BDNF and neurodegenerative disease: DA has also been suggested to stimulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) production (Sharma et al., 2023), which promotes neuron growth and survival, playing a crucial role in maintaining neuronal health and potentially slowing the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Miranda et al., 2019; Gao et al., 2022).