Vaping, cigarettes or just nicotine in general have had a short term positive influence on my life with dealing with stress and boredom. I’ve been addicted to vaping for the past 3 years and I feel like now I’m just almost angry and anxious all the time, which definitely effects my mood and social interactions. I want to know if anyone has any knowledge, with what parts of the brain are stimulated with nicotine. I’m sure it’s multiple parts of the brain that are highlighted. I think it’s the amygdala. I feel like for me my fight and flight response is out of wack. Because nicotine and other factors of my life have affected my relationships😕 although I’m still kickin and living even tho sometimes I’m emotionally handicapped.
Edit: Thanks for the answers everyone, I realized my wording was incorrect. What I am originally looking for are examples of rapid and massive evolutionary development (compared to body mass) of one of the organ systems (liver, heart, lungs etc) in a species, what additional roles they can take on and how does the organism's experience change with it. In humans for example we have a much bigger brain compared to primates, and eventually the brain has taken on so many roles that we can just use it to obtain food instead of having to gather/hunt like we used to.
Perhaps the most intriguing of Terence McKenna's fascinating theories and observations is his explanation for the origin of the human mind and human culture.
To summarize: McKenna theorizes that as the North African jungles receded toward the end of the most recent ice age, giving way to grasslands, a branch of our tree-dwelling primate ancestors left the branches and took up a life out in the open -- following around herds of ungulates, nibbling what they could along the way.
Among the new items in their diet were psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing in the dung of these ungulate herds. The changes caused by the introduction of this drug to the primate diet were many -- McKenna theorizes, for instance, that synesthesia (the blurring of boundaries between the senses) caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language: the ability to form pictures in another person's mind through the use of vocal sounds.
About 12,000 years ago, further climate changes removed the mushroom from the human diet, resulting in a new set of profound changes in our species as we reverted to pre-mushroomed and frankly brutal primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed by frequent consumption of psilocybin.
McKenna's theory has great appeal and intuitive strength, but it is necessarily based on a great deal of supposition interpolating between the few fragmentary facts we know about hominid and early human history. In addition, because McKenna (who describes himself as "an explorer, not a scientist") is also a proponent of much wilder suppositions, such as his "Timewave Zero" theory, his more reasonable theories are usually disregarded by the very scientists whose informed criticism is crucial for their development.
A video of McKenna lecturing on the Stoned Ape theory
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnEKoFrx1rI
We wonder where human consciousness came from that separates us from other animals. I believe that psychedelic plants definately played a part in our evolution.
I started vaping when I was 16 years old. I quit when I was 18 after I had problems breathing at night when trying to go to bed. It's now been 1 year after I've quit... I'm 19 and nothing feels the same anymore. My creativity, motivation, memory, focus... it's all been garbage since I've quit. Has anyone else had issues like this? Am I the only one? It makes me want to pick it back up again simply because this isn't enjoyable for me living like this. Or does anyone have any ideas what I could do?
By any analysis this part of the world is heavily affected. Some of the worst offenders:
- sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis), 2) Leishmaniasis (sand flies) 3) elephantiasis (Lymphatic filariasis), 4) malaria, 5) river blindness (Onchocerciasis), and 6) snail fever (Schistosomiasis, Bilharzia)
This question has significant anthropological and historical components, but also seems to have a pure science side: How could human populations thrive under the continued burden of such a large number of deleterious agents?
How much partial immunity could evolve over time (for some of them)? My understanding is that significant areas of Sub-Saharan Africa are affected by 4 or more of these agents.
Additional problems include: 1) leprosy, 2) guinea worm 3) yellow fever 4) Lassa fever 5) ebola and 6) cholera.
Note: I recommend watching the video. It's very entertaining and has some cool facts.
I've watched this video [Link] recently and I could confirm that it's very real. As a child I had lots of domestic violence for being noisy or doing something inappropriate. As far as I am concerned one of the main effects is that I cannot trust people that easily, I have harder time developing relationships and friendships - although I am getting better - but I've always felt that it isn't one of my best skills. It feels very frustrating to know that your early-childhood could affect your life this much.
Q: How was your childhood environment, and do you think it has affected you in a negative way, if so then how?
