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 finished with the shoe closet. The assembler is still assembling. I’m making another cup of tea.
Hey, y’all.
Howya?
I’ve finished with my project for the day. My bones are telling me they’ve had enough so I’ll be heading down the hallway in a few minutes.
For whatever reason, I feel as though I’ve been beaten up. Unngh. All the more reason to head to the catacombs!
See y’all tomorrow!!
Treadmill installation is finished. As soon as I sweep up, I have to go get Pat. We can do the library tomorrow, maybe.
That Morning floof looks like an Ocelot! What a stuning surprise!
Good morning.
It has finally “warmed up” to a toasty 28°! Scary business, being in four seasons, again.
I swear, I’ll never be warm again for longer than 20 minutes.
Today doesn’t offer much in the way of things to do. I want a Little Brown Bat or a Jake to snuggle up with and take a nap.
It’s raining here. We’ll have to do Errands anyway. I spend 40 minutes on the new treadmill this morning. Maybe some intentional exercise will help me sleep at night.
I’d like to get another elliptical machine since I don’t go to Walmart very often these days. In Henderson, I was going every other day. Here, it’s about every five days. If the weather ever warms up, I’ll try to start walking a bit every other day or so. Right now, the weather is just too stinkin’ cold!
I stepped out to go check the mail and saw a full moon, and had the strange feeling that I was in Rivendell, and suddenly, there was the moon again. :o|
It was drizzly last night when I was coming home from a meeting, so no moon to be seen. Maybe it will be there tonight.
From what I can see, the weather is going to be ugly and cold for the next week. *sigh* If I had some money, I’d make a trip into St George to the thrift store so I could soak up some sun on the drive!
Yesterday, I had a strange impulse to start watching the “Midsomer Murders” again from the first season. Then I thought, nah... Some of them I just didn’t like. I’ll have to find something else to order. I couldn’t get past the first two episodes of “Victoria,” for some reason.
We lost interest in Victoria fairly quickly. You could just skip the Midsomer Murders you don’t like.
Victoria wasn’t exactly what I’d call exciting acting. I’m not sure who the actress was (what else she had done before that role) but it looks like she gained the role by looking vacant.
I’ll get back to the MM eventually. And yes, I can skip the ones I don’t like. Considering how many were actually made, there are only a handful I don’t care for.
The sun is trying to come up. It seems awfully slow in doing so. :o|
I have to go to the bank at 0900 and get some quarters, and will head to Lin’s next door to see if they have some water on sale. I don’t like buying it there because it’s so expensive, but sometimes, they have the 40-bottle cases for less that Walmart’s 24-bottle cases. So I’ll check!
Back from the library. I don’t have to go out again until it’s time to pick up Pat at 3:00.
I’m done for the day. Oh crikey! Here comes the year’s first infestation of the Epic Fail Lawn Massacre and Sprinkler Head Decapitation Service! NOOOOOOOOOO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>!
Thank you.
You’re welcome. We have flooding.
Dryness prayers sent your way.
Yes. He thinks he should have a much longer tail!
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