Some normal and abnormal behavioral syndromes due to transmitter gating of opponent processes

Opponent processes have long been known to be a basic building block of neural circuits. This article describes properties of opponent processes in which phasic cues and tonic arousal are gated by slowly accumulating chemical transmitters. These opponent processes are called gated dipoles. Gated dipole circuits exhibit syndromes of formal properties that can be used to support or dis-confirm their generative role in a complex body of behavioral data. A wide variety of normal and abnormal behavioral and physiological data exhibit properties analogous to those of gated dipole circuits. These include data about intracellular adaptation, habituation, and rebound; dishabituation and attentional reset by an unexpected event; inverted U properties due to underarousal or overarousal; juvenile hyperactivity; parkinsonism; hyperphagic eating; simple schizophrenia; actions of analgesic agents such as endorphins, electrical brain stimulation, and loud noise; tolerance-withdrawal symptoms, and a new approach to their prevention; normal and abnormal circadian rhythms, as in narcolepsy and manic-depressive psychosis; processing of reinforcing, drive, and motivating signals. Some data predictions derived from gated dipole circuits are also summarized.