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 ...
Animals are odd.
I’m glad you have a break from rain for at least a day!
I’ve finished two cups of coffee, so I guess it’s time to find a Useful Task!
I took a survey. It came in yesterday, but it was bedtime when I saw it, so I waited for today. Some of them take up to an hour to finish. This one was only about 15 minutes.
I think my apartment is sick and if it is, it means my neighbor’s is, too. I use a Brita filter on my kitchen faucet, but when I use it, the water has a moldy smell. When the drains get sluggish, there is an odor I can’t define properly, and it could be mold, but I have decided I’ll need a drain cleaner that is better than the vinegar and soda that I’ve been using.
All the more reason to move out of here and into St George.
Poor kitteh.
If you get warmer weather some day, at least you could open a window.
The bedroom and kitchen windows are open about 1/4” and have been since I moved here in Dec 2018. I don’t like the way this place smells when it’s closed up. Another reason to think it’s got mold.
The living room window was open that much, but I had to close it when the lawn service came and used the gas trimmer to cut the bushes under the window. I can’t get to the window now to open it, because I would need to move the desk. When I get up the gumption one day, I’ll move the desk to the right and put the printer to the left of me. But not today.
The storm door also has the lower pane raised about 4” so when the weather is mild, I can get a cross-current of air.
Funny, but not! LOL! I suspect it was a very good deterrent.
I wouldn’t dare do that to my mew.
He’d get even.
Our cats don’t get on the counters.
LOL! One of my co-workers a long time ago would bring cookies to work, and one day, something caught my eye...cat hair. I have no idea if she was a good baker or not!
Well, in the interest of full disclosure, if ours gets on the counter, we don’t have a kitten. Though food theft is not allowed, kitty has IBD.
But if one needs to keep kitty off the counter, I like the foil idea far better than using water spray or corporal punishment.
Shannon once hopped on a chair, then over the ledge between the dining room and kitchen, right into a sink full of water. Lesson learned.
My guy likes water. Any and all water. We got him a Drinkwell. He loves it.
People hair in my food grosses me out.
Cat fur...meh.
BTW, just for the record, if I’m cooking for others, my clean room standards rival NASA’s.
Bill the Son has one for his cat.
Hair in food is guaranteed to make me lose my appetite. So like you, my cooking/clean standards are high.
I seldom cook, these days, and if I do anything, it will be baking.
THAT is cute!! Thanks!
Thank you for the precious.
From a Maine Coon breeder.
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