I was about to go to bed when the daily email came in from Delancey Place and, after the recent riff on medicinal acid, I figured the coincidence warranted running this bit on dopamine, it being the source of so much that is dear to me.
"The importance of dopamine was discovered by accident. In 1954, James Olds and Peter Milner, two neuroscientists at McGill University, decided to implant an electrode deep into the center of a rat's brain. The precise placement of the electrode was largely happenstance; at the time, the geography of the mind remained a mystery. But Olds and Milner got lucky. They inserted the needle right next to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a part of the brain that generates pleasurable feelings. Whenever you eat a piece of chocolate cake, or listen to a favorite pop song, or watch your favorite team win the World Series, it is your NAcc that helps you feel so happy. "But Olds and Milner quickly discovered that too much pleasure can be fatal. They placed the electrodes in several rodents' brains and then ran a small current into each wire, making the NAccs continually excited. The scientists noticed that the rodents lost interest in everything. They stopped eating and drinking. All courtship behavior ceased. The rats would just huddle in the corners of their cages, transfixed by their bliss. Within days, all of the animals had perished. They died of thirst."It took several decades of painstaking research, but neuroscientists eventually discovered that the rats had been suffering from an excess of dopamine. The stimulation of the NAcc triggered a massive release of the neurotransmitter, which overwhelmed the rodents with ecstasy. In humans, addictive drugs work the same way: a crack addict who has just gotten a fix is no different than a rat in an electrical rapture. The brains of both creatures have been blinded by pleasure. This, then, became the dopaminergic cliché; it was the chemical explanation for sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Click here to learn more about Delancey Place
The secret word is Bliss
"The importance of dopamine was discovered by accident. In 1954, James Olds and Peter Milner, two neuroscientists at McGill University, decided to implant an electrode deep into the center of a rat's brain. The precise placement of the electrode was largely happenstance; at the time, the geography of the mind remained a mystery. But Olds and Milner got lucky. They inserted the needle right next to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a part of the brain that generates pleasurable feelings. Whenever you eat a piece of chocolate cake, or listen to a favorite pop song, or watch your favorite team win the World Series, it is your NAcc that helps you feel so happy. "But Olds and Milner quickly discovered that too much pleasure can be fatal. They placed the electrodes in several rodents' brains and then ran a small current into each wire, making the NAccs continually excited. The scientists noticed that the rodents lost interest in everything. They stopped eating and drinking. All courtship behavior ceased. The rats would just huddle in the corners of their cages, transfixed by their bliss. Within days, all of the animals had perished. They died of thirst."It took several decades of painstaking research, but neuroscientists eventually discovered that the rats had been suffering from an excess of dopamine. The stimulation of the NAcc triggered a massive release of the neurotransmitter, which overwhelmed the rodents with ecstasy. In humans, addictive drugs work the same way: a crack addict who has just gotten a fix is no different than a rat in an electrical rapture. The brains of both creatures have been blinded by pleasure. This, then, became the dopaminergic cliché; it was the chemical explanation for sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Click here to learn more about Delancey Place
The secret word is Bliss
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7 comments:
Oh and whilst I'm leaving you unrelated links in your comments Mick*, I was re-reading Necrom the other day (frakking great book btw, thanks).
There's a real-life (ostensible) dimension swap story here: http://www.ghostwoods.com/2009/07/infinite-worlds-162/
I know it's not a joke, because I was there...
Strangest damn experience of my life. So far.
Tim.
* Is there somewhere better to drop you a link?
I watched a show on the history channel about mind control where some guy claimed that the E.L.F. wave @ 7.83 hertz would make people feel good...
Sounds attractive & I'd like to experiment with it, but I'm going to have to do a lot more research about it first. Ultimately, presuming it is safe & manageable, I'd like a portable device to broadcast the frequency resonance, keep it in my pocket & make people feel good everywhere I go.
"Whole lotta things I've never done/I ain't never had too much fun."
----- Commander Cody
Geeze, shades of Ringworld Engineers, hey? Y'all remember the 'tasps' and Louis Wu and all?
A little like the dark-ass population control plan in The Feelies, actually.
I heard the ravers were experimenting with them back in the nineties, but I never saw one...(the resonance frequency/area of effect kind of course, not the backalley trepination/9-volt to the medulla kind, more is the pity)
A bit of a synchronicity for me as well, consdering I find myselfreading it at the end of a brief but paralyzingly intense dissolution ;P All Hail Discord, and to all a good night
McGill (in the fair city of Montreal In which I reside) was an interesting place in those days: Dr Ewen Cameron was busy experimenting with acid (amongst other things) on unsuspecting patients, under the CIA auspices of MK-ULTRA.
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