February 2012 Archives

I found this video on Youtube and was absolutely amazed by how well trained this dog was, and the tricks he could do. I think this is a good example of what we just learned about this recent week in lecture, and the process of learning. I did a little background research and did find that most all animals trainers use the classic Pavlov's Conditioning Theory. Even though we had been shown evidence that the theory worked, it was very minor things like salivating at the sound of a tick, or a mouse pushing down a latch. But we had not been shown anything like this video of the dog, and I personally didn't think that this theory could do that much in showing a dog how to do all these tricks. And as I read on about the process of training cats and dogs, they all went through the same series as our book shows as well. I think it's just so cool to know that such simple tasks can create such amazing tricks! I hope to one day be able to train a dog like this!

Sorry was unsure of how to put the video up but here is the link! Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTTfmoklBok

Did you know that one out of every 150 kids is affected with autism in the United States? Autism is a physical condition; found in the first 3 years of life, that causes a lack of brain development in life skills such as social and communication skills (ncbi). Parents and Doctor notice Autism if the child has trouble playing or interacting with other kids, avoiding eye contact, doesn't use and understand language, usual movements such as flapping of the hands, and not being a curious child like most are. Around the world, there are about 67 million people that have been diagnosed with autism and in the United States, and even though it is the fastest growing disability (randomhistory) there is no cure. Even though there is no cure, there are medications available to help treat some symptoms such as aggression, mood, and behaviors. Besides from these treatments, there are controversial treatments such as Lupron that can be used to help with autism. Lupron is a drug that can fix the excessive amount of mercury and testosterone that people with autism have. This drug is controversial though because of a lack of scientific evidence and can cause unwanted side effects such as halt in the development, bones, and hear of the individual (Tsouderos). Some children are on Lupron and have seen incredible results, but others are still not convinced due to the lack of scientific evidence. Autism is a developmental disorder that affects a person is more ways than one. The individual has a hard time understanding and using speech, interacting with others, and using eye contact. Even though there is no cure to end autism, there are many treatments available such as medicine, therapy, and applied behavior analysis. People with autism do have choices and do have the chance to get better so that they can be the best person that they can be.

"50 Random Facts About . . ." 50 Random Facts about Autism. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. .

Board, A.D.A.M. Editorial. "Causes, Incidence, and Risk Factors." Autism. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Nov. 0000. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. .

Tsouderos, Trine. "Testosterone-related Treatment for Autism Stirs Controversy." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. .

For this blog I chose to write about where consciousness resides. It was fascinating to watch the BBC Horizon video - The Secret You. It was so cool to see the British man hold the brain. I could connect to him because I have never done anything like that before and neither had he. It is crazy to think that he was holding a person's brain. That brain was everything to somebody. It held all of their thoughts and emotions and gave them their personality. It is a privilege to essentially hold another person in the palm of your hands. There are over 100 billion nerve cells in the brain, but which ones make us conscious? It was really cool to watch this video and know what the doctor was talking about. He mentioned parts of the brain such as the cerebral cortex and the brain stem, and I was like, "I know what those are!" It was awesome listening to a doctor and knowing what he was going to say next. I guess the authors of the textbook knew a thing or two after all. Just like I remembered, consciousness is all about constant activation of the cortex. Nevertheless there are many aspects of the brain that I do not yet understand, and this video did a great job of sparking my interest.

If anyone has heard about any experiments concerning psychology, they probably have heard about the Baby Albert experiment. This experiment was constructed by JB Watson and one of his head graduate students in the 1920's on a nine month old child that was called Baby Albert. During this test Watson and his graduate student did many assessments to make Baby Albert scared of white rabbits and rats. By doing this the psychologists made loud noises whenever Albert made contact with any small white furry objects. Through this conditioning process, Albert ended up crying every time a white object would be in the same proximity as him. After the experiment was over, Watson never made contact again with the child to see if he had any side effects or was still frightened by white small animals. This question has been around for a long time the answer was finally revealed. Little Albert died at age six by hydrocephalus which is a condition where fluid accumulates inside the brain. Although the outcome of the patient was tragic, JB Watson still had many highlights in his career. His biggest accomplishment must have been establishing the school of behaviorism. This branch of psychology is still practiced and studied today. Here is video of JB Watson doing the experiment on Baby Albert.

For this weeks blog option, I decided to watch a segment of the BBC Horizon,"The Secret You," specifically, the section regarding where consciousness resides. Of the estimated 100 billion neurons, how many are involved in creating consciousness? All of them? What part of the brain actually makes this conscious? I have always been interested in the anatomy/chemical processes that occur in the brain, more so than the results that occur from these happenings.
The human brain has a highly developed cortex, which is presumed to give us the ability to be self aware. In the brain stem, there is the reticular activating system, which is a group of nerve cells that relay upwards to the thalamus, which sends information to all of the areas of the cortex. This continuous activation of the cortex is what is presumed to be the main factor of human consciousness.
Seeing the cortex first-hand in this video was amazing, as it is truly fascinating how that brain was once inside of a human body and contained the goals, wants, and needs of a recent human being. However, the video seemed fairly vague as to where the the individual areas of consciousness reside, since all that was given was the answer of "cortex." I would be interested to hear more on how this area is split into more exact forms of thought and the different processes that occur in order to give us this "constant activation" that is so important in the ability of humans to obtain consciousness.

