The Striatal Loop (The Minotaur)

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
In the dim lab at University of Chicago, 1936,
Heinrich Klüver, 39, leans over the stereotaxic frame.
Steel needles poised at 18 degrees Celsius,
calibrated dials turning like Theseus's thread.
You, Minotaur, trapped in the striatal loop,
reward circuits firing in endless chase.
The basal ganglia's maze, dopamine walls closing in.

[Chorus]
Oh, my beast in the circuit,
looping through the ventral striatum,
obsession's grip like Klüver's monkeys,
reaching for shadows as mates.
Formaldehyde bite in the air,
cold metal under my fingers,
your grunt echoes in the cage of habit.

[Verse 2]
Paul Bucy notes the behaviors, late evening, 10 PM,
EEG rolls scratching jagged waves.
Your horns scrape the nucleus accumbens,
seeking the exit that twists back on itself.
In this room of black coffee and cold sandwiches,
musk of subjects lingers, a psychic disturbance.
Temporal lesions birth your rage, uncredited assistants
whisper in the gaps of the record.

[Chorus]
Oh, my beast in the circuit,
looping through the ventral striatum,
obsession's grip like Klüver's monkeys,
reaching for shadows as mates.
Formaldehyde bite in the air,
cold metal under my fingers,
your grunt echoes in the cage of habit.

[Bridge]
What if we lesion the loop, cut the thread?
Nemesis of the striatum, entropy's pull.
But you persist, Minotaur, in the anomaly,
unrecorded ethics heavy as the apparatus.

[Outro]
In this chill, 64 Fahrenheit,
I address you, my looped love,
endless, improbable glow.