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 youre 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 ...
W00t!
Good morning! Nice snag!
You could spend your whole day doing whatever little kitteh wants.
What a strange little face on that little floof!
Good morning.
Even after that long Nap-Without-A-Cat yesterday, I still slept nine hours last night. Hopefully, it will keep the worst of the relapse away. I hope.
In a while, I’ll unhook everything and move it across the room so I can make this place look like home. Finally. The futon/sofa will be out of the box tomorrow.
I hope all your unhook-and-move works out well. It will be time to get the Young Parties up soon. I went to bed before 9:00, but they were all still up with their dad.
The neighbor with the nasty football on legs just rang my doorbell. She brought me some potty pads for Harley, and I told her I wasn’t the only one who was letting him out, that she had other people to come and give him food and water. I think she thought I was keeping him here. ??
So, at 0400, on a Tuesday in November, I have a new BFF. :o|
Now, its time to go make the bed and then begin the transfer.
:o])
Today is Beaker’s appointment. Blaze called yesterday, and I’m sure he was “reading” from Beaker’s file, but he reminded me to take the food and water away from two hours before I brought “him” in. I had to remind Blaze that it was only the beak, not the wings or talons. NEVER the wings. The talons about every fourth visit.
And just like that, with the visit of my neighbor, the migraine is back. :o[
Oh, dear. I hope it all works out successfully for you and Beaker.
It will be OK. It takes 15 minutes at the vet, and then I can go get gas in the truck and then to Walmart for grocks. Or vice-versa, since the Sinclair station is on the way home.
I hope I get everything done before I have to leave so I can just come home to it!
I need to work on music plans before things get too chaotic here!
Happy Tuesday, everyone.
It has occurred to me that stupid is the natural state of humankind. We work against stupid the way we work against entropy. Right now we seem to be losing.
w00t!
I agree, ArGee. When stupid has no consequences, you get more stupid. We could call the removal of consequences for stupid “meta-stupid.”
Golly. What a job. I seem to have nothing but interruptions this morning, so far, and nothing has made it across the room except those things that don’t need to be plugged in.
Beaker and Gonzo tried to sweet talk me into putting their food and water back into the cage, the clever little darlings.
So some things are moved and others are about to be and one thing is very clear. I need a different TV stand so I have storage for my DVDs. Most of them are in albums, but I had to get one more album, so I could add the others, instead of cluttering up my living space. Which is still, way too small.
Ad-placement algorithms have decided that I need a discount on skimpy undergarments for large ladies. It makes me wonder what teenagers are doing on my computer.
(I buy my sturdy, medium-sized undergarments off the rack at Walmart.)
Thank you for sharing, but the technical response to your statement is, “Too Much Information!”
It’s a sign of the times.
As you wish.
I’ve been occupying myself with thinking about how Elon Musk will solve three problems regarding taking humans to Mars and back.
1) Artificial gravity.
2) Growing food on the trip.
3) Providing power.
Some of these are related, so it makes a pretty puzzle.
To be honest, making sure that the “skydiver maneuver” works for landing the Starship is much more important right now, but I’m just doing some thinking down the road.
It’s what would-be science-fiction writers do. With Musk around, it’s a challenge to stay ahead.
I think the human problems will be equally difficult, as many science-fiction writers have explored, whether or not they covered the technical aspects with anything other than assertion. “The ship flew to Mars, and ...”
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