1
Adrenaline
Hormone and medication
Also called epinephrine, and sometimes spelled adrenalin, a hormone and a medication that helps regulate the body's visceral functions. In appearance it is a white microcrystalline granule.
Neuroscience · Curated list
Neurotransmitters: the 20 most written about
Adrenaline, Dopamine, Glycine and 17 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
- Entries
- 20
- Photographed
- 2
- Fetched
- 2026-09-26
Neurotransmitters, ranked
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the neurotransmitter's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
- 2
- 3
Glycine
Amino acid
An organic compound, C₂H₅NO₂ (symbol Gly or G), and the simplest stable amino acid, its side chain a single hydrogen atom. One of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids, it is a basic building block of proteins in every living thing, and every codon beginning with GG codes for it (GGU, GGC, GGA and GGG).
- 4
Serotonin
Monoamine neurotransmitter
Also called 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), a monoamine neurotransmitter with many functions, both in the central nervous system (CNS) and in peripheral tissues. It plays a part in mood, cognition, reward, learning and memory, and in bodily processes such as vasoconstriction and vomiting.
- 5
Glutamic acid
Amino acid and neurotransmitter
An α-amino acid, formula C ₅H ₉NO ₄, which almost every organism uses to build proteins. It is conditionally essential: the body can usually make it itself, but in some circumstances has to get it from food.
- 6
Acetylcholine
Organic chemical and neurotransmitter
Often shortened to ACh, an organic compound that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and body of many kinds of animals. Its name reflects how it is built, as an ester of choline and acetic acid.
- 7
- 8
Norepinephrine
Catecholamine hormone and neurotransmitter
Often shortened to NE, and also called noradrenaline (NA) or noradrenalin, an organic chemical of the catecholamine family that works as a hormone, a neurotransmitter and a neuromodulator, in the brain as well as the rest of the body. "Norepinephrine" is the usual name in the United States; elsewhere, the United Kingdom included, "noradrenaline" is more common.
-
9
Vasopressin
Mammalian hormone released from the pituitary gland
Also called antidiuretic hormone (ADH), arginine vasopressin (AVP) or argipressin, a mammalian hormone that hypothalamic neurons make from the AVP gene, first as a peptide prohormone that is then converted into AVP. It passes down the axon to where the axon ends, in the posterior pituitary, and vesicles there release it into the bloodstream when the fluid outside the cells becomes hypertonic (hyperosmolality).
- 10
Nitric oxide
Colorless gas with the formula NO
A colourless gas, formula NO, and one of nitrogen's main oxides. It is a free radical, with an unpaired electron, sometimes shown by a dot in its formula.
- 11
- 12
Substance P
Chemical compound (polypeptide neurotransmitter)
A neuropeptide (SP) of the tachykinin family that acts both as a neurotransmitter and as a neuromodulator. It and its close relative neurokinin A (NKA) are both made from a single polyprotein precursor, once the preprotachykinin A gene has been alternatively spliced.
13
Enkephalin
Pentapeptide
A pentapeptide that helps regulate nociception in the body. Enkephalins are called endogenous ligands, because they are made inside the body and bind, as ligands, to its opioid receptors.
Wikidata · Photo: ElaineMeng, CC BY-SA 3.0
- 14
Octopamine
Trace amine
Also called para-octopamine or norsynephrine, among other names, an organic chemical (OA) closely related to norepinephrine and made in the body by a matching pathway. It is often regarded as the main "fight-or-flight" neurohormone of invertebrates.
- 15
- 16
β-Endorphin
Peptide hormone in humans
An endogenous opioid neuropeptide and peptide hormone made in certain neurons of the central and peripheral nervous systems. It is one of the three endorphins humans produce; the other two are γ-endorphin and α-endorphin.
- 17
Neurokinin A
Chemical compound
Formerly called Substance K, a neurologically active peptide (NKA) translated from the pre-protachykinin gene. It has many excitatory effects on the nervous systems of mammals, and also affects their inflammatory and pain responses.
- 18
Neurokinin B
Chemical compound
A peptide (NKB) of the tachykinin family, with a part in various human functions and pathways, the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone among them.
- 19
γ-Endorphin
Chemical compound
An opioid peptide 17 amino acids long. Its first 16 amino acids are the same as α-endorphin's, with leucine added at the end.
- 20
How this list was made
Every Wikidata item that has the role of neurotransmitter on Wikidata, or is a neurotransmitter or a kind of one, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 20 are shown.
Kept by hand
These belong on the list but Wikidata does not file them where the query looks:
- Glutamic acid — As glutamate, the main excitatory neurotransmitter of the vertebrate nervous system; Wikidata does not record that role for it, so the query cannot reach it.
- Histamine — Also a neurotransmitter in the brain; Wikidata does not record that role for it, so the query cannot reach it.
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-26. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
More in Neuroscience
- Brain structuresCerebellum · Hypothalamus
- MethodsElectroencephalography · Positron emission tomography
- Disorders of the nervous systemAlzheimer's disease · Stroke
- NeuroscientistsSigmund Freud · Galen
- AI and neuroscience: shared ideasNeural network · Reinforcement learning
- AI and neuroscience: peopleGeoffrey Hinton · Demis Hassabis
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