Posted by zeugma on February 8, 2004, at 15:58:13
In reply to Re: Antidepressants and Music Centers in the Brain, posted by linkadge on February 8, 2004, at 14:08:59
> I am the same way. When I am depressed I wonder why I even have these CD's lying around, or why I waised 10 years of my life learning to play the piano.
>
> Even though dopamine might be the commander of the music pleasure, I think norepinephrine is involved. I read a paper about it. It had to do with musicians using beta blockers to tame down nervous hands and hearts. The paper was questioning in detail how modification of the norepinephrine system might change performance.
>
> Norephinephrine is heavely involved in selective attention. Being able to focus on one instrument or voice and tune the others out.
>
> LinkadgeThis is why a selective NE reuptake inhibitor like strattera is able to treat ADHD. My natural tendency is to become distracted by every passing thought, (I am severely inattentive rather than hyperactive, and I believe inattentives are more distracted by internal than by external stimuli- hence the "staring out the window daydreaming" syndrome). Even today, having lunch with a friend, I found I was listening to her only intermittently. I had to pull myself back from wherever I was mentally to follow what she was saying. Unmedicated, I can't do that at all; I have no control over my attention at all.
I'm still very inattentive, but the inattention is closer to the normal range, since I can pull myself back to where I am, where before i couldn't. Objectively, this has been proven by the fact that i now have a job that requires periods of sustained attention, and before I started taking Strattera I could barely hold a job that was completely undemanding.
poster:zeugma
thread:310374
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040204/msgs/310974.html