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 ...
Fakebook has some really good bad pun pages. They’re much more fun than good bad Hemingway.
OK, now I’m scared.
A lot of my taglines come from FB because they’re such good bad puns.
I keep telling people I wouldn’t be there except for my relatives, because they keep in touch with each other on FB. They’re all spread so far apart.
My relatives email.
A marmalade Floof! Just what I need before I shower. As my day went on yesterday, the accident played heavier on my mind and I got more tense minute by minute.
The truck wasn’t hit hard enough to even lock the seatbelt, but this morning, I’m a little stiff and sore on my left shoulder/neck area. So a hot shower is just minutes away. I slept in. I hate that! I have to write to Charlie!
See ya in a few.
Kitteh gonna git you!
I need a shower, too.
And Imma get dat kitteh!
I feel much better, now. All clean and shiny! With my shorter hair, I didn’t know me very well! She did a good job, for sure. All I need is about six months more new growth and I’ll have a head of hair to be proud of. Again. ;o]
For a moment I thought that read flying cats and I thought Cool!!!.
Now I'm bummed. 😿
I love Creamsicle mews...
Try your library!
Adorable kitten.
Wow. That’s one I haven’t read! Thanks! And I love the cover art!
There are three or four in the series. Super cute stories.
And, of course, B&N doesn’t have them in stock in any local stores. But Amazon does!
What have wombats ever done to you?
The world, they deserve it. Just let the flying castle get beyond the blast radius first, if you don’t mind.
Does your library have e-book checkout?
And how would that not fit in with his plans?
Kitteh looks like “Don’t mess with Friday!”
Happy Friday everyone.
I iz in NYC today because of the short week. Normal weeks tomorrow, unless I get my offer to take over that comes with the money for 5 day weeks in NYC.
If cats could fly the world would not be safe.
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