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 ...
Funny but accurate, Nully! Thanks! LOL!
I hadn't considered that.
Do they land on their feet at the end of the process?
Heh, that would be a thing.
Today is one of those days when I can’t seem to keep up with things. But if I ask for an explanation for something, please don’t shoot me!
I often have to think about things Bob says. It’s good for the mental gears, sort of like being around Tom the Son!
Most of the time, I can follow Bob’s train of thought and enjoy it. But some days, like this one, the entire art of conversation seems like a foreign language and I feel like I don’t belong.
Thank you.
Wasn’t the agreement contingent upon your having full control (i.e., they’re backpedaling)?
Hey, y’all.
Lol!
You’re welcome. Maybe the cutest kitten ever.
It has also been noted that if you have to explain it, the humor goes away.
That said: "Plus they’re wet. I have laundry in the dryer, too."
Do they land on their feet at the end of the process?See it? Wet cats/ wet laundry. Leave it up to me to make the connection, of course.
Timing is tricky, especially in the written form, and most true humor has a dollop of casual cruelty implied, just for the sake of bringing out the horrified expression on your victim with a momentary thought that some idiot actually might put cats in a drier.
It's like stirring up a Harry Potter potion. The ingredients seem haphazard, but the process is precise.
There was an old Far Side cartoon with a sign on the dryer saying “Cat fud” and the dog watching as the cat looked at the opening. The dog was thinking, “Please, oh please.”
That cartoon made me think of the cat getting it’s feet knocked out from under by the pane, landing on its feet, getting it’s feet knocked out from under ...
My train of thought is still boarding at the station.
No. I have full control. But we didn’t get this bad in a day, and it’s taking time to fix it.
I’m sure some things would go better if I fired them all and hired new people, but that would have it’s own costs.
Then there’s the flu, which seems to have a free reign around here.
I had been away from my regular hotel for 2 weeks and checked back in on Sunday. As I was talking to the young lady behind the counter another regular (in town closing down a retail outlet) saw me and said, “You’re back!”
I turned around and said, “My front, too.”
I guess he was just enough of a nerd to think that was really funny.
You take your good cheer where you can find it.
One of my favorites.
Most humor, I get immediately because of the types of humor I was forced to learn and endure as I was growing up. I enjoy it all because these days, I don’t have to have it explained to me. Unlike when I was a very short person, and people laughed at me because I was “too young to get it.”
Sometimes, the conversation just goes too fast for me. I’m a few car-lengths behind. :o|
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