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 love jokes like that, Covenantor! Thank you so much for posting it!! :o])
It pretty much made my day!
Lol. It’s a funny old world out there.
Whut?
The Morning Floof has some interesting coloration. What a beauty!
Good morning.
The condition of the my pill container means today is Sunday. Time flies. And what have I been doing to make it so?
I feel much better after my shower, but I think I’ll have to start going back to the 0900 meeting, rather than the 1030. I’m starting to dread going because it puts me home so late. That’s no way to be, so I’ll try it for the next month or two and see how I’m feeling. It seems my life has been reduced to an endurance test.
As we say in Weight Watchers, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I’ve had a shower, too. What a concept!
The wind is blowing out of the north at 11.2 mph, wind chill is 33°, and its very overcast.
I tried writing another letter but realized I just didn’t feel it was worth sending.
The WEATHER! The weather is at fault! So after church, I’ll do something nice with my hands, like finish a birthday present for my granddaughter! Her birthday is tomorrow, and though I think she’ll get her card tomorrow, I won’t be able to mail the little doily until tomorrow. So it will be later in the week when she gets it. I wish I had something better to give her. Maybe for Mother’s Day, I’ll give her a clay lamp.
I’m sure your family will understand that you do the best you can - which is excellent crochet! - with what you have to work with.
I plan to take Pat and James to Mass at 4:30, and then they can stay for youth group.
Thanks, but I don’t think James and Abbie have a clue because neither of them have had to do without. But its OK. If they ask, I will tell them.
I’ll have to start getting ready for church in a bit. Last year, I would have been out the door, now. It seems each year, I have to add five minutes to the getting-ready ritual... I can’t decide if its because I’m slower or I have so much more to try and disguise. Wrinkles and all that. And then I think back to the days when I was often mistaken for my son’s girlfriend!
I was mistaken for my dad’s new wife a few times!
Good luck getting out the door, and be super careful!
That’s fun, though!
And thanks. I’ll make it, if I don’t get blown away, first!
It always was, 'Face, except for the part about "take time to smell the flowers".
You have been doing that, haven't you? -- I was doing it a day or so ago. I had taken my wife to an early medical appointment, and was waiting for her to finish up. The weather was unpromising, windy, rainy, and overcast. Quite abruptly the sky cleared and the sunshine smote down as a reminder of something. I looked around and spotted the corner of a rainbow.
"Yes," I said, "thanks for reminding me."
Classic! A great way to start a Sunday, with a true LOL thanks!
Good morning, Bob. I had the same kind of thoughts on Friday, when we were studying aquatic macroinvertebrates at Mecklenburg County Stormwater Services. Each of those tiny larvae and insects is as amazing, in its way, as a bird or a whale or a primate.
It’s often been observed that human beings have a universal inclination to develop mythologies of the very beautiful, the very ugly, the fearsome and helpful ... but nothing we imagine is as spectacular as nature, if only we buckle down and study the big and small, the terrestrial and aquatic and subterranean world.
I have been blessed of late with being able to behold several rainbows! Some on the seemingly most unforgiving of days. The Epic Fail Lawn Killers and Sprinklerhead Decapitation Service has been here for the first time this year, so I suspect they may have unearthed something beautiful. I just have to wait to witness its emergence.
I’m acutely aware of those things that surround me and especially in this area of mountains, bluffs and mesas. There is something beautiful to see in every day.
I think, when I was younger, and had no real thought as to what my future would have in store, that I noticed more and “found” more.
Nature sciences “wowed” me and I could never get enough of being outdoors. Now, it’s not quite so easy.
However, one of my nephews in St George challenged “us” to ride 200 miles in a month, and if I still had a bike I would give it a try, for sure! I love my family, even though they don’t have time for me. Being able to ride even a bit would help me to have some kind of dialog with more of them, locally. Not to mention, get me outside! ;o]
It can be difficult for me to get outside, too, although not as difficult as I sometimes pretend. Of course, basking in a sunbeam with a cat is great, too!
Maybe when it’s warmer, you can find a safe park nearby with benches where you could watch a squirrel.
Speaking of cats, one just got on the dinner table.
Maybe just casually leave a menu from a local Chinese restaurant conspicuously placed in the middle of the table as a hint.
We’re not hungry enough yet.
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