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 ...
Look! Four loaves of Floofy Kitteh bread!!
Good morning.
It’s 24°, headed for a high of 40°. Yay! Heat wave! Bring out the sun tan oil!!
I want to hug them all!
Maybe the vet wasn’t very informed about birds. In larger markets, some practices don’t take more specialized patients. I don’t think our vet sees birds, and I know he doesn’t do reptiles.
Poor little things ... but they’ve had some pleasant time with you, at least. Two years?
No, this vet clinic has a cat and dog vet, a bird vet and a reptile vet, with vet techs in each field. Which is why I chose them. He is very knowledgeable about parakeets and other small birds, so the problem isn’t in the vet. I think it was that 5-hour wait from when I found her to when I could take her in that made the difference. As long as I held her or kept her tightly wrapped, she was somewhat calm, but I imagine the vertigo was horrendous.
And no, they’ve only been with me 13 months. Maybe 14, because I got them just before I moved here. Long enough for me to get attached to them both, anyway.
A little over a year, then.
It’s drizzly here. I’m glad I wasn’t camping out at winter camp. It’s annoying packing up when your stuff is wet.
I don’t like doing anything when stuff is wet, either!
My bed is waiting for me to make it so the room will be neat again but I don’t feel like doing anything neatly.
I have to go take my pills, too. *sigh*
I’d stay home today, but I need to know what the schedule is for the coming year. We’ll meet later, so I need to know if its 1000, 1030 or 1100. Depending on which, I’ll have to adjust my meetings.
I hope the new season schedule works out for you. I’ve managed to shoo most of the youth off to Mass with their dad. I’ll go later, and if there aren’t any non-Spanish-speaking family members along, I can stay for the charismatic prayer meeting, if there is one. The parish calendar says there is, but sometimes people put things on the calendar and forget to remove them when plans change.
Pat and James are going to an overnight with the high-school youth group on New Year’s Eve. Vlad will be high school youth next year, and I think Pat plans to register as an adult volunteer.
(Pause to marvel at the concept of Pat’s being an adult.)
I paused to marvel when I saw Pat with a beard! GAH!
I can always go to the 0900 meeting. In fact, if I were a world traveler, I could always go anywhere a church is because they all have 0900, 1100 and 1300. Some may change the 1100 to 1030, but that just depends on that Stake. Nine o’clock is always good for me.
It’s still dark out, but a see a slight glow to the east, so I should probably start putting my face on. (I miss that little Beaker. Yesterday afternoon, Gonzo was trying to talk to her and I don’t know if he told her it was OK to let go or if he was trying to get her to hang on, but it was sad to hear his little song to her.)
Poor Gonzo.
No problem. I used to be a kid. I used to be a teenager. -- I know how to make excuses.
Thank you.
I’m very sorry that you and Gonzo lost your little pal.
You’re welcome. Placido Domingo!
Thanks.
I think Gonzo knew she was going yesterday afternoon because he was talking to her in that intimate little chitter that they had when they were very close together. It makes me feel better to think he was telling her it was OK to let go.
In my head, at times, I’m still a teenager. But my kids are the ones who are adept at excuses! LOL!
I've gotten over that, but not in the way you might perhaps think.
I ve backed away from teenage attitudes, but in the opposite direction. Teenagers seem to think that, being on the cusp of adulthood, they might as well be considered as adults; respected, depended upon, and trusted implicitely. (Without of course that whole accepting and facing responsibility and all that it entails.)
When I was a kid, I was optimistic, enthusiastic, and frankly astonished at all the wonder in the world. I'm trying to recapture that.
You can perhaps blame Elon Musk for helping me with that.
I think I captured it pretty well with this verse. You may notice that it could really apply to a person of any age, but this is me. I'd like to think that it has always been me.
.
Show Me More
Show me more! Show me more!
I don’t want to be there yet.
For the things that I have seen so far,
I never will forget.
Let me see, let me be,
Let me look out through the glass,
A wondrous fascination comes,
With every thing we pass!
I have loved, I have touched,
I have hugged the world this much!
It’s been like a candy playland,
Filled with milkshake dreams and such!
Show me more! Show me more!
Do not make me old too soon.
I want to see the people out there,
Dancing on the moon!
Tell me shush, tell me hush,
Tell me I have been long blessed,
Then tell me there'll be more to see,
After just a little rest.
NicknamedBob . . . . . . February 6, 2008
Absolutely! God is giving away the secrets of the Universe. you only have to be resurrected in order to have them!
Or at least, so I’ve heard. ;o])
Very nice, Bob. I’ll be content with the library.
Library, hunh? That’s the cake under the icing.
Icing is sticky.
I always liked peanut-butter icing.
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