My problem statement aims to provide an insightful and well-educated response to how chemical reactions in our brains affects us everyday to encourage people to delve deeper into these topics, and not just neuroscience, but to explore deeper into all topics regarding biochemistry, as one can utilize these pieces of valuble information in the real world because knowing what neurotransmitters are excitaory and inhibitory, what their main functions are, and what triggers these chemcials to be released within your body can help you maintain a healthier balance of these stimulating and soothing chemicals to prevent certain conditions and/or disorders linked to the brain that are detrimental for your mental health and having a proficient understanding of these topics can help you find solutions for these issues and to seek help from profesionals so you can lead a healthier, happier, and overall better life for you and your peers. 

The data that I used for this project to depict the increase in anxiety and mood disorders is from a website known as Health Infobase, which is where I gathered this piece of data from. It shows the difference between the prevalance of mood disorders and dysfunction and anxiety disorders in 2012 compared to the start of the pandemic. Additionally, I kept track of my logbook entries and filled them in, describing in detail about what part of the project I focused on that day and how far I had gotten to ensure I was on track and was progressing through the project.

The research componenet of my study project consists of and is mainly centered around the main neurotransmitters in your brain that's divided into two main categories ( excitatory or inhibitory), how they contribute to your well-being, the process of how they get released, and what triggers them to be released within your brain, often times travelling into your bloodstream and getting sent to your other limbs and body parts, and this is the case with many excitatory neurotransmitters such as epinephrine ( also known as adrenaline). This portion of my project aims to establish a good and well-rooted understanding of the main neurotransmitters, their functions, and the whole process of how they get released in order to be able to comprehend and understand the controversies and scientific principles I talk about further into the presentaion.  

The main source of data that I used for this project was a bar graph that depicted the increase in mood disorders and anxiety disorders alike since the start of the Covid pandemic compared to 2012, and I really aim to show and elaborate on how the numbers increased drastically and to talk about the possible reasons behind it and to really show what a toll the pandemic had on many individual's mental health since then, since these conditions are still ongoing in many people, and I hope to try to offer some solutions to these problems whilst using my scientific research to come to a well-rounded conclusion on my topic, and I want others to also be inspired by my project and also want to strive to help people battling with these conditions. 

In conclusion, I think that chemical reactions in our brains are very crucial for us and play  a significant role due to us relying on differing neurotransmitters to help us process emotions and manage them in a healthy manner, remembering certain things and forgetting others that you deem unimportant to prevent your brain from overstimulating itself, help you create a logical and practical sense of things( cognition and reasoning, which is usually regulated by your frontal lobe, specifically your prefrontal cortex, which is known to be the most evolved part of your brain), provide assistance with visual and spatial knowlege, help you maintain motor contol and your body's balance, and much more, and I hope to enlighten people to be more invested in these topics since the brain is truly our hero, and I think that people should be more educated and aware of the basics of neuroscience and its vitality. 

I used many websites in the making of my project, and I listed all the website names in my bibliography portion on my trifold, and all credits goes to them. The main websites I frequently used was: 

- clevelandclininc.org

-Medical News Today

-Healthline

-National Institutes of Health (.gov)

-Stastique Canada ( for many of my statistics)

I thank my Math/Science teacher Ms. Sam  who helped us with this whole project and told us what we should or should not do, my family for being supportive and offering advice for me when I needed it, the judges for asking thought-provoking questions to make my project better and for choosing my project to move on to the next round, and Ms.Pond for leading us and paving the way for this amazing experience.