There's a good chance you hallucinated this week without ever knowing it

Inverse ^ | October 11, 2019 | By Jack Barton on

[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.

[Tax-chick]

I’m not sure she misses Tom - she likes the vacant room! - but she sure hates this weather. It probably makes her joints ache, too.

[Covenantor]

[Monkey Face]

LOL!!!

Excellent post, Covenantor!

[Tax-chick]

LOL!

Write your Member of Parliament to complain.

[Tax-chick]

Just finished reading the Soil Manual with Frank. He has to give a presentation on Friday regarding pages 45 to 58.

[ArGee]

Condolences to DP. It’s hard to lose parents.

[ArGee]

Another drive-by hello.

Happy Monday, everyone.

The problem with working through Friday here in Gotham is that Mondays come much sooner than they used to.

But the reins are transferred and now it’s time for me to get with it and start wondering what I’ve gotten myself into. People have expectations.

[ArGee]

Everything I normally do is going to done later, and I’m not going to stress about it.

You can, just do it later. %)

[NicknamedBob]

If Frank applies himself, he could become the kind of person they’ll need on Mars to fix the place up.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, he could. On Friday afternoon, students from Wingate University presented a moon-colonization activity using materials and information from the Buzz Aldrin Foundation. I didn’t see what they did - I took Kathleen for a walk in the woods - but all the kids were very engaged and enthusiastic about it when we got back.

[Tax-chick]

Thank you. Yes, it is hard.

[Monkey Face]

Good luck to Frank on his presentation!

[Monkey Face]

Hello, yourself! Good luck in your quest to quash other people’s expectations!

[Silentgypsy]

Thank you.

[Silentgypsy]

Poor Sussexians.

[Silentgypsy]

Hey, y’all.

[Tax-chick]

Afternoon. Elen, USMC, sent me a plush Little Brown Bat.

[Covenantor]

Vincent Price's cat...left on the cutting room floor of the movie "The Fly"

[Darksheare]

The Kentish Invaders will be everywhere soon.

[Monkey Face]

Hahahahaha!!! That is way too funny!!!