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 ...
Good morning. My cats are very grumpy today. Shannon is mad because I went in Tom’s room, where she was sleeping on a large pile of laundry fresh from the dryer, and, in a firm and distinct voice, read him a list of course numbers and titles that he had written. Shannon hates my firm and distinct voice.
Meanwhile, Jake is whining because I haven’t gone to bed with him.
Srsly?
Great, I can’t even ping Laz as I can’t spell the name any more. But I haven’t seen him in forEVer.
Into every life a little sun must shine.
That’s a kitten no?
My orange tabby lurks around somewhere
I fed him horrible smelling pâté last night
He gives the Rottweilers plenty lee though preferring basement and darts to upstairs where it’s sanctuary with the kids
We had a very sneaky and lovable black lab named Chuck. Dogs were not allowed on the bed, yet whenever I awoke, Chuck was curled up asleep in the crook of my elbow. When my husband called me from work and one of his coworkers inquired about me, he got a big kick out of saying, “She’s in bed with Chuck.” :-[
Shannon is an elderly calico. She would hate Rottweilers.
Lazamataz. It's phonetic.. ;-) And he's still alive. Or at least someone is masquerading as him on Facepagething.
In honor of Laz's birthday I posted a thread from my blog. Or at least thought about it. I thought it would be funny to get busted for blogpimping on Laz's birthday..
Then I remembered I don't have a blog to pimp, so a faux blogpimping will have to suffice. ;-)
Fauxblogpimping would be like sending someone a picture of a fruitcake instead of the real thing. They’ll thank you.
It’s funny how pets don’t care whether they’re allowed.
Guidelines are for guide dogs.
Morning Floof doesn’t want to get its feeties wet!
Good morning.
The bed has been made and I’ve done some researching online already, while my mind is somewhat alert.
It looks cold. Kitteh lives Upnorth.
Good morning. Things are moving slowly here.
Kitteh looks like a part is Maine Coon with that floofy coat to protect from the Upnorth cold.
Probably is.
The swans on the river don’t seem to mind. I wonder if they’re far enough north (and east) to belong to HRM Elizabeth?
Vermont, I think. In the next picture, the large waterfowl are flapping across the lake right past the cat, who looks furious.
I have a headache this morning, and it’s not helped by the offspring’s stupid bickering.
“any hope for sanity if I moved to the UK?”
Come over on vacation and have a look. There is always hope.
:)
We have a lot of American ex-pats living over here now. Numbers have grown massively since “his imperial dimness” was on the throne. We have three working where I am.
As for Americans becoming stupider...the problem is affecting the entire western world, just some places more than others. It is not an accident, but that if not really for here.
Good Morning TC
Things have returned to busy around here, which is a good thing. Suddenly things have returned and need to be done yesterday. It would have helped if they had made themselves known yesterday. :)
I sympathize. Maybe it has to do with setting the clocks back.
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