This weeks topic is about schizophrenia. We all kinda have an idea about what schizophrenia is however it is categorized as having a split between the emotional and intellectual aspects of experience. Now while much about why this disorder occurs is still being hypothesized and tested there exists evidence that prenatal and neonatal influences have an effect regarding the development of schizophrenia later on in life.
What I found interesting was the Rh factor, if a baby has a different Rh factor than hers/his mother they have twice the higher chance of developing schizo. However it wont affect the first child since the mothers body hasn't produced antibodies. The second child wont be as lucky if the Rh don't match for now the mothers body is ready to fight what it perceives to be an invader. Now if this were to happen to you, don't freakout they're injections of a medicine called Rh immune globulin that prevent the body from producing the antibodies.
Another thing I found interesting is if an infants becomes infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii they will develop symptoms associated with schizo which include: hallucinations and delusions. The thing that shocked me the most was that this parasite is mostly transmitted via cats. That broke my heart. I wont be able to have a cat now because I will fear for my future-child's well being.
This weeks read involved emotions; where they were found, what they do to the body, how they affect decision, etc. Out of the whole text I was fascinated by human morals and how they affect decision making.
Since everyone is their own person they have different values, ideas, personalities, etc. With that said not everyone will help a person in need or go into a burning house to save a child. Does that make them selfish? I don't think so, they just don't see it as something of import. We all believe we are good and moral. We believe we will do the right thing when the time comes. But if we are presented with a problem that can inflict emotions and clash with our morals the decision of what is right and what is wrong dance on a thin line.
There were three examples in the book about making decisions that involved life and death. The first was the run-away-trolly example, in which there were five people standing in one trolly rail and one person standing in another rail. You had the choice to either kill five or one person. The other one involved a run-away-trolly again and there were five people on the rail but you were on a bridge. The only way to save everyone is to throw over a heavy person to stop the trolly. The last example involved a life raft and you need to throw someone over so it wont sink. Now the question is "what would you do in this situation?".
Ok first of all why are there people on the rails of a trolly and why cant they move out of the way. They can totally jump out of the way and you can scream at them to move. The boat one is trickier, but one person can get off and float along side it and they just keep taking turns. Just my logical thinking.
I heard of another example in which there is a husband and his wife is sick and she needs medicine. The only problem is that they don't have the money for them. So should he steal the medication or let his wife die? What would you do?
Warning: the video clip is from the movie Saw V and it is very graphic (blood, foul language) DONT watch it if you are not comfortable with things of that nature.
The reason I picked it was because it affect your morals as well as your judgement and you have to choose who lives and dies or they all die.
So what is insomnia for those of you out there who don't know it is basically having trouble staying of falling asleep. I never had this sleep disorder or any sleep disorder and I'm kinda glad I don't, it really does not seem fun at all. I have had my sleepless nights and I'm everything but a ray of sunshine. If this was to happen ALL the time I would lose my mind.
I have however a good experience with insomnia not personally but with a friend. He is really something. Since he can't have a good nights rest he is really irritable. Really isn't the right word lets go with SUPER irritable. It insane how people would set him off (he doesn't like people to begin with so being cranky doesn't help) he wouldn't start fights or anything, just hate their guts and glare. He also had mega dark circles. He looked like a panda, he doesn't enjoy the nickname but it's true his eyes are panda eyes. He also smoked a lot but he was always calmer after so that could be a good thing. He would also tell us how he would get up around 3 or 4 in the morning and go into the living room and his dad would be there watching a movie so they would watch movies together all night long since they both have insomnia. Even if he was sleep deprived he did ok in his classes, the only thing that seem to be affected by the insomnia was his mood but if you were one of the lucky ones that didn't irritate him then you would be able to see his awesomeness. If your special.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a disorder which is inherited from parents and it greatly affects the adrenal glands. An example is a genetic female who is exposed to more testosterone than the average female making her more masculine.
This really got my attention while reading the text. I had no idea that an abundance of testosterone could affect the development of the fetus. Sure I knew about smoking, drinking, drugs, but hormones? That was shocking. I guess I didn't think about hormones because they are supposed to be regulated by your body. I thought it was that way for everyone I was wrong.
