Diokine
Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2016
- Messages
- 624
I've noted some interesting things over the past few months, and I wanted to write my thoughts down and share them.
I had noticed that my sense of smell seemed to change depending on the state of my health. Days with bad sleep seemed to diminish smell. Certain drugs and foods would effect my sense of smell. I started to pay attention to the area behind my nose, where the business of smelling seems to happen. It was easy to notice that some things really changed this feeling, in particular boiled juices from things like parsley and cilantro. I'll notice a change before a bowel movement, or when I go outside for example.
So I looked at the olfactory system, it's quite incredible and I recommend reading a little on it. The point was that the olfactory system is constantly remodeling, and in someone with depression for instance there are morphological differences than in someone not depressed. Similarly, if the olfactory bulb is removed, the animal will become depressed.
Then I was noticing the connection between my eyes and my nose. Or, how the feeling behind my noise correlated with my visual attention span. I think the rate with which we move our eyes and scan the environment is direct feedback into the state of our nerves and also our pace of thought. And so when I was smelling well, my gaze was direct and it was easier to focus on something.
It's very interesting, with enough attention before long I was breathing through the nose very instinctually, with short in and out breaths, like sniffing. The movement of air through your nasal passages creates very complex nervous signals and helps to modulate your state of perception. Deep, relaxed breathing is very comforting.
____
Then there is a connection with dopamine, serotonin, prolactin, etc.,. I've been working to make my life interesting, I'm a novelty seeker in general so I've had to learn ways to work with my brain to be more effective. I experimented with several types of dopamine agonists and serotonin antagonists, and also an experiment in poisoning myself with tobacco smoke for a few months. These experiments gave me a really rough idea of how the motivation system works in the brain, the feeling when things are right, when they're wrong, and how these things effect my sense of well being.
I was noticing the changes in blood flow to my brain, after things like meals or after being outside for 15 minutes. I became aware of the very subtle sensation that comes with temporary vascular changes in the brain, or bigger ones that lead to something like headache. These changes in blood flow always lead to a change in the "tension" of eye movement. Dopamine agonists had a pretty profound effect here, along with a slightly loopy or dizzy feeling. They also changed the way my body was using thyroid, and caused some changes in my thyroid gland itself it felt like.
I had noticed that my sense of smell seemed to change depending on the state of my health. Days with bad sleep seemed to diminish smell. Certain drugs and foods would effect my sense of smell. I started to pay attention to the area behind my nose, where the business of smelling seems to happen. It was easy to notice that some things really changed this feeling, in particular boiled juices from things like parsley and cilantro. I'll notice a change before a bowel movement, or when I go outside for example.
So I looked at the olfactory system, it's quite incredible and I recommend reading a little on it. The point was that the olfactory system is constantly remodeling, and in someone with depression for instance there are morphological differences than in someone not depressed. Similarly, if the olfactory bulb is removed, the animal will become depressed.
Then I was noticing the connection between my eyes and my nose. Or, how the feeling behind my noise correlated with my visual attention span. I think the rate with which we move our eyes and scan the environment is direct feedback into the state of our nerves and also our pace of thought. And so when I was smelling well, my gaze was direct and it was easier to focus on something.
It's very interesting, with enough attention before long I was breathing through the nose very instinctually, with short in and out breaths, like sniffing. The movement of air through your nasal passages creates very complex nervous signals and helps to modulate your state of perception. Deep, relaxed breathing is very comforting.
____
Then there is a connection with dopamine, serotonin, prolactin, etc.,. I've been working to make my life interesting, I'm a novelty seeker in general so I've had to learn ways to work with my brain to be more effective. I experimented with several types of dopamine agonists and serotonin antagonists, and also an experiment in poisoning myself with tobacco smoke for a few months. These experiments gave me a really rough idea of how the motivation system works in the brain, the feeling when things are right, when they're wrong, and how these things effect my sense of well being.
I was noticing the changes in blood flow to my brain, after things like meals or after being outside for 15 minutes. I became aware of the very subtle sensation that comes with temporary vascular changes in the brain, or bigger ones that lead to something like headache. These changes in blood flow always lead to a change in the "tension" of eye movement. Dopamine agonists had a pretty profound effect here, along with a slightly loopy or dizzy feeling. They also changed the way my body was using thyroid, and caused some changes in my thyroid gland itself it felt like.
