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 ...
False alarm. It was my creepy neighbor across the way but he has his brothers or nephews there, so the alarm string was probably pulled by accident.
Stupid piece of engineering, that. An alarm in the bathroom, with a string to activate it. I’ve never been able to figure out how to use it. I mean, do you take it with you into the tub/shower, planning to fall and pull the string on your way down? No other room in the apartment has one.
So if you fall somewhere else, do you crawl to the bathroom to get on your knees to reach the string? And if your outside alarm rings, there’s no guarantee anyone will take heed.
Happy Leap Day! Or, in Dogpatch, USA, it’s Sadie Hawkins’ Day!
The day a woman can ask a guy to marry her. (In the old tradition, at least. They do that these days, anyway, I think.)
My mom said her cat has been looking for Sally, who played toys with her and acted like she was a nice cat.
There are string-pull alarms in my mom’s apartment, too. I was wondering, while I used the guest bathroom, what good a string on the other side of the room would do an elderly person who fell in the bath.
Some cats, like Shannon, are just not trusting. Maybe Polly is the same way. Is she a shelter cat?
And of all places in the bathroom to put them, they are usually hidden by the toilet. How does that help? *face palm.*
Like I said, a useless piece of engineering. Newcomers think it’s tied directly to 911 but it isn’t. Only those within hearing of your alarm will even know. Some apartments have a small outside light to tell you which apartment, but still, it’s a useless piece of non-equipment.
She came from an agency that places pets with the elderly. She’d had at least one home before Mom adopted her, after their previous cat died.
At the time, they were allowed to bring a pet into the Independent Living condo building, but if the pet died, they weren’t allowed to get a replacement. (That rule has been changed.) She wanted a cat who looked similar to their old one, and she told the cleaning lady that if she mentioned the new cat to anyone, Mom would tell the agency that the cleaning lady was watching soap operas in the apartments instead of cleaning. (This was true.)
Unfortunately, Polly didn’t like Dad very much, which hurt his feelings.
Instead of being a calming influence for Gonzo, it now will scream at me right along with him as I head for the door. *sigh* :o|
Nothing like a little blackmail to seal the lips of the hired help!
So maybe Polly was abused by a man before she came to live with your parents. That would explain why she didn’t take to your dad very well.
Perfect choice! Here is one of several wonderful Animal scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_IpgKzy75E
LOL!! That was a perfect example of this bird!
I’ve always liked Rita Moreno, and truth be known, “Fever” is my all-time favorite song. I have other favorites, of course, too many to choose, but this one is at the top of the heap.
So thanks!
Rita Moreno is a great performer. Many great performers appeared on the Muppet Show.
For a while, being on the Muppet Show was an absolute boost for a rising star and gave new life to stars who were already established.
I don’t think I ever missed a show!
We got DVDs from Netflix for a while, but didn’t go back through the whole series.
Guests seemed to have fun ... but of course, they were performers.
I love the card done by your brother, too!
I’m surrounded by artists!! Of course, its in my genes, too, so I’m a little anxious to get started on the pic of James and Abbie. I think I’m going to ask Annette where she got the paper for the bookmark, because I think that might be a good texture for the pastels.
My long-ago friend from WA state finally answered my FB message and has accepted my friendship request! Our sons have the same first name!
This was about two seconds away from being posted and all of a sudden, I had no internet and no TV. I took two calls to get it squared away.
I forget which ones of my brother’s cards I’ve sent to whom, and I try not to send the same one to the same person, but unless I get really OCD and make a meticulous list of everything I send to everyone and on what day, it’s going to be a grab bag of sorts.
Happy Birthday, Bob?
Is it Bob’s birthday? That would be totally appropriate!
Ladybugs on a white flower.
We came into some money. I just ordered the Clive Cussler car books from Amazon on Tom’s account, which pulled up when I typed Amazon.com into my browser. I guess he came by and used it at some point!
They’ll be delivered to his house, and, after we’ve read them, I’ll send them to you.
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