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 ...
Tom has led a charmed existence. Unlike some of my other offspring, he realizes it.
Good for Tom! My son has led a slightly charmed life as well, not having died in the car accident he had in Germany, and not being maimed when he lost control of an air wrench. It snaked out of his hand and then flew back and hit him in the groin. James is proof that the damage was fleeting, though the pain was enough to make him toss his lunch at the time.
Here’s a rhetorical question for you: Should I shampoo my rug before the kids get here in January?
Which reminds me...I’ve been here a year today! *happy dance*
I wouldn’t shampoo the rug.
Thank you.
Happy weekend, y’all!
And that is precisely why no one can ruin Christmas for us!
You should never shampoo a rug. The soap will never come completely out and it will be just tacky enough to make it dirtier next time. Use hot water only. If there is an actual stain, something like isopropyl alcohol or acetone. The professional cleaner we once lived next to gave us this advice and we've never regretted following it.
BTW: We asked his help when an appliance repair man tracked grease on our rug and he cleaned it with acetone.
Oh, and Happy Anniversary!
I used carpet shampoo on it once, but then used “Awesome Cleaner” because it seemed to have gotten out the dirt without leaving a residue. Since this is Turkish wool, I’m always looking for better ways to clean and preserve it. If you say only use hot water, I will bow to your expertise.
As for acetone, I’m thinking that must be the acetone in nail polish remover? Mixed with hot water? I don’t want to mess this up because it may be the only thing I have that is still worth enough to make a dent in my funeral expenses.
Thanks for the anniversary wishes!!
It has gradually been a better and better year as time has passed, and I’ve found myself coming out of the deep, long-term depression a lot faster and to a better degree than I thought I would. So this is, indeed, an anniversary to be noted!
:o])
The stretchers are on, and before I go to the next step, which is to attach the back and seat frames, I’ll go around and tighten all the bolts and screws, just to make sure that the whole thing is stable. The stretchers seemed to be a little harder than I expected as I found myself actually sweating.
I’ll do what I can and then call it a day. There won’t be much to do after the frame, so if I can get to it early tomorrow morning, I should be good. At least there is enough clearance under it so I can store some things.
Don’t mix the acetone. For general cleaning use the hot water. Only use acetone on a stain that the hot water doesn’t clean and dab it on with a soft cloth or a cotton ball.
Good for you. It’s a terrible thing to need your bolts tightened.
Thanks!
I don’t want a terrible thing to happen because my bolts weren’t tightened! Safe! That’s the ticket!
Of course!!
D’afternoon, y’all. I took the van to be cleaned after the trees-and-wreaths haul. Now the byos are putting all the seats back in.
On a note unrelated to anything in current discussion, we have not seen out resident feral tomcat since Nov. 25.
This does not bode well, especially now with the ground snow-covered.
I’m sorry to hear about the missing Tom. It’s tough out there in the wild.
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