Even after the first glance, most people will look at the picture above and believe that it is an actual photo of real fish swimming in a barrel. But, aha! They have been deceived by the tricky artist. Using the principle of perception of closure, he was able to create three dimensional art that is incredibly realistic. Closure is when the brain fills in any missing visual information. In this picture, the fish look 3D, but in reality they are two dimensional layers of realistic paintings piled on top of one another and the brain fills in the gaps between the layers to see one 3D image. There is also a sense of motion in the picture even though the fish are stationary because of the way we perceive motion; we can imagine the fish swimming and, therefore, believe that they are, even though we know they are not. In order to make an exquisite painting like the one above, one must pour a form of lacquer in the barrel, paint a rough image of a fish without all of the details, then pour another layer of lacquer and paint another layer of the fish, and repeat the same steps until the fish looks real. It's amazing how the brain can make a 2D image look perfect and 3D.

Super-tasters are persons that have advanced taste buds that allow them to experience taste at a higher quality. These advanced taste buds are a genetic mutation; though no one knows the cause of the mutation. People who are super-tasters are more than likely picky eaters; one example of that is a woman, Amber, refused to eat anything but french fries. Even then, the french fries had to be a certain size and cooked a certain way. She had no idea she classified as a super-taster until she got her DNA tested in her mid-thirties.

Super-tasters often prefer blander foods because their taster receptors are so sensitive. That doesn't mean they don't enjoy eating, they just avoid things like carbonated drinks, bitter foods, and citruses. Super-tasters live a normal life, they act no differently than a person with a food allergy.

I think it is safe to say that the most interesting organ in the body is also the most confusing. Even when you understand all the functions of the brain, it is really difficult to comprehend how quickly all these functions occur. One such example is the release of neurotransmitters. I took CIS Anatomy and Physiology in high school, and my class spent a good three weeks discussing the role that these chemicals play in our body, including how they are released, how drugs affect them, etc. However, something that was not covered much was how these affect our moods. I understand that certain neurotransmitters make us feel happy, and that a lack of certain neurotransmitters can have negative emotional effects. Something that baffles me, though, is why we sometimes wake up in a bad mood, and whether neurotransmitters have anything to do with it. I know that hormones have a lot to do with our emotions, but certain disorders like depression are caused by neurotransmitters. So why does this happen? Are we predisposed to these types of things, or do our brains just "do" it?

I found week three's topic of lecture to be extremely captivating. Since last school year, I've been interested in the human brain. My amazing anatomy teacher probably contributed to this fascination. I am in CBS right now, and I actually thought I wanted to be a neurologist--key word, thought. After re-evaluating what I actually want to do for a living, I decided to switch out of that program and into marketing, but let's save the rest of that story for a rainy day.

I've always been fascinated with the idea that, in a class like this, we are using our brains to learn about our brains..kinda cool when you think about it. On the same page, it's even more interesting to ponder this question: how do we just decide to do what we do? Where do our thoughts and ideas originate and how are they created? This idea simply baffles me, and apparently it is baffling scientists. Will we ever know the answer to these questions? I'm not sure, but it would truly be remarkable if we actually could find the answer. Knowing how the brain processes and interprets information is definitely a good place to start. More and more persistent and diligent research will guide us in the right direction (unless, of course, this is a matter that science cannot answer).

This chapter mainly focuses on what science is and what it isn't, and for the first two weeks of school I was in the Foundations of Biology course, which also discussed this very same topic. So, this whole chapter was basically a review for me. However, of course, there were small things in the chapter that were not covered in the beginning of that Biology class, correlation vs causation being the one that stuck out the most.

I think it grasped my attention the most because one, it was something I've never read in a textbook before, and it corresponds to real-life situations. Whenever something happens, people want to understand why, because that is our nature as human beings. More specifically, when something goes wrong, the blame is usually placed on whoever looks as though they were the cause. This is usually done without careful consideration as to who else could have been the culprit. Correlation doesn't equal causation, something that a lot of people don't usually think about when going through their every day lives. Assumptions are made, which come from one's life experiences. These assumptions don't take into account the possibility of the third variable. A specific real life application of this is in the court of law, as lawyers have to constantly prove this statement (correlation does not equal causation) true.

Maybe it stuck out because I liked reading court cases during my Law & Society class in my senior year of high school. Whatever the case, this stuck out the most to me.

The concept of research methods for me was actually interesting much more interesting than the headlining topic would suggest. The idea that an experiment is just as much a reflection of a topic trying to be addressed as the ways it is administered was definitely something to think about. In addition, learning about the opposite of placebo effect which we of course are all familiar with; but in contrast, the concept of the nocebo effect was in particularly fascinating. The idea that one could be manipulated by the absence of something was very odd.