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 youre 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 ...
The Smudge is complaining to me about the weather I supplied her with...
And the other two in/outdoor cats want nothing to do with the great outdoors right now.
I find it ironic to recall my father’s lament that, “I can’t heat the whole outdoors!”
Yet that is specifically what he is now accused of having done. Global warming, you know. Who ya gonna believe, that or your shivering, lying skin?
That hockey-stick guy out at Penn State still belongs in the State Pen.
Wonder if he'll sue me like he did Steyn... ;-)
Probably not Mann enough.
Lol!
What a precious little kitteh!
Good morning.
I slept in. I want to complain about the pain, but I keep reminding myself that a steroid injection takes a few days to go to work.
I had to sort my pills and now I have to take my aggravatin’ self to Walmart to get a few more things on the list of things I didn’t get on payday.
Good morning. Kitteh lives in Norway: the photo was not taken this time of year!
I have to go to Walmart today, too. We’re almost out of milk.
I pared my list, again, and managed to squeak by. Good for me!!
I buy enough milk to last the month and then freeze it, a trick I learned when we were stationed in Germany. The commissary froze it in boxes containing six 1/2 gal cartons, and we just thawed it as we needed it. If you do that, though you have to remember to shake it very well before you use it.
I just remembered I have to take the DVDs back today. But I ordered more yesterday. I’ll try to make just one trip and go to the post orifice first. I don’t like having to come home and then leave again. It’s a waste of time.
Thank you.
We need to return a DVD today, too.
Good morning, everyone.
Happy Tuesday.
Busy, busy, busy. I hope to check in again later.
Done. And I stopped by the post orifice on my way, and was met by a surly woman who insinuated that “it was from Amazon, and probably one of their workers did it,” to which I countered, no it wasn’t from Amazon. Then she decided it was heavy and when I told her it was plastic, she countered with it was sharp, and I asked why a boot horn would be sharp, and that I wanted to talk to the postmaster. GAH!!
Anyway, I told him that this is not the first time it had happened, and that it had happened twice before when I moved in a year ago. So maybe or maybe not, but I did notify the seller, so all is well. Except I still can’t wear my blue boots.
They library was a little more productive. I picked up four DVDs and spent a staggering $2.25 on a collection of five books. Just what I needed. But, one is a book of Dilbert, and I can’t help but wish Sion were here to help me read it!
You still have to wonder why a postal worker would take your shoehorn. It’s not a device in common use.
I’m at the library waiting for AAA. I locked the keys in the van with the engine running. There goes my full tank of gas.
I have a key safe for my truck. I got it the first time I left the keys inside. And then realized it was stupid to have the door and ignition keys without the gas cap key as well. So I have all three on the truck, easy for an ol’ lady to get to, but not in any of the fender wells.
*tagline*
A postal worker sliced open a soft package I got when I first moved in but didn’t damage the product inside. About three weeks later (or less) another (or the same postal worker) tore open the corner of a long square box, perhaps hoping to find a poster and was only met with a carpet protector.
I think the idea is to sell the product, but yes, it does happen. I wasn’t nearly as ticked off at the theft itself as I was at the postal worker’s reaction.
I thought the new tagline would be, “Don’t do stupid stuff.”
So now we sit with no water, no phone, and no power. Snow load brought a tree down on the lines late last night and the wires are on the ground. The display was pretty as it arced. The power people have no estimated fix time.
And without the furnace it’s tending toward chilly in the house..
I’m sorry to hear that, NoC. Of course, when we were permanently living in a 39’ 5th wheel, we had a generator, and if I ever have another place of my own, I’ve promised I’ll have a generator to go with it, because there are some comforts I don’t want to live without in my old age. Like light and heat.
I hope whoever is in charge of the power can get you back up on the grid shortly. Please keep us posted, and I’ll make sure to send some prayers in your direction.
Nah. You can do that in Spanish and add something appropriate. :o])
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