One of my classes this semester covers the topic of biological psychology. Today, we talk about drugs, following last weeks lecture on synapses. Questions have been encouraged. I'm going to focus mainly on mushrooms, my hallucinogen of choice. I feel like I've learned from the internet and textbooks everything I can about how they function in the brain, and I've taken two trips within the past two weeks to make some weird last minute sense out of all that info. I'm loaded with curiosity and ready to ask questions when class time hits this afternoon. Are there any questions that any of you blades would like me to ask? Anything you've been dying to know? EDIT: So, we talked only about stimulants and opiates today. Marijuana and psychedelics will come on Thursday, so there's still some time if anyone wants to throw down a question. If you don't understand how any of this works, just ask up. When I write up my longer more informative post, I'll answer the more basic questions as best as I can. You are all people, you all function in just about the same way, and you all do drugs. I bet most of you haven't got much more than the slightest inkling of how it all fits together... Couldn't hurt to find out???
Damn. And there I was thinking that we had a whole forum full of smart, curious, open minded stoners. How could I be such a fool...
Why does it burn when I pee? But seriously, what kind of things does a Biological Psychologist do? Do you talk to plants and make them feel better? Do you charge them by the hour?
It's all good man. Just an interesting observation that a thread about "fuck nickelback and creed" will get 9 responses in 1 hour and in twice that time not one curious mind thought of a question like... "why is it that smoking pot makes me feel good?" "why is it that eating shrooms amplifies all your sensations and makes your mind race in a million directions at once?" Let alone anything like "Ok so I know that psilocin is a partial antagonist of the serotonin 5-HT2a receptors and these receptors are abundant in the cortex, but how is it that this makes us feel like we are connected and whole with the universe?"
Biological psychology is where you dig down to the biological roots of whatever problem it is you want to understand. So think neurons and the brain and the nervous system and hormones and neurotransmitters... That's biological psychology.
To all you young and impressionable blades out there (much like myself)... Even if you know fuck all about biology or your brain, please realize that there is a whole world out there waiting to be understood. You have the choice to sit on youtube for hours watching funny videos or you could go to TED and watch videos full of all sorts of stimulating information that could inspire you to move your life in a completely different direction. All that shit about time is precious...
I don't have any questions right off the top of my head, but thanks for sharing that link! I checked out TED and it has some really interesting stuff.
TED is great. When you're on the internet and you don't know what the fuck you're doing, just go to TED and pick a video. Guilt free and time consuming. Anyway--- Off to class. I'll post back later in the appropriate science and nature forum o' the many great things I have learned in an easy to digest and interesting manner and link to it from here.
As the most frequent poster in this thread, I reserve the right to bump it so that everyone can read that blue piece I edited into my original post.
Damn I just found this thread now..... Why is it that when I get high I can look at all of my problems differently? And will usually be able to solve them just because I thought about them while high. Like... an example would be Francis Crick discovering the structure of DNA while on acid. How do such amazing realizations come to our heads when we are on acid, weed or shrooms? Why do so many people's outlooks on life change after experiencing acid, shrooms or maryjane? I don't know if those are the questions you are looking for. But either way, I think they are good questions to ask.
I'd be interested, OP, in hearing what your professor says about the way shrooms work neurologically. Back in my undergrad years I took a class called "neurobiology of drugs" and it was (it still is, I believe) generally accepted that we don't know exactly how psilocybin causes the effects that it does, other than being structurally similar to serotonin.
I'd like to hear something about physical drug addiction, maybe the brain chemistry involved in the addictive properties of stimulants like cocaine and opiates, and those sorts of drugs. Also, how do shrooms produce visual hallucinations? Obviously its an effect of psilocybin on your brain, but i've been wondering about the specifics. Great thread by the way man, always awesome to learn something while surfing the city.
Really... Fuck Nickelback and Creed You seem like an insightful member of this site and I'm waiting to gain actual rep so I can send a bar over... This is perfect, I was thinking of what to take, gotta' see if I can switch to such a class if it's offered... Instead of a Q&A type thread, sprawled out among pages and pages you should create one insightful and information packed thread full of some of the interesting things you learned in this class, I'd love for you to share some information opposed to me asking, thread's kinda vague, if you feel me... Just an idea Oo... That'd be an awsome read. Also, my question was going to be just like the one above, about the receptors affected during the use of Psychedellics and the visuals involved, how?
You might be interested in taking a look at this, OneLove. Mouse Party One of my neurobiology professors helped create that site. Pretty interesting and fun to play around with.
I've heard that marijuana slows, like, synapses and neurotransmitters firing in your brain and whatnot. Is that true? Does that actually mean anything? We have THC receptors in our brain, right? I've read that it's thought those are connected with appetite and hunger. Is that true? DMT is released by our brains during certain intense experiences. How does taking DMT as a drug relate to the experience of DMT being released naturally? More intense? A different kind of experience all together? So do our brains have some sort of Psilocybin receptors? What function would they have?