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 ...
Hey, y’all.
Howdy! I hope your day is a good one so far!
That was James with the penguin.
WOOPZ! Sorry, Pat, James and James.
Good morning.
That looks like the same Floof and ball from Sunday! Sweet!
Good morning.
I realized this morning, that plans have been made for this upcoming event that I had no part in, and it was the same in November. I was expected to join in, and yet, no one asked me if it was OK to have me on the run, “now that I have a car.”
Thursday is hockey in Vegas, Friday is something in St George, Saturday is the Big Get Together, and after is another trip to St George. So, the bishop was correct in commenting on what it would do to me, because Sunday, I’ll begin the wait for the onset of the relapse. Usually 48-72 hours after the stresses. And this trip will have plenty of those — physical, mental and emotional.
They just don’t realize how insidious this disease is, because, as I’ve said before, I don’t look sick. Period.
All of that would be stressful just because you’re an older person!
Today’s kitten is a littermate of the last two.
Good morning, everyone. I’m doing a little bit better with the caffeine intake this morning.
Happy Tuesday.
Happy Tiwsday! It’s also Trash Day here in Boring.
I have to head to town to talk to a guitarist in a few minutes. We’ve had a change in choir schedule, GAH!
Is that with less coffee? Or more? Since coffee affects me differently than it does most people, I never had a problem giving it up. I can still drink it and go to sleep right after. Contrarily, morphine keeps me awake. Go figure.
So I’m taking the truck down today, and will have him fix the dash, replace the spark plugs and air filter, and reattach the bumper. Casey was concerned about the grill, (expense-wise) but I told him that since it was cosmetic, I didn’t really care if it was replaced or just repaired. There’s a chance he may even have one he can use.
So while he has it for these few days, I’ll check on the cost of a front-end alignment. As long as its drivable when he’s done with his part of it!
As I’ve said before — my life is never dull!!
It was raining when I went out to work on the music issue. Then it stopped. Then it started again.
The hawk stopped by our yard.
Thank you.
Hey, y’all.
I heard a hawk yesterday afternoon. It was perched in the pine tree there. It’s a hugh tree, and houses any number of critters.
The filing is done. The BB SUV is at the Tracker Guy’s and he says he swears he did the spark plugs some time in the last year, but I never asked that they be done, so I don’t know what’s going to come of it. I also don’t know if he’s taking the truck to the place to do the alignment or if he wants me to do it later.
For some reason, he thought it would be done by noon today, but I don’t think that’s right. At any rate, he shot a ballpark figure of “about $200” at me, so I guess it’s not nearly as bad as my imagination made it!
I can’t get a ride to go after it until Thursday anyway, so here I sit. :o|
The yutes and I have taken the ornaments off the tree and put most of the other decorations away.
Excellent! I did that a few days ago and this morning, I sorted through the stack of filing I had been watching grow, and narrowed it by half, with some of it being filed in #13 and some ready for the shredder.
I found almost 1/4” of it from a late FReeper FRiend. :o[
That part will never be tossed because it contains instructions that I printed out. Perhaps he would be proud.
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