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 ...
Gaaaah!
Survived the day so far ... the kids really enjoyed the “moon colonization” activity. It’s part of a program funded by the Buzz Aldrin Foundation to keep interest in space exploration alive.
And when I went to windows tehn, my audio glitched out.
Apparently, Tehn doesn’t play well with realtek audio devices.
So I had to disable onboard audio and grab a dedicated sound card.
At least you know how to do all that.
It’s annoying though.
Microsoft decided to change how windows communicates with audio driver.
This leads to audio glitching.
Some audio drivers are okay, others just won’t work.
I’m sure it’s super annoying.
I am very proud of myself, because I learned how to turn Envirothon quiz questions into Jeopardy! games using “JeopardyLabs.com,” and I didn’t burst into tears or use invective that would require my going to Confession. It was super easy!
My experience technology tends to follow a pattern where I try to do something, and it doesn’t work. I ask a son, and he can’t make it work. I ask my husband, and he says it’s easy. I say, “Okay, then you do it!” and he can’t. And then I burst into tears and wail, “All I wanted was to make Envirothon questions into a quiz ....!” or whatever.
But it worked. Also, I’ve learned how to download podcasts onto my new phone.
Lol, I guess that works?
That technique won’t work with Jack Williamson’s Humanoids. Fortunately, they haven’t taken over yet.
Bribe with Jack Link’s beef jerky.
Excellent plan, Darks. Checkmate!
Such a brand new teeny Floof!
Good morning.
I took a two-hour nap because my eyelids were slamming shut as I sat here, but I don’t feel much different. Maybe once the day really starts, what with all the pipples coming and going, I’ll be OK. As long as I don’t have to drive!
And its cold. Another 28° day, so far. The wind makes it worse. Unngh.
Fan Art
Languages
Of course there are Americans who speak a full language, but the education system in places like Alabama brings the average down quite a bit.
Averages are brought in places like Alabama because the high percentage of minorities, as well as the makeup of those minorities. Alabama is is 26% black and that brings down average educational achievement, income, average scores on achievement tests. Amazingly, Alabama is still 68.5% white.
These days California is perhaps the dumbest state and most welfare-dependent state, a distinction once held by the Deep South. In California Hispanics now outnumber non-Hispanic whites (although many Hispanics list their race as white but their ethnic makeup would not be majority European.) California is 35.4% non-Hispanic white, but including Hispanics who claim to be white (36.8%) the state is “magically” 72.1% white.
Measuring the California’s average intellgence (in spite of Silicon Valley) I’m sure would show and vastly different picture, when more than a third of the population is made up of people from Mexico and Central America, a population not known for creating geniuses. The educational system can boast of lots of people getting more education, but it is increasingly not education but propaganda they are taught.
The state’s brown population is really the largest part of the population. If you travel the state you can see that more and more of it looks like racial and cultural equivalent of Mexico and Central America.
Try Stockton, for example. Try the rising number of Southern California neighborhoods that look like Mexico or Central America with all the poverty and violence that goes with it.
These Hispanic populations do not necessarily event speak good Spanish. Most do not speak good English. How do you count their multilingual capabilities? Certainly not like the small European nations which live near other populations with different languages and where knowing many languages is more important.
Ask any random stranger in any country on Earth what should they learn as a second language.
That’s easy, English, duh! It is the language of international commerce, of technology, of entertainment.
Unless they are already a native English speaker, then you get a blank stare. What other language gives you access to so much of the world? Mandarin? You can’t even speak to all Chinese in Mandarin! Spanish maybe? Self-fossilized French? Russian? Handy for space travel, maybe?
NY: -3 languages spoken.
Did you count Italian sign language?
Basically every fragment of language used in NY adds up to a negative integer.
And that is an estimate at best.
I think English actually has the largest vocabulary by far of any language. It is the richest language in which one can converse. It has far more nuance, in general, that other languages. Of course, in specific areas or terms that may not be true. But the broader point is that England produced the world’s most literate language. It is a gift to the human race.
Little angel....
Did you count English and Bad English?
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