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’m too tall to stand in bed.
Unfortunately I slept like a 49ers fan. I’m not, but that’s how I slept. It will be an interesting day.
Happy Monday, ArGee. The sun is shining and the birds are twittering and twoop-whoooping here. Some of the more rancid Youth have taken showers.
“I shirked my Friday with duties.”
That Kitteh looks like it sees lunch!!! LOL!
You’re forgiven, ArGee, because.
Happy Monday I!
This latest storm is smacking northern Utah. All the plows are out, trying to keep up with it, but it’s the “Strongest storm we’ve had in several years.” LOTS of accidents, slowing traffic even more.
Funny, I never heard about storms in Utah when I was in NV. Not even storms in northern NV.
Schools and government offices are closed. And I opened a box of cereal from the bottom, and dyslexia is rampant. Maybe this is one of those days when I should just leave the mistakes as they come.
It’s just Monday. You’ll be able to find the top of the cereal box tomorrow. At least you didn’t open the milk from the bottom!
We need to go to Petsmart, the used bread store, and the gas station.
The temp has dropped over 30° since I came in at 0420. The wind chill is now 26° from the west at 13+ mph.
Crikey!!
It’s getting warmer here.
Colder yet. The temperature has dropped and so has the wind chill. The wind is almost 15 mph, make the wind chill 23°.
In other news, I learned it wasn’t just my mailbox that was jimmied with last week, it was all of them. So I told Chuck he needed to start locking the doors at night. I hate being the only person who knows that even a place like this can be assaulted!
Stay indoors!
I’ve been out as much as I intend to! Tomorrow is a different story because my DVDs are due! And I didn’t order any more. I wonder how much work I can get done...?
We might have library tomorrow, too.
It’s cold outside, and chilly inside, and I’m feeling more tired as the day wears on, so I think what I’m going to do is head down the hall to where the warm flannel sheets are waiting for me.
It would appear that my sugar levels are all over the place, so I need to start correcting it. Again.
Anyway. See all y’all tomorrow.
dopa is TWO syllables. I referred to the first syllable, as in, ONE syllable. LOL.
It’s a coincidence.
Good Morning, TC.
Off to Oxford this morning.
Hope alll is well in your world.
Keep reading about Snow, we haven’t had a drop yet.
Two sharp frosts and that’s all.
Good morning.
The little Morning Floof makes me want a little marmalade floof to demand naps with me.
Instead, I have a little blue flighty thing that screams when the door is open, even to just check the weather. *sigh* He really does need a little friend to focus his attention on instead of me.
I forgot to reset the mattress control yesterday when I went to sleep and woke up cold around 2230. I turned it back on and went back to sleep, but even that was enough to make me feel totally unrested.
The only thing I have to do today is go to the library, but thankfully, that’s not until 1000. It’s 23° right now. My Favorite Daughter said they went from 71° on Friday to freezing on Saturday, and I told her we hadn’t seen 71° since late fall. I know why I moved here, but the wait to move to St George is long and very cold!
Hiya, Moosie!
How’s the Brexit celebration going?
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