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 ...
I found my Christmas tree sign. It was up the attic, like I thought, but invisible to boys. I need to replace the lights, though. A 40-light string will be only about $2.
Also, I called USAA and got the correct amount for Sally’s auto insurance. We’re set up now for her to pay $225 every two weeks for room and insurance, “and additional charges can be added it you’re a lousy houseguest!”
Oh, joy! I’m glad you found the Christmas tree sign!
I want to go to bed, but I’m waiting for the delivery of the Omega-3 oil. I hate having to get out of bed to answer the door.
Anyway, I think I’m off.
We only had my son on the insurance for a short time before he went into the army and was paying his own insurance, so I have no idea how to empathize. I do like the incentive, though!!!
I hope you have a good night.
Well (the continuing saga..)
We had the saga of power being out for 24 hours, but that is now fixed. A more inconvenient and still continuing saga is that about the time the snow started a couple of days ago our well pump quit.
Over the course of the last two days I have called well-fixing people I found listed in out yellow pages, one of which is less than a mile from us. I never got a liveperson on the phone, just the ‘leave a message and we’ll get back to you’ thing. I have received zero return calls from any of them - apparently they aren’t interested.
Last night I expanded the search and found a company just across the state line in NJ. When I called them today I got an actual real live person on the phone. He took down all the info and said ‘I’ll get back to you.’
He just called back and said ‘I’ll be there in an hour.’
Next item will be finding out if he can get his truck to the wellhead with all the snow..
He didn’t need to get his truck to the wellhead. He was actually able to pull it up by hand - turns out it’s about 60 feet down. So we now have water. But..
So.. more bother. Where’d I hide my chain wrench? (It’s the only thing I have that will fit around the filter canister to unscrew it. I’m not budging it with mere manual torque..)
If you have straps for cargo hauling, you can make a strap wrench with a strap and a lever.
I DO have an oil filter wrench. However the diameter is a tad off.. ;-)
Don’t have any cargo straps per se, but I DO have the strap from a ratchet-strap set that is missing its ratchet. And of course an assortment of breaker bars.
Assuming I actually kept that strap. I historically keep everything because you never know. But I also tend to go on a ‘clean out the broken stuff’ binge shortly before I really could use whatever it is I just tossed.. ;-)
Fortunately on that front, I haven’t had any clean-it-out binges lately. And retrieval of the strap-that-I-think-I-still-have from the out-building can wait for more favorable lighting conditions.
And Son#2 has opined that my chain wrench is out in the car. Checking that theory can also wait for favorable lighting.
And he’s not happy about the mug shot, either! LOL!!
One year, we used fishing line to secure the Christmas tree to the wall.
I’d like to be lying face to face with that floof, and see all the things it wants to tell me.
Good morning.
The shower has been had, and I’m so very grateful for the heat lamp in the bathroom. Otherwise, it would look similar to Rockwell’s “September Morn” in here, with me in front of a space heater and a basin and pitcher for the wet part of the scene!
I’ll get the letter to Charlie started, but when I’m finished with it, I’m going to start working on the futon again. Once the stretchers are on, the rest should be fairly easy, just because there are less parts to consider. :o]
Good morning. Aha, I just heard movement upstairs.
When my son was four, some friends of mine went up to the mountains and got about eight or nine trees, and brought one to us. That was a very poor year. I had custody of my younger sister until the next month, when she would turn 18, but they didn’t bring a tree for her and her baby. (This is the same sister who hasn’t spoken to me for seven years.)
So she took one of the largest branches off the bottom (you know: the one that always sticks up and out when the rest are pointing down?) and nailed it to the wall in her little studio apartment next door to mine. She then took some of the decorations I didn’t need and added them. It was quite similar to Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
Had it not been for my Real Brother and his wife, none of us would have had a Christmas that year.
Jesus is with us no matter what else we don’t have. DP once said something about “not having any money to buy Christmas,” and I was astounded. You don’t buy Christmas. God gives Christmas to us, no matter what.
We don’t get our fake tree out until much closer to the 25th, due to cats and space constraints. I’m not sure where we’ll put it this year. Maybe in the dragon room.
I phrased that badly, I know, but my Real Brother and my friend were the Christmas Spirits that year, and I look back and think what a wonderful thing it was for them to be so Christ-like. So you’re right. You don’t “buy Christmas.” I think after that year, I knew I could get through the bleakest of Christmases.
One of the best I had was when I was homeless, after my kids were grown. :o]
I understood what you meant. Sharing with others is the Spirit of Christmas every day.
I was hoping to volunteer at the homeless shelter with some of our other parishioners a week from Sunday, but last night, I got a message requesting a change to the Spanish music schedule.
I’m sure I’ll feel chirpier when the sun comes up ... just like Tom the Mocker and Bill the Cardinal!
Good morning. The other car’s repairs are paid for and now we have something if the primary car decides to die after 255K miles. We need to get the other car over to Nueva York to get it inspected sometime in the very near future, but we’ll give it a little time to see if it is leaking first.
Happy Friday!
Happy Friday, ArGee, and best wishes in the automotive line.
Tom and Vlad have just set off for the mountains to pick up a lot of wreaths and two Christmas trees that the Knights and Cubs sold. They have a full tank of gas in the van, money for lunch, and a number to call if they get lost.
Tom will probably not be happy when we rediscovers that he can’t plug his phone into the van’s radio. They’ll have to listen to SiriusXM or the audio book about WW2 British espionage.
It’s always a relief to get the vehicle running properly, even if it isn’t the primary vehicle. One never knows what one will have to encounter this time of year.
Happy Friday to you, as well!!
If Tom’s only problem ever in life is that he can’t plug his phone into a vehicle’s radio, he will have lived an almost flawless life. But he’s young, yet, so...
;o]
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