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 ...
I slept in. I woke up because the doorbell rang at 2015, and was just about to fall asleep and it rang again. Just before my eyelids slammed shut for the final time, I did a facepalm.
For the first time in umpteen years, I live in an area where there are children, and accompanied by a parent, they celebrated Hallowe’en by ringing doorbells of houses that have their porchlights on. (Mine is on for security reasons — because the security lights don’t work.)
And me with no candy... They didn’t mind. They just kept going. “No candy here, let’s try the next place!”
That’s what happens when you live in a senior community forever.
Sorry you were disturbed! There wasn’t much trick-or-treat here because of bad weather. It’s much cooler this morning. I wasn’t prepared - didn’t put my robe and slippers in the hall - but it’s 71 in the dining room, so I’ll be okay until others get up.
Aww...pretty little Russian blue!! And it has a Beanie Baby!
I have a Vegas Golden Knights Beanie Baby. It’s black. I love it.
The shower has been had, I’m having my tea, and will go make the bed in a bit. It’s warmer today by a few degrees, but the wind has died down, which is very good.
My compression socks are beginning to stretch out, so I need to get some more. They have helped to keep the water retention at bay, and that’s good. I don’t need the water weight. The water affects my heart.
Good morning. Someone is astir upstairs, maybe I can get my robe!
I often hear things astir under the house. There is a little crawl space and “things” get under there and go bump in the early morning hours.
Now I have to walk over and get the mail. There are two days’ worth and when I get back, I have to write to Charlie.
I need to get the pantry finished today. GAH! What an organizational nightmare that thing is!
And the desk. I will work on it today as well.
Wishing you a productive day! We have Envirothon this afternoon, supposed to go to a farm to look at soil.
Good morning, ThomasThomas. I’m glad you were able to stop by!
Our neighbors took down some of their inflatables when the wind kicked up around 5:00 p.m. yesterday.
Happy Friday, all.
I just don’t understand why people can’t drive in a torrential downpour. Or at least a little more carefully. Fortunately, I was only on a shut-down Interstate for about 10 minutes before we got moving again. I knew when that truck went by me going at last 70 there would be trouble.
The little chocolate beggars created a bit of a traffic jam-up getting out of Jersey City, but they were all washed away by the storm by the time I got home. My daughter said there was a shooting during the festivities in her area and some kids were witnesses. No kids were hurt, but she’s expecting a rough class today due to traumatized 5th graders.
Best wishes to your daughter and all affected.
And happy Friday!
DP and Da Bill are going to Savannah to run, or to hang out if they decide they’re not up to running. Apparently neither of them has been training much.
We’ll have to leave about 12:15 this afternoon to get to the farm where we’ll study soil. I like soil.
Speaking of running, the NYC Marathon is this Sunday. It’s amazing how unaware of that I am now that I’m not living a block away from the route.
My sister-in-law, Charlotte, is running in it, and my mom and her friend Eileen from the airline are supposed to be going to New York to watch. They’re both standing-by on their USAir retiree passes, so I won’t know if they made it until after it’s over.
Happy Friday, Argee.
Diving in the rain requires good tyres and Tarmac that grips the tyre not the other way around. The dept of transportation did a lot of work on this in the 60s hence the cheese grater like surface on most of our roads. NZ uses the same principle.
I’m again with car.
Auto box and petrol engine....what is this quackery?
My apology for taking so long to reply. I’ve been spending time with a replicator. If this works I’ll be replicated ....
Happy Friday to you, too, Moose. I hope Brexit isn’t driving you as insane as Impeachment is driving me.
Even with good tires (tyres) and road surfaces drivers need to apply some intelligence when driving in foul weather. Sadly, that’s in short supply on this side of the pond.
Good morning, moose07. It has stopped raining here, for now, which is nice, because the science team is going to a farm to study soil this afternoon.
Congratulations on being among the owners of wheeled vehicles once again!
Between Brexit and Impeachment I’m beginning to wonder exactly what it is they don’t want us to be seeing in the background.
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