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 ...
Let us know, any way we can help.
Prayers, better job, hours, and pay since my employer is screwing me on that.
And a way to get us situated better.
This kinda left us in the lurch a bit.
My father passed in 2008. I think most of us are still wrapping our heads around it.
Oh no ...... prayers for you and all of your Father’s family
I was glad to see you post, Darks. Your father was a good man, and I imagine him walking with Jesus and telling him the stories of the Cat Summoning Debice and the LittleRedRidingThing.
Your family has been in my prayers since your first announcement, and in between, I have shed quiet tears for your loss. The cats will eventually adjust, but will continue looking for him. They may even see him for a while longer. Bless their furry souls.
The Morning Floof is gonna kill dat fing!
Good morning.
I’m back from the laundry room, and have the sleep shirts to hang, but they will have to wait while my back settles down a little. Then I can get up and give it heck!
Today is my recertification appointment and they want far more than Henderson did, because they want six months’ documents instead of three. So at some point, in the next hour, I’ll have to print out statements of all kinds. GAH!
Congrats to the mini house cougar for taking down the paper wad.
Never can trust those paper wads.
I am so sorry for your loss, Darks. I only know you and knew him as letters on a blog page, but he was a very special person and we will all miss him.
And he obviously did good work as a father based on what I know of you.
Obviously, I need a mini house cougar. :o])
Thanks.
It’s rough.
Will be rougher for a while.
Good morning, all.
I’m still dealing with the loss of NoC so I don’t know how chatty I’ll be.
But Happy Monday, as much as it can be, to everyone.
Or mini house Panthers, my two busy themselves with policing the laundry.
Haven’t been attacked by laundry in awhile.
It *will* be rough for a while, and it should be. People sometimes want to rush the mourning. But it needs its own time.
Not so much that as seeing to the financial situation this way.
Dad took care of the rent and electric, did everything online.
Don’t have his passwords.
And he didn’t write it down.
So it’s going to be fun digging into that.
Oh, man. I wish I could help you out.
Mrs. ArGee is a bit of a genius. She started collecting her father’s passwords a couple of years ago and makes sure she’s staying current. As his executor, she didn’t want to deal with that.
My father wasn’t much of a talker when it came to that sort of thing.
I made sure my wife has my passwords.
My sis has been able to find some of his passwords.
But not all
Yes, ArGee, I was thinking of you over the weekend, and while most of us have a head start on grieving for NoC, we still feel the loss.
The worst of it is the suddenness.
So hang in there. We’re here when you need us.
I don’t think it would work at all to talk with him about “for after you die.” She has to couch it as “since we’re your tech support, we might need your password to help you out.”
Your father didn’t need you as tech support.
No, he didn’t.
Lol
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