Posted on 10/14/2019 10:45:03 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In the 1950s, researchers stumbled upon a new class of drugs that provided relief for those suffering from schizophrenia. These drugs were known as antipsychotics and, as the name suggests, they reduced symptoms like hallucinations and delusions — primarily by reducing the levels of dopamine in the brain. This led clinicians and scientists to argue that dopamine was linked to the experiences of psychotic symptoms, and a concerted research effort ensued, seeking to solve the puzzle of why excess dopamine might produce hallucinations.
Although it was later shown that increasing dopamine could produce hallucinations, establishing a consistent link between them, it has not been clear why.
They achieved this by taking advantage of a simple fact: Your brain is lazy. It makes shortcuts to understand the deluge of information that bombards it daily. If you’re presented with consistent information, consistently, your brain adjust its expectations of reality in turn. This is the basis of Bayesian theories of how we perceive the world – that is, the brain makes inferences about the world around us based on statistics and probabilities on what is likely to occur.
[I]ncreasing dopamine made it more difficult for participants to adjust their perception — an effect comparable to how the hallucinators had struggled. Moreover, the extent to which participants struggled was strongly associated with the severity of hallucinations — but not with any diagnosis of schizophrenia. In other words, the difficulty appeared to be associated with a symptom, not a diagnosis.
Using brain imaging, the researchers also showed that an increased capacity for dopamine release, from a part of the brain known as the striatum (an area involved in schizophrenia), was associated with the severity of hallucinations. Together, these experiments showed that excess dopamine was associated with difficulty in accurately predicting reality.
(Excerpt) Read more at inverse.com ...
Dimples and cats
We have four black cats. We get this a lot..
Hahahaha! Can be appreciated by those with no cats, but not AS appreciated as those WITH cats!! LOL!
Good morning!
Tom had put down a $200 deposit on a Chevy Impala - very high mileage, but it drove - at a used car dealer not far from the University. I took him up there yesterday afternoon, after a stop at the bank so he could get a cashier’s check for the balance plus state fees.
I pulled the van into “visitor parking” and said, “I’ll just sit here and read my book for a while, until you’ve made sure there won’t be any complications,” because I’m a really good mom and it would be a nuisance to have to drive back there later if he was stranded.
After 20 minutes or so, he texted me and said, “There’s a complication. It will be a while.” “Fine,” I said. “I’ll just stay here and read my book.” After another hour and a half, I texted Tom to see what his prognosis was. “Still waiting,” he said.
So I thought, maybe his dad can pick him up, if he ends up needing it, because DP had gone to the office in the morning. But then I texted DP, and he’d already gone home. I went in to the dealership, located the ladies’ room, and then found Tom ... “large young man, long hair” ... “over to the left, ma’am,” ... reclining in a recliner.
It turns out that, when he arrived, they told him that the car on which he’d put the deposit was no longer available. The person who traded it in, they said, had returned and un-traded it. They were trying to find another car for him. “This sounds like a bait-and-switch to me,” I said, “and I want to go home. Tell them you’ll call on Friday to see if they have anything you would like. If not, you can start looking again.”
He agreed, and off we went, getting lost on the way home ... well, not lost, but, “Oh, that’s where we are: turn left!” ... and stopped by Walmart to get more apples for his pies, and when we got home, I went to bed for a while, while DP and Tom went to the wine store and (I assume) the Sabor Latin Grill for dinner, because the kids were heating up something from the freezer and I had a fried egg on toast.
In summary, the bad news is that Tom does not, after all, have his own car, but the good news is that he still has a month to find one. And I nearly finished my book.
Ha-ha! Morning Floof looks like my own dear Mr Psycho!
Good morning.
I only woke up at 0230 when my pill alarm sneezed.
Ooooohhhh… I loathe and detest “bait and switch.” Did Tom get his deposit back? Sounds like what is needed is to pay a visit to a more reputable place that isn’t close to a campus.
I may look at the directions for the futon/sofa today, as there are only six weeks before my daughter shows up.
She’s in Oregon with her two sons and their families for Thanksgiving, and she began sending my photos of the “blight” that has attacked trees alongside the roads there. The “blight” she was photographing was nothing more than Spanish moss. What was killing the trees, (upon my further research) was the fault or the Oregon highway department. They had improperly mixed some pesticide and the trees they treated were dying from it.
I had to get up because catz.
He’ll get his deposit back on Friday if they don’t have a suitable car to sell him for the previously-agreed amount.
...was the fault OF the Oregon highway department...There. I fixed it.
That must have been a major disappointment for Tom, just the same.
Yes, he was disappointed ... but not discouraged. There are plenty more cars out there.
It would have been more stressful for him if I hadn’t been sitting there in the van with my library book, ready to be chirpy and drive him home. Life is better when you have family to back you up.
Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Undeaders, and any visitors that chance onto this current incarnation of the Undead Thread!
I hope your day is full of family and friends and FRiends!
‘Face
:o])
happy HAPPY Happy
Happy Thanksgiving to you (and all of you out there) too. The Kahlua Chocolate Chip Walnut brownies are on the sideboard for anyone who wants to mess up their appetite for later :-)
Its cold and snowing.
God Bless and keep each and every one of us!!
Amen
Back from Walmart. Tom the Son attempted to proof the yeast for his rolls, but it was dead ... and only 7 years after its good-until date, too. It worked last year!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.