This disease affects both physical and mental aspects of the female (I decided to use female because that is the gender that is used in the text). Its interesting how the female mental state is more in tuned with that of a males because of the high levels of testosterone they were exposed to.
Girls with CAH are more likely to choose a more "boyish" toy like a car or gun than girls without CAH. They are more "boyish" in their actions as well. They can be considered tomboys since they like to tumble and wrestle. While girls not affected act like typical girls (tea parties, keeping clean, dresses, etc). CAH girls also differ in adolescents as they are more into "manly" hobbies and interests like sports. In adulthood they have more of a probably of occupying male dominated fields.
Over the weekend my boyfriend and I were on netflix and we were looking for something interesting to watch. We picked a bunch of videos we thought would be entertaining and I picked "the science of sex appeal". It was amazing how our bodies (without our knowledge) were picking our mate. Sure it sounds a bit farfetched that your body was interacting with the outside world on a purely biological level without your consent. But as I kept watching it surly blew my mind.
The actual video is pretty long and they go through the many different ways your body is selecting a mate. It ranged from symmetry of a face to how the skin look to smell. Smell one of your basic senses was so keen on determining wether we would go for a person or turn then down. As I read the text I realized how similar it related to the video we watched. I actually felt intelligent for the first time since I understood what it meant.
The whole "family members will avoid mating with each other because they smell similar" thing was tested in an experiment and it turned out to be true. Since you do not want to have the same level of immunity (lower chances of your offspring living) you mate with someone who is of a different type and that can be decided by smell. My boyfriend and I discussed this immunity and he was confused why I liked the way he smelled since he always gets sick (no lie he is horrible when it comes to most sicknesses like the cold, stomach aches, etc) and I thought for a moment. The only thing I have would be allergies (horrible allergies) other than that I'm healthy and he has none, so maybe thats why I didn't get turned down by his scent. We agreed our children (if we ever have any) will have superpowers.
The video below is a clip from the actual documentary it is dealing with the scent part of mate selection the whole thing is on netflix if you're interested.
Memory is the brain's kodak moment. There are millions or billions of moments in our lives that we remember, like going through photo albums or VHS videos. Memory plays a big part in learning, both in the academic world and through out our lives. We learn to make connections with certain situations or stimuli that either brought us joy or pain. You slowly learn how the world works and you then learn by experience.
It is fascinating that also animals posses the ability to remember and learn from things that have happened to them. This process of learning is called instrumental conditioning (operant conditioning) because it deals with rewards (reinforcers) and punishments. In an experiment there is a rat who is in a maze and has a choice of going either right or left. Lets say it chose right and a bit further down it found rat pellets. If presented with the same situation twice the rat will go right because it remembers right = food (reward). Now if it went right but got shocked instead, the rat will remember that right = pain so it will avoid the right and head left instead.
Conditioning is a simple concept but its hard to carry out because you need to be attentive to when someone/thing does something you want them to do and it has to been right when they do that thing. If you're off then the chain is broken. However if done right it can be the most amazing thing ever.
Im not sure if anyone else has ever owned a bird; if you have, you would understand that they are the most cunning little things ever. I've owned both a parrot and a cockatiel. The parrot was just learning how to speak words when it escaped from its cage. Bummer, I know. Cockatiels don't really speak but they can mimic sounds. Mine could mimic chickens, laughter, and doves.
My uncle however has a beautiful parrot who know words and phrases. It can repeat all of there names, say "Hello" when it hears the phone ring. Its so good at speaking that they neighbors once called the cops on it because they thought my uncle and aunt were fighting.
I find it truly fascinating that animals (well some) are capable of speaking human language. Parrots are the perfect example. Pepperberg and his african gray parrot Alex prove that parrots are capable of not only repeating human language but to also understand it as well as use it freely. In an experiment Pepperberg used language trained and non-language trained parrots and attached an almond at the end of a toy chain. The non-language trained parrots used their claws to reach the almond while the other parrots simply asked for it "want nut".
