Neurotic and uncool, but I got a cute rabbit.

“I do lifesaving training every weekend. Sometimes we have races where we have to paddle out to buoys in the middle of the ocean. There was one really tough race a few weeks ago. The ocean was messy like today but the waves were even bigger. And there were lots of bluebottles. Those are like Jellyfish but worse. My dad said that I didn’t have to race, and half of the competitors dropped out, but I chose to do it anyway because I wanted to prove that I could be a lifeguard. On the outside I was ready to go but on the inside I was really nervous. Once the race started, some of the girls turned back because the waves were so big, and others were nose-diving and falling off their boards. But I made it all the way to the end and got fourth place. Everyone was congratulating me because fourth place is huge for me.”

How do we know if it was worth the wait in line to get a meal at the new restaurant in town? To do this our brain must be able to signal how good the meal tastes and associate this feeling with the restaurant. This is done by a small group of cells deep in the brain that release the chemical dopamine. The amount of dopamine released by these cells can influence our decisions by telling us how good a reward will be in the future. For example, more dopamine is released to the smell of a cake baking relative to the smell of leftovers. But does waiting change how dopamine is released?

A new study in Cell Reports by Matthew Wanat, assistant professor of biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), sheds light on how dopamine cells in the brain signal the passage of time. Wanat’s study used a technique called voltammetry to record dopamine release in rodents trained using Pavlovian conditioning. This task used two different tones that both predicted the delivery of a food reward. One tone was presented only after a short wait while the other tone was presented only after a long wait. Wanat and colleagues found that more dopamine was released to the short wait tone. These results highlight that when dopamine neurons respond to cues, faster is better.

“The big question that we’re focusing on is to identify the brain signals that influence the decisions we make,” Wanat said. “Many decisions are based upon comparing the value between cues associated with different rewards. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that these dopamine signals and external cues provide useful value-related signals that could inform our decisions to engage in a behavior.”  

While Wanat and his collaborators are interested in studying how dopamine release is involved with cues triggering behavior, their work could also inform the understanding of drug addiction, which is closely intertwined with dopamine. Drug addiction can “hijack” the brain regions where dopamine is released. “By figuring out how the dopamine system works in normal and abnormal circumstances, we could potentially identify important changes and the ways that could target the dopamine system to rectify the consequences of those behaviors,” Wanat said.

“A lot has been said about the role of dopamine in reward, but reward is only really important in the context of making choices. Dr. Wanat’s experiments allow direct measurement of dopamine acting in the brain during the process of choosing, and reveals how the brain decides the values of our choices,” said Charles Wilson, Ewing Halsell Distinguished Chair in Biology.

Wanat’s overarching research focuses on the brain’s relationships with memory, stress and drug addiction and how those components interact with each other. He is a member of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute, a multidisciplinary research organization for integrated brain studies with the mission to foster a collaborative community of scientists committed to studying the biological basis of human experience and behavior and the origin and treatment of nervous system diseases.

These photos were taken around one year apart.  One year.

Can you imagine living your life without teeth?

https://www.gofundme.com/toothless-and-desperate

Have a brief example of what you’d experience:

- Unable to eat properly, your health and physical well-being suffers significantly and this shortens your life over time.  If you’re like me and have weak jaws, you’ll likely not be able to chew well; you’re going to be swallowing lumps of things, which is uncomfortable, gross, and unhealthy.

-Eating can be very painful, to the point you’re going to be eating soup, mashed potatoes, or cream of wheat for at least a few meals.

-Self-confidence tanks, and so can your mental health; this has really f*cked me up, leaving me intensely depressed to the point where I’ve pretty much cried for entire days, not to mention trying to adjust to this nightmare that has become my life.

- Dentures generally need to be pasted into your mouth (the paste doesn’t usually last that well, and isn’t a fix-all.  It also tastes pretty foul.) and tend to cause anything from mild discomfort to bad pain.

- You don’t get to eat anything sticky, chewy, etc.; no more toffee, gum, unprocessed meat, salad (yes, even things like lettuce and spinach are VERY difficult to eat.  And, forget fresh fruit and veggies.  Too firm,

- No biting with your front teeth.  

- There is no real ‘resting place’ for your lower jaw - it’s uncomfortable and even painful to have your gums pressed together, and letting your lower jaw relax and ‘hang’ is almost as bad.

- Have you heard someone speak without teeth?  You’re liable to repeat things A LOT and feel self-conscious and stupid.

-People will shun you, or give you repulsed looks.

-Try looking for work when you look like I do, all gums and no teeth.  No way you’re getting an interview or a call back.

https://www.gofundme.com/toothless-and-desperate

Not to mention that your JAWS SHRINK and make it even more difficult to eat/speak and are prone to FRACTURING.

That’s why I am on my knees, begging and praying for the donations I so desperately need to replace my teeth with implants.

Implants act like REAL TEETH and I could eat/speak as before and my jaws would stop shrinking.  But, I live in poverty and am disabled.  I can’t afford it alone.  I’m scared this is going to be the end of me.

I’m grateful beyond words to everyone who’s donated, sent kind words, and/or spread the word so far! It means so much to me.

What he didn’t know is that I had a key to his room.

So, on the evening of April 1, I unlocked his door, left it barely ajar, and did absolutely nothing else.

When my roommate got back that night, I heard him go to his door, say “oh no” in a horrified way, and carefully enter his room.

He then spent a good hour searching his room (fruitlessly, obvs) for pranks.

“Thank you for this incredibly stressful 30 minutes that I have had to re-structure my entire day around and which will give me anxiety poos for the next 24 hours.”

I didn’t get the job.

However, a few weeks later, I was called in to interview with another editor in the same company, and I did get that job. I found out later from the initial editor (the one who didn’t hire me) that he had planned to offer me the job, but since I didn’t follow up with a thank you letter, he assumed I didn’t really want it. He offered the job to another contender–but when he got my letter in the mail shortly after the offer had already been made, he went to HR and gave me a glowing recommendation. It was based on that recommendation that I got called in for the second interview.

So: send an email thank you immediately (same day!) after the interview. If you’re feeling extra, go ahead and send a written one too. OR go immediately to a coffee shop, write the letter, and return to the office and give it to the secretary.