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 luck to Vlad, today! I know he will do very well!
Yesterday, I ended up taking two naps and still slept nine hours. Today may be a duplicate. It’s the only way I can recover from the last week. FULL week!
W00t! to you, in addition to Happy Wednesday!
OK, that doesn’t seem fair. Dropping in every so often and I snag 2400.
Ah, well, life’s not fair, I guess. And I wouldn’t want it to be. I’d want it to be extraordinary.
But if extraordinary were ordinary ...
Nevermind, time to get to work.
Happy Wednesday!
If you never posted here, but swooped in to snag the 000s, then, I think, most of us would be miffed and have a few words to say. But you didn’t do that. You were here yesterday and have been here on an on-going basis, so its all good! :o])
I guess it’s good news for me that my swooper bot doesn’t work.
Indeed!!
:o])
Thank you.
You’re welcome. The best way to enjoy snow, in my opinion, is in a photo with a floofy cat.
Concur!
Hey, y’all.
I second that opinion!
I would have said the best way to enjoy snow is looking through a window from a heated room.
But what about when you have to go to Walmart?
My fluffbutt has no idea what snow is.
She sits, all fluff-like, in the window as she ponders the funny looking stuff that falls from the sky.
She then dismisses it all with a disdainful sniff and goes to inspect the scratching post.
That is precisely what I have said, at least twice, but I called it a poem.
Here's one:
The Cabin Window
No matter how rude the cabin,
The window will face to the scene,
Of Winter’s fresh carpet of glory,
Or Summer’s lush meadow of green.
The window’s a part of the inside,
It makes the insidedness right.
For it shows what you’re trying to keep away,
The storms, and the bumps in the night!
Like a magnet that has both a north and a south,
Our comforts align the same way.
While you stare at your pleasant warm fire,
The window will show the cold day.
For while your feet are in slippers,
As you snuggle down all of your toes,
The window displays the rain and the wind,
As a lullaby helping you doze.
NicknamedBob . . . . . . December 4, 2006
Outside InSounds familiar, eh?
No matter how snug your cabin,
There’s one thing you still must do.
Build it right, and chink it tight,
And always leave a view.
All of our comforts come with a price,
A ball and inevitable chain,
A sense of discomfort you’ve kept away,
As seen through your own windowpane.
The best room is always the one where you live,
And the fireplace makes it so warm,
But you must have a window to see the outside,
As you all snuggle safe from the storm.
NicknamedBob . . . . . . . . March 2, 2005
That’s like a dream sequence, Bob.
“didn’t know it”
Ha! I knew every minute..… and loved it.
Paradise up above?
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