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 ...
My poor little birds have chosen this month to molt, and since its a yearly thing, I suppose I’ll have to spend my Christmases in silence. They brighten my days so much when they sing.
If the dog is watching the Red Green show, he should be wearing those red/green "3-D" glasses so he can see the show in color.
(As inane as my comments sound, there's science behind them. Of course the trick is to get the dog to even wear glasses of any sort, and then to watch television too.)
They both lost interest and came in the dining room to observe the nerd card games, get more beer, and cadge pork rinds.
Poor dears. You could go to Wikipedia and play bird sounds. I got DP a page-a-day calendar for his birthday (Dec. 12) that has a bird each day, and then you point your phone at it and it plays the sound.
Merry Christmas ya’all...
My cats watch movies with my wife.
Don’t know why.
I woke up at 0230, came into the living room and heard an awful sound coming from the bird cage. I took the cover off and there was little Beaker, lying on the floor of the cage kind of on one side, making little chirps at regular intervals and shivering.
I’ve taken her out of the cage and wrapped her in a towel and if she survives to 0800, I’ll take her to the vet. I think she must have fallen off the perch while she was sleeping (they do that, sometimes) and broken something. Like a wing.
So she’s on my lap, for now. I think I’ll leave her wrapped up and put her in her travel cage to keep her warm. Poor little thing. She can’t tell me what’s wrong and I don’t have x-ray vision. :o[
HAPPY BOXING DAY!!
:o]
‘Face
Oh, no, poor little Beaker! What a sad event!
They do fall off their perches in their sleep, on occasion, but they usually flutter and squawk and get back on the perch and after some mutterings of embarrassment, they go back to sleep.
She’s been in spasms since before I found her, so I’m not encouraged. Her vocalizations have almost stopped. She’s wearing herself out, poor thing.
In my sadness, I miss this pretty Morning Floof!
Stepping out nicely, after foraging for prey!!
Gonzo is not happy. They were both beginning to trust me, and now this. :o[
It’s not your fault. You can’t stay awake all night in case a bird falls down.
Exactly. And no matter what I do, I can’t stop her from dying before I can get her to the vet. All I can do is make her comfy. And I have.
Every pet gets to a point where all you can do is try to keep it from suffering unnecessarily.
Maybe they like the same kind of movies. Does she watch movies about birds or fish?
Good morning. Happy Boxing Day and Friday Eve.
I hope you had a Merry Christmas or Cheery Xmas or Happy Chanukah or whatever you celebrate this time of year. We had peace for most of our day, which is pretty good for our family. It got touchy when Mrs. ArGee started feeling the pain of the two children who have ghosted us.
Good morning. Things were peaceable here. Tom doesn’t get on with Anoreth, but he considerately spent a good part of the day in his room and avoided conflict when he appeared.
I know that feeling of missing children. I hope Mrs ArGee is feeling better today.
!
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