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There's a good chance you hallucinated this week without ever knowing it
Inverse ^ | October 11, 2019 | By Jack Barton on

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 ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: dontreadthetag; dopamine; hallucinations; hearingvoices; jayaubreyjones; koalaoil; laurel; molassesmaiasma; monkeyfacerules; pangolin; penguinhumor; psychosis; schizophrenia; undeadthread; undeadthreadhere; unghandmoose; yanni; yannilaurel; yourbrainondrugs
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To: Tax-chick; fanfan; ColdOne; Cyber Liberty; null and void; Anoreth; Monkey Face; ...

Kitteh says, "It won't be winter forever!"

881 posted on 11/20/2019 2:17:24 AM PST by Tax-chick (Tomado de la mano, yo voy con Cristo a donde El va!)
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To: Tax-chick; Monkey Face

In aid of helping the Certain Young Adult get an idea of reality, I’ve just been looking at the websites of local apartment complexes. A 1-br at the complex up the road, where Mariah from my choir lives, is $1,500/mo. An efficiency on the near side of Monroe is $725/mo.

She’s going to need to be promoted to management, get a roommate, or both!


882 posted on 11/20/2019 2:40:22 AM PST by Tax-chick (Tomado de la mano, yo voy con Cristo a donde El va!)
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To: Tax-chick

Kitteh is looking for sumpin’ to attack with vigah!

Good morning.

It started to rain about 2100 last night, (accompanied by some sound and light special effects) and has been raining ever since. Flash flood warnings in parts of NV, UT and AZ. No doubt the newcomers will have problems learning how to drive when the rain falls in the desert. SOS. ;o]

I had the strangest urge last night, when I heard the rain hitting the swamp cooler housing, to just get in the car and drive...

Two things stopped me. People were still trying to get home from wherever, and I didn’t want to wake up enough to actually drive!


883 posted on 11/20/2019 2:59:17 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Tax-chick

Wow. That’s discouraging. I hope there is some inspiration for Another Alternative. Like moving in with roomies who are looking for a new body to share expenses.

Perhaps there is something in the want ads in the Nifty Nickel or Dandy Dime or Thrifty Tenner.


884 posted on 11/20/2019 3:08:19 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Monkey Face

I’m sure there are lower rents available. This was just what I would consider a decent place in the immediate area. I know some Mexican families who would welcome a few hundred a month from a boarder, but most of them have their own teenaged disasters to deal with, so it wouldn’t be fair to them!


885 posted on 11/20/2019 4:27:23 AM PST by Tax-chick (Tomado de la mano, yo voy con Cristo a donde El va!)
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To: Tax-chick

Yes, the probably with a teenaged disaster is that its contagious to other teens and hazardous to the adults.


886 posted on 11/20/2019 5:03:52 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Tax-chick; ArGee; NicknamedBob; NoCmpromiz; Darksheare; moose07; Not A Snowbird; LibreOuMort; ...

OK, Undeaders. ‘Face has some news.

My oldest grandson has decided that he doesn’t like being a civilian so he is going to enlist in the navy. He was in the army before, and spent a year in Afghanistan, and has decided that the army is not what he wants. His wife agrees. So I think Friday is the day. I’ll let y’all know when it happens.


887 posted on 11/20/2019 5:15:49 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Monkey Face

He does NOT like living in Oregon!


888 posted on 11/20/2019 5:16:38 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Monkey Face

889 posted on 11/20/2019 6:12:44 AM PST by ArGee (Excellence or diversity? Ask for diversity, you get diversity. Ask for excellence, you get both.)
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To: Tax-chick; Monkey Face; NicknamedBob; NoCmpromiz; null and void; no-to-illegals; Silentgypsy; ...

Good morning. Happy Humph Day!

This morning started with me dropping my phone (again) and cracking the screen. Can I declare today a bust and start again tomorrow?


890 posted on 11/20/2019 6:14:06 AM PST by ArGee (Excellence or diversity? Ask for diversity, you get diversity. Ask for excellence, you get both.)
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To: ArGee

Absolutely! That would just result in you have an extra Monday, again...


891 posted on 11/20/2019 6:16:22 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Monkey Face; NicknamedBob; NoCmpromiz; Darksheare; Tax-chick

Will wonders never cease! I guess there are some small benefits to a liberal US State.

For reasons I won’t go into now, we decided to register the car we had been storing in the wildlands of PA for the past 5 years. Since we weren’t driving it, I let the registration lapse.

PA won’t let me register it there without a PA ID with a PA address on it. I’m not sure I want to get a PA Driver’s License since I plan to move back to NYS very soon.

So I called the NYS DMV to find out if I need a NYS address to register the car there. The official answer is “no.” To verify, I just went online and updated the address for the car that had been registered in NY and was up for renewal. Then I renewed the registration on that car. $52 later, it’s all done.

Mrs. ArGee was the one that asked if I could be an illegal alien in NY I should be able to register a PA car in NY. And she was right.

Who knew I would be glad one day.


892 posted on 11/20/2019 8:19:56 AM PST by ArGee (Excellence or diversity? Ask for diversity, you get diversity. Ask for excellence, you get both.)
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To: Tax-chick

Thank you.


893 posted on 11/20/2019 8:24:36 AM PST by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: ArGee; Tax-chick; Monkey Face; NoCmpromiz; Darksheare; NicknamedBob; no-to-illegals; Covenantor; ...

Hey, y’all.


894 posted on 11/20/2019 8:36:41 AM PST by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Darksheare

Fingerlings and depredations


895 posted on 11/20/2019 8:38:40 AM PST by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Monkey Face

Prayers up that it’s the correct decision for them.


896 posted on 11/20/2019 8:41:49 AM PST by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: ArGee
They asked the respondents to use animals or vehicles to describe both political parties.

GOP was described as: Lion, Bear, Boar, Sloth, Snake, Mercedes

Dems were described as: Monkey, Sheep, Unicorn, Jackal, Turtle, Groundhog


897 posted on 11/20/2019 9:28:13 AM PST by ArGee (Excellence or diversity? Ask for diversity, you get diversity. Ask for excellence, you get both.)
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To: Silentgypsy

If it isn’t the right decision, they won’t know until its too late. But they both like military life (with a military family of a whole buncha years) and I can see nothing to stop them. He’s had some college since then, so I suspect he won’t have to be an EM.


898 posted on 11/20/2019 9:31:42 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: ArGee

Hobbes always has my vote, and Calvin is incidental.


899 posted on 11/20/2019 9:32:48 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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To: Monkey Face

Toss up as to who’s the funniest!


900 posted on 11/20/2019 9:33:09 AM PST by Monkey Face (They say each piece of chocolate you eat shortens your life by 2 minutes. I died in 1543.~~FB)
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