Andrew Huberman· PhD
but research over the last 25 years has completely upended that simplistic notion of what mitochondria are doing they are actually doing so much more some people have created the reference that MIT are like the workers inside a cell that in order for a cell to work you need a Workforce because there's so much that needs to be done signals need to be sent thing like all this work all of these different things need to be functioning and mitochondria are absolutely providing the energy for those things to happen but they're also orchestrating a lot of it so for example they play a direct role in in converting food into some of the substrates for the production of neurotransmitters um but they also go further they store like some neurotransmitters like Gaba within themselves and that plays a role in gaba's release from a neuron they actually go to the cell membrane and move along the membrane dispensing vesicles of neuro transmitters and when you take the mitochondria away from the synapse but provide that synapse with ATP vesicles don't get released neurotransmitters aren't getting released the mitochondria are doing more we don't exactly know what but they're doing more than just providing the energy they they play a role in turning inflammation and immune cell both on and off they help start the process but they also help coordinate the cessation of that process they play an instrumental role in both the first and the last step in the synthesis of cortisol and they play a role in the first step in the synthesis of all of the steroid hormones which include estrogen testosterone progesterone