Now that is mind blowing. It totally caught me by surprise that a parrot was able to just ask for what it wanted. I knew they could mimic but never ask for something that they wanted. The processes that are going on inside their minds must be top notch for them to be able to do this.
We see almost every day a pregnant women. It seems very simple to conceive a child probably because we see it so often. However it is not a simple task. Many connections must be made, precisely one after another as if setting of a chain reaction. The mother must be extremely careful to take good care of herself for her actions will effect her child's development. I find it really interesting how the brain is developing as we are beginning to form inside our mothers womb. It is a fascinating process that we all go through but were unaware of it until we learn about how we came to be. We were all tiny cells that came together and continued to multiply over and over again until they began to take shape. A brain, spinal cord, heart, eyes, hands, etc. All from these cells. The brain begins to form fairly early compared to the other parts of our bodies. The brain is said to begin taking its form around the second week of life. That is super insane. How can cells form together and create all these things. The brain is forming itself as is the spinal cord, midbrain, hindbrain, and forebrain. All are needed for specific purposes which we consider to be mundane. The other interesting thing its the neurons and how they develop. Their development is divided into five parts: Proliferation, migration, differentiation, myelination, and synaptogenesis. These are all very crucial for neurons as they need to be ready to face the outside world. Each stage helps the neuron mature and grow so they can be in tip top shape.
People in the united states are very prone to using marijuana or cannabis. In 2008 researchers found that 46 % of the united states population had tried marijuana at least once in their life time. I think that the amount of people that use marijuana in the united states is at such a high rate and keeps increasing because people can see that it is not as harmful as it was once thought to be. For example when "reefer madness" was filling up people's minds with nonsense. People are way more educated now.
The effects of marijuana use in the brain, THC activates the reward system in the brain and stimulates brain cells to release the chemical dopanine (just like many other drugs). Marijuana can even cause hallucinations if using a potent strain of the drug, short term effects may include relaxation, heightened perception, an increase in appetite and sometimes panic. The effects of marijuana vary incredibly from user to user. Some of these effects can be very helpful for example when suffering from any type of sickness that decreases your appetite or makes you nauseous. In my opinion the use of marijuana should be explored in a deeper form and be viewed as a positive thing rather than the opposite.
Local neurons are basically really tiny cells. They are given the name local because they only interact with the cells surrounding them, aka their close neighbors. A few years back I got my wisdom teeth taken out (all four in one go). The doctor had me take a pain killer before my scheduled appointment and I was on a chill pill (I have bad nerves). When I went into the surgical room I had local anesthesia around my gums. After around an hour I was free to go home and recover which turned out to be the longest two weeks of my life. Now after reading a bit about neurons and how they work I can more or less understand why anesthesia works to numb the area that will be worked on. The local anesthetic was affecting my local neurons by blocking out the pain signals to the brain.
There was another interesting point made at the end of the reading regarding the statement "we only use 10% of our brain". This was in response to the fact that the local neurons are small and would only affect us if they were bigger. However, that statement isn't true. We do not use 10% of our brain; we are able to use our whole brain capacity. Karl Lashley was one of the neuropsychologist who studied brain capacity and conducted an experiment with rats. He would take out parts of rats brain to see when they would be unable to get through a maze. That was answered when he took out 90 percent of the brain. With only 10 percent remaining the rats were confused and could not successfully get through the maze. (This means that with only 10% of our brain remaining we cant do much.)
So this week was about basic theories, animal research, and brain stuff. I really liked reading about animal research the most because throughout my psychology courses many books talk about animal experimentation. I thought it was fascinating how they could condition animals to do just about anything with rewards. I did not however think if it was for the animals' best interest. I do think that animals are useful in learning about behavior and as test subjects for testing new medication but if the animal is just being used for something useless then that is not good. As long as it has a reasonable justification and the animal isn't put through pain I'm all for it. But if something could replace the animal altogether that would be even better. This website provides information towards why animals are used for research I liked it because it is easy to follow and the information is crisp and clear. http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/
