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Insulin is also used in narcoanalysis

neversickanymore

neversickanymore

Moderator: DS
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babysitting the argument in my head
I came across this and found it really interesting. Im not sure Im buying into the resultant sugar level being the cause. Does any one have any alternate theories as to how insulins may work to produce this..

Insulin is also used in narcoanalysis to reduce an individual's self-control over one's thoughts and cause him to reveal the thoughts or memories which he would otherwise have suppressed.[4] The central nervous system has an absolute requirement for glucose. A reduction in blood glucose level causes a decrease in all the higher mental functions. Narcoanalysis uses this principle to reduce the higher mental control on the thoughts or memories. This would cause the subject to reveal the required information which he might not have disclosed ordinarily. It is useful for psychiatric and forensic purposes. The legal status of narcoanalysis is still debatable.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354952/

I would assume that sugar use in the brain, if it is individually delegated, would go from the most recently developed portions of the brain down to the ancient basic life sustaining portions. So if this was the case the PFC may be the first to be sugar restricted and thus could loose a degree of power and this could result this phenomenon.. just thinking out loud.. so I guess any thoughts on any thoughts, info, wisdom or links on any of this would be great.
 
I came across this and found it really interesting. Im not sure Im buying into the resultant sugar level being the cause.
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Ever seen someone who gets more irritable when they haven't eaten recently? Low blood sugar can definitely change your mental state. There's even a term for this, "hangry".

I don't think people use insulin shock any more because excessively high levels of unopposed insulin will result in hypoglycemia and eventually stuff like coma and tissue death.

The citation there leads to a free article from 1954 about some doctor who talks about his usage of amobarbital and "dilute alcohol" (basically wine or mixed drinks) to extract confessions. He provides a bunch of anecdotes that wouldn't stand today. He even uncovers a crime driven by latent homosexuality!
 
In thinking about this though I would love to see a study done one impulse control and blood sugar levels.. huhh.. it would need to be done with a reward that did not involve caloric or sugar intake though... but even thinking on this brings up possible interesting correlations.

Cheap easy study here though.
 
When I started fasting I was surprised to see how much better I feel after not eating for 20 hours

I find the irritability is from perceived hunger and not blood sugar levels themselves, although I do know people that do get cranky when they haven't eaten any sugar for a while.

Your body can survive so long without eating.. to actually be at dangerous glucose levels would take months to years of total starvation.

This is relevant
 
Thanks sekio, nice find.

What do you think would happen if they tested type one diabetics who's sugars are targeted to be between 70 and 130 mg/dL. Many diabetics blood sugar can regularly reach 300 mg/dL and sometimes above. I wonder what difference, if any, we would see in self-control at these levels?

Findings from a study in the February Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 9, No. 2) suggest that relatively small acts of self-control--passing up a cookie, stifling prejudice, controlling attention, even helping people--significantly reduce the body's blood glucose level, leading to poor self-control on subsequent tasks.
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I wonder what would happen if they weren't required to resist and instead were required to try and obtain the same goal, but it was a significant challenge.. then another good variance would be to see what happend to the BS level of three different groups. One would be allowed to eventually earn the reward. Two would not and then we could split the two who were prevented by watching what happened when some hope for the reward remained for one group while the other was extinguished.

My prediction would be elevated blood sugar while actively seeking to up when achieved and then returning to normal for the successful group. Elevated to remain elevated for the group that tried and still had a chance. And elevated to lowered for the group that was made to fail.
 
In many type 1 diabetics, hyperglycemia invokes feelings of lethargy and sickness, in extreme cases it can lead to altered perception, however the later is most likely with hypoglycemia. During periods of hypoglycemia type one patients can lose awareness of where they are and often become agitated even violent. Self control goes out the window when blood sugar dips below anywhere from 100-70 depending on the person.
 
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