N&PD Moderators: Skorpio | thegreenhand
Absolutely, certainly the case. While anotomically, everyones brain is generally the same, on a microcircuts level, everyones brain is radically different. Yet, a lot of things, simple "animal" states, like vigalence, arousal, etc... are probabley mediated by simple global changes... For example, although not the be all and end all.. histamine (I suspect, and maybe the orrexins/hypocretins) are probably 90% of the wake/sleep story. Recordings of histaminergic neurons are amazaing to see...:ctivation of mu receptors causes a certain change in the user's brain relative to its previous state, but not to a discernable state that is uniform throughout humans
BilZ0r said:^^^^^^ I use that legs-walking analogy for a reason... I don't see how anyone could deny it personally. I've ripped on cognitive scientists before, and I really don't want to offend you specialspack, but I mean, although, no it's not a fact, neither in a philosophical or even scientific sense, I can't see anyone debating it with any grounding in physiology...
have you read "Freedom Evolves" (Daniel Dennett)? This is his thesis - consciousness has evolved in much the same way as other attributes of living things (like legs) -
but let's bring it back to opiates and euphoria...
Slaughterhousefive42 said:Um...I heard the euphoria was specifically caused by opiates binding to the mu receptors, as opposed to the kappa or theta receptors. It's quite possible the opiate binding causes dopamine release though.
* The mu is what most opiates bind to, but others will bind to the kappa as well. Not sure about theta.