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 ...
Hey, y’all.
This disproves the contention that all the lunatics in the world are in Memphis.
I thought they were all in Congress.
After three calls to get results, I’ve finally learned the bone isn’t broken. The bruising has subsided quite a bit, and I’m happy to say, it was most likely due to me taking D3 tablets. Of course, the thing is still painful and still swollen, but I’m happy my bones are still strong. :o]
Excellent news!
Yessim! It is!
Now, I’m going to go get parallel to the deck and hope reveille doesn’t come too soon.
Have a good night!
I hope it works out great for you!
'Face, with all appropriate respect I consider you my perhaps unwilling guide through the minefield.
Maybe it will help if we pretend that I've got your back.
Older people have much to teach us ... willy-nilly.
A most interesting post number. The symmetry must mean something.
The earth revolves around the sun?
What goes up must come down?
Round things roll downhill.
If you’ve got my back, Bob, then that makes me spineless* and that will never do. Start taking D3 and your bone density will surprise the medicos! (Forget about it if the doc tells you to take Fosamax. That stuff will kill you.) :o])
*I do appreciated that we can pretend you’ve got my back. Unwilling or not, a Guide it is that I am. It helps to know that someone is watching out for me.
I had a 90-minute nap yesterday morning, so I wasn’t sure I would sleep well last night, but I did. Nine hours worth. I think I wake up because I get cold when the mattress pad shuts off. I also think I will try an experiment...wait until I shut the light off to re-set the mattress pad. I hate being cold!!
I could have stayed in bed, but I was having a dream that was a mash-up of every single event and annoyance from the past three days, going on into the next two weeks. Missing music pages, the number of chairs for Thanksgiving, different meetings scheduled on the same day, CATS.
Wow. Morning Floof has eyes almost the same color as the patches on his coat. How sweet!
Good morning.
I’m up late or you’re up early. Was Jake not available for Sleepy Things during the night? Do you have Excursions today?
I have to go to Walmart. The last time I went, I bought some water and when I checked over the receipt, I saw that they didn’t charge me for it. So I have to go pay them. The same thing happened with a small book I ordered. It was so late in coming that I asked for a refund and it showed up the same day, so I need to try and repay them for that. It was only $5+ but still...
Oh, I HATE when I do that! It's like you're not really asleep but half-awake and it's very tiring!
I figure there’s an equilibrium between the times we’re overcharged and the times we’re undercharged.
Up at 5:00 as usual. I need to make some food for today’s event, the Spanish Advent retreat. The one for which I’ve lost my pages. Maybe they’re at church: I found one of our notebooks there last night when I was setting up microphones.
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