastfeeding, or overfull breasts, travels through both brain and bloodstream, causing emotional changes in the brain and the release of milk in the breast. Prolactin, released in a gradual wave that peaks after the beginning of a feeding, is responsible for continued milk production. Dopamine inhibits the release of prolactin, so dopamine levels must drop in order for prolactin levels to rise. Some speculate that the necessary dopamine drop is similar to (and timed with) the oxytocin spike – a sort of negative image – but that in D-MER mothers it
Refractory period (physiology) channels remain inactivated until the membrane hyperpolarizes. The channels then close, de-inactivate, and regain their ability to open in response to stimulus. The relative refractory period immediately follows the absolute. As voltage-gated potassium channels open to terminate the action potential by repolarizing the membrane, the potassium conductance of the membrane increases dramatically. K ions moving out of the cell bring the membrane potential closer to the equilibrium potential for potassium. This causes brief hyperpolarization of the membrane, that is, the membrane potential becomes transiently more negative than the normal resting potential. Until the potassium conductance returns to the resting value,