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 ...
Speaking of drool, I finished reading a car book. I’ll box it up today and try to get it in the mail tomorrow.
Well, the grandmother has her priorities right, and I’m sure she knew exactly what she was doing when she told him that.
As you probably already know, some kids need to be favored at certain times in their lives, and others need to be favored later. Or earlier. The point being, they all need to be favored just because they are who they are. And the favoring is different for each child.
And it is very kind of her for offering to help Tom.
Oh goody!!! Thanks!!
I meant “graduated from college a long time ago.”
Anyway, it was a kind thought ... and Tom will be proud to say he doesn’t need help!
Sometimes, grandparents have a tendency to expect more out of children than they can or are willing to give. It doesn’t make any of it right or wrong.
Because I was pretty much forced out at 17, I never expected more of my children than what I saw that they could comfortably do. They both joined the military and all I could do was wait and see. Now, there are grandchildren and greats that I never or seldom see, so in some ways I’m still waiting for the final analysis.
Any mistakes I made in helping my children become who they are were made in ignorance because I didn’t know any better.
I assume that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have to work with, in the absence of other information.
Will make a note of that date of 2024 April 8th May we one and all reach that date full of life ....
Thank you for the kind words regarding Better Half and me. May God protect US all during the coming years .....
HUGS
You’re welcome.
Thank you.
Backatcha!
My mother got Diphtheria and survived because “I didn’t know I was supposed to die.” And my dad survived Typhoid. She had heart problems all her life, and he was deaf in one ear.
Typhoid killed off most of his immediate family, leaving only three sisters and him. The sisters were all left with varying degrees of deafness in both ears.
So COVID-19 isn’t the worst thing to hit this country, but it is the one that gets the most hype.
You’re welcome. Free kittehs for all!
We are in an entirely new communications environment. Nothing in the past ... not a celebrity's breasts, not a disease, not a cute cat ... has ever been hyped the way any of them can be today.
WOW!! Be still my heart!!! There is actual, REAL, bona fide SUNSHINE coming in my living room window!! *GASP* I think I’ve died and gone to heaven!
And, yes, you’re right about the new communications environment. These days, the “news” flashes around the world as soon as it happens.
I think its a disservice to children, and I really do wish that journalists were as honorable and respectable as they were 50 or 60 years ago. Now one has to fight through the filters to find the real, honest news. Thank heaven for Free Republic!
Congrats on the Sunbeam. It’s overcast here, a little dim. Jake decided to nap in the boys’ room.
It’s shaping up to be a beautiful morning, but Admiral Fitzroy’s Storm glass saying more storms are coming. At any rate, I have the front door open about an inch so I can get some really fresh air in here. No breeze, either, for a change!
I assigned exercise to some of the boys who were nagging me about computer games. DP went to Costco. I suppose, if we get a state-mandated lockdown, I’ll feel better about his compulsive shopping.
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