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 ...
Happy Thorsday! Speaking of larger-than-life, long-haired characters, it’s also Tom the Son’s birthday!
We’re taking Tom out to a bar for his birthday, while the younger family members can stay home with the blinds down and eat cake, except for Pat, whose American Literature class is having a scary-reading party.
Pat is taking “The Call of Cthulhu” and a case of Coke.
Well, wish Tom the Son a happy birthday for me. And thanks for reminding me that I missed my older brudder's birthday yesterday so I sent him a belated note.
You’re welcome. Yesterday was also the birthday of Kurt, our church music director. He was 30. I felt really old.
If it makes you feel any better, the genius developer who was solutions director on my last project was one year younger than my youngest daughter.
Yeah, that makes me feel better.
I’m happy to be in my 50s. I’m just surprised, sometimes, at how young other people are.
And all those babies playing baseball these last few days.
And congratulations to the Washington Nationals. But they really should move to America if they’re going to use that team name.
I saw in the WSJ this morning that the Nationals had won. So much for the #TrumpCurse, although I’m sure someone will figure out a way to assert that they didn’t actually win.
Back from Walmart, where many of the employees were wearing costumes. The day manager, Christina, a very tall, Swedish lady, looked quite stunning as a pirate.
Well of course it’s your fault, humans make it dry and warm indoors!
Why not outdoors too for kitty convenience?
Hovering between low 50’s and low 60’s with rain here for now.
In June of 1967, I was working at Signetics, in Provo, and came off my shift to find an inch of snow on the ground.
In October of 1969, on a Saturday morning, again in Provo, I woke up to find 8” of snow on the ground.
Whoever that reporter is for FOX13 must be very young and not familiar with researching data for articles.
:o])
Sunny and 45° finally. There is a breeze but not as bad as yesterday’s.
And I’m waiting for the delivery of supplements. It isn’t coming by UPS or FedEx, and I’ve never been happy with this delivery company, even when they would deliver in Henderson.
I really want to go to bed.
USPS: “We delivered it to the address!” (Shows address not even remotely close to where it is supposed to be.)
My neighbors go a bit overboard this time of year.
I must check in on the new thread. I don’t get to post during work much.
This company is called “On Trac.” I’ll probably be sleeping soundly when they finally get around to delivering, even though the email says it’s “out for delivery.”
Some days, I really do miss Henderson!
Lazer Shipping out this way.
They have YouTube videos about them.
Funny to watch, would suck to be on the receiving end.
Amazon contractor OnTrac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NllSIAOyy8
LaserShip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj_NqxbzDZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deBvzsuIVY0
Gotta love contracted delivery.
We have high winds out this way, those decorations would be airborne in seconds.
You’re not getting said winds, are you?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.