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 ...
Best wishes for a somewhat-holiday Monday. No mail, no library, no bank, but we did get a Wall Street Journal. Vlad and I finished the crossword puzzle promptly.
I think seeing “Midway” Saturday made me appreciate the holiday and what it portrayed even more than I did before.
Thanks to all who served, are serving and will serve. What a legacy to carry forward. :o]
We saw it on Sunday. Very well done!
Yes!
I held my breath through most of it and cried through the rest, as I said!
This morning was pretty much a bust. I got the shelves put in the desk and one was wrong for the place it was supposed to be, so one edge (that shows) is raw instead of finished. *sigh*
I managed to put some stuff on it, but silly me, I had a nap for 90 minutes so everything is delayed. I won’t try again until tomorrow because I ran out of steam after that nap.
Anyway, pretty soon it will be usable, and I can get the futon/sofa together and available to sit on!
I closed my eyes for a lot of the fighting. The motion made me woozy.
The codebreaker lurking in the basement in his bathrobe reminded me of Pat. I’m sure he’ll find his basement someday and make me proud.
Too funny. Have to share.
Especially the last line.
I'm sure he will!
The wind came up so now, all the leaves that were drifting down onto my roof the last few days, and the ones that have been cluttering up my sidewalk are being blown all over the place.
He’s got MY vote!!
Well, maybe it's time for us in the U.S. to consider farcical aquatic ceremonies. I think that would be better than the farce we've been enduring lately.
That was a good one!
ALL excellent posts!!!
I support the farcical aquatic ceremony. Maybe an octopus to the face?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3793167/posts
Off to pick up Pat at school and then go teach Sunday School. I’m leaving James and Vlad in charge of making supper. Hope they don’t die!
Stupid should hurt.
Stupid does hurt. But it's the collateral damage that worries me.
Tagline seen elsewhere:
“It should be fatally painful to stupid that hard.”
I love that actor in Bosch.
Dawww
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