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 ...
Good morning. It sounds lovely! Tom and I could have your apartment squared away in a couple of hours, and then we could all drink hot tea and play Scrabble.
Yes. Tom. Whereas, I have to use my step-stool to replace the plastic over the swamp cooler vent, Tom could just reach up and do it with arm length to spare. Gloriosky! Please come!!!
It’s been years since I played Scrabble. But if you brought another body, I could teach you how to play “Estimation.” boring at first, with 10 cards in the hand, but by the time there is one card each, the tension is massive! I just need to try and remember the rules and write them down before they are lost to history....
I have to go to Walmart. Before I do that, I have to walk over and pay my rent (four days earlier than this month, because the DD gods are whimsical) and mail the checks, then freeze myself waiting for the heater in the truck to warm myself. I need, in no particular order, thermal long johns and a space heater for the bedroom.
The Floofy Squee looks wonderfully relaxed this morning! If I could start my day that way....
I don’t want to go out in that cold, but my heavy parka is ready, as are my gloves, so I think I can do it. If I give myself a hard enough pep talk, that is.
I don’t think I signed up for this...
Mountains. You picked living in the mountains.
I’ve lost my pink flamingo notebook. I know I had it yesterday!
Well, at least I can see the kitteh in the reply box. It didn’t render when I refreshed the screen.
Good morning. Happy Wednesday. I already feel like I’ve been here a full week so this will be an interesting day.
If I tried to start my day that way every bone in my body would ache when I tried to straighten up.
I actually picked Hurricane because it was second choice to St George, forgetting completely that Hurricane is in a valley of the mountains, whereas, St George is much lower, has red soil to soak up the heat from the sun, and is in FRONT of the mountains and sooner or later, I will move there.
Back from Walmart where I thought I was going to freeze solid while trying to put the grocks in the cargo area. Gloriosky! The Walmart Wind was nasty, biting and literally pushed me into the store.
I spent $10 more than I planned to, but didn’t get the heater or the Britta filters so I still have to freeze while drinking bottled water. Now I need to gather up my courage and go back out to bring the grocks in, and I don’t look forward to that at all.
My throat is doing some wonky things since yesterday, and I don’t like it. Back to Emergen-C with every dose until such time as I start feeling “normal” again, whatever that is.
Did I ever tell you all how much I like Michael Goodwin of the NY Post? Not only because I don’t mind clicking on the NY Post, not only because he calls the Mayor of NY “Mayor Putz”. He really gives me a chuckle. Here’s an example.
“Thus, Pelosi is ready to throw America into chaos simply as a political favor to Democrats’ wing-nuts so they won’t run primaries against her leadership team and committee heads.”
“Democrats’ wing nuts” - ya gotta love it.
Yes and no. I learned to play it when I was 17, and no one (including me) had ever heard of the game until then. It was popular in the Midwest, but no written rules so different areas had different rules.
When I learned it, the play was 10 cards down to one. I can’t imagine the boredom of sitting through one card to ten then back to one. I even invented a score sheet, which I still have, in the hopes that some day, I’ll find someone who knows the game.
Happy Odin’s Day.
I’ve finished typing up lyrics for Friday night Mass. Now it’s in the hands of our A/V persons.
For the next thing, I’ll try to find my marbles before I have to drive Pat to school.
Somehow, I envisioned my marbles running toward the horizon holding hands with your marbles, and all of them laughing!! Yes, laughing! As in “We escaped!!!”
I finally braved the icy wind and went out to bring the grocks in. The “security” lamp by my parking space has decided not to work, now, so had it not been for the little bicycle light on my laundry/grocery cart, I wouldn’t have been able to see what I was doing because the overhead light in the truck only works when the passenger door is opened.
I have to go out later (after FedEx comes) and get laundry money and put some gasoline in the truck. And then that will be the end of my spending for the month. Hah. Prices keep going up and my income stays the same. *sigh*
26° here, with a wind chill of 12°. I really do miss the desert!
Back from The Salvation Army, where there was nothing much. I got a hippie dress for my hippie friend Lisa, the mother of Frank’s friend Mars, from Cub Scouts. She can make it into something she likes.
I need to go to the Dollar Tree, probably tomorrow, but there isn’t a good thrift store in this town. Several in St George, I think, including the big one on my way in, but it will be a while before I can shop there.
It’s still below freezing, now, but at least the wind has died down. And me stuck indoors for the time being. :o|
I was about to leave to pick Pat up at CP, but he texted and said he wants to stay to watch a talent show. That should give me time to get a chicken-noodle casserole ready to go in the oven.
I was going to make chicken salad yesterday, but, when I started shredding the chicken, I realized it wasn’t quite fully cooked. That’s why I made some of it into soup yesterday - more cooking - and I’m making the rest into casserole - more cooking - for tonight.
“Kitchenocalypse, the revenge of SOUP”
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