What's in the News?
What I would like you to do is to start applying what we are learning in class to real world matters. Some might ask, "What good is learning psychology if we can't apply it to real world matters?" So that is what we are going to do with this divergence assignment.
What I would like you to do is to either go to NPR (http://www.npr.org/ ) or the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) and read, watch, or listen to something that is interesting to you and relates to what we have been learning in the class.
Please respond the blog by telling us what the piece you chose was and why you picked it (what made it interesting for you)? What did you expect to see? What did you find most interesting about the piece?
Next discuss how it relates to the class using terms, terminology, and concepts that we have learned so far in class.
Include the URL in your post.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
After browsing through the National Public Radio’s website I came across an article that can be easily applied to cognitive psychology. In the first few weeks of class we covered topics such as the brain and how complex its processing abilities and its functions are. Since we have a shortened amount of in class time, I thought this article would help me to better understand areas of the brain and what their specific functions are. The article I found described the functions of the prefrontal cortex and how those functions affect our thought processes. The prefrontal cortex can biologically be found in the front region of the brain directly behind the eye. As defined by Steve Fleming, a neuroscientist, the prefrontal cortex is used when an individual is using high level thought processes, conscious planning, or monitoring brain activity. Fleming was able to see through testing, that the prefrontal cortex is active when a person is judging their confidence in an answer. The article used the example of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” but I would like to create my own example to make it easier to personally relate to. I am sure many people have experienced the situation in which a professor asks a question and your hand immediately pops up. That is because as a knowledgeable student you probably have a very high confidence that your answer is the correct answer the teacher is looking for. Other times it may take awhile and you decide later to not raise your hand at all, and that could be linked to the low level of confidence you have in your answer.
As stated before, Fleming and other researchers completed an interesting study that led them to some valuable conclusions. This study had participants point out what part on a computer screen was colored the brightest compared to the rest of the screen. After making their decision they were asked to evaluate themselves and rate the confidence they had in thinking they made the correct choice. While completing the study every participant’s brain activity was being monitored, and the patterns that were found from this monitoring led researchers to their conclusion. The pattern the researchers found was that participants in the study who felt they were good at judging their mental capabilities showed more brain activity in their prefrontal cortex. Also these participants’ brain’s showed that other parts of their brain were making connections to the prefrontal cortex.
So, in what ways does this research relate to cognitive psychology? In the most obvious ways, it deals with the brain and functions that each part of the brain takes on. Not only can you learn about functions of the prefrontal cortex, but this article teaches you the physical location of where it is located in each brain. Also, this research can be linked to cognitions and mental processes. The important information to take away from this article is not only does the brain fire neurons and make connections in order to form answers to questions, but it also relies on the abundance/lack of confidence that the answer your brain came up with is correct. This process may be taken for granted because it may occur unconsciously, but understanding that this process does occur is key. Realizing your own mental capabilities is so crucial to becoming successful whether it is as a student, professor, or parent. Personally, I feel that I am able to judge my mental capabilities well. I understand that when I have an exam coming up I need to study my notes and reread chapters from the textbook. If I don’t review notes and prepare myself for the test I am aware that I will struggle with the test because I will have less confidence in knowing if I am correctly answering the questions. There are many other factors that may hinder my confidence such as a self fulfilling prophecy by telling myself I will do bad since I have not studied. However, this article was not looking into those factors, but instead was trying to explain how a person is able to judge their mental capabilities.
Columbia psychology professor, Janet Metcalfe agrees that there are many ways in which this research can be applied to people in the real world. Reading about these applications is what caught my interest the most out of this article because even with these conclusions it is best to use these to understand more about cognitions. She believes that this research can be used to help identify why healthy brains still have trouble judging their mental abilities. In my opinion, I am surprised the conclusions to the research are fairly new to scientists. It goes to show how complex the brain is. One thing I took away from this article, is that every person differs on how well they can correctly judge their mental capabilities. Knowing this I feel that it is essential for each person to know their mental boundaries so they can practice and become familiar with how confident they are in knowing what they know.
Terms used: Prefrontal cortex, cognitions, mental processes
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/16/129910351/how-your-brain-figures-out-what-it-doesn-t-know
I chose to blog about an article I found on NPR's website. In this piece I found, it discusses a new type of brain scan that is being used by doctors to gain a better understanding of the brains of children who suffer from autism. The traditional MRI simply shows just the brain structures whereas this fairly new brain scan, functional connectivity MRI, informs doctors which brain structures are communicating with each other. Functional connectivity MRI can be done in only five minutes and doesn't require the child to perform a mental task and they will not feel the MRI being done. This process allows doctors to map out which structures of the brain are communicating with each other and at the end of the process, it will provide a number regarding the amount of structure communication. Doctors describe this number as the patients 'brain age.' Brain age is then compared to a brain scale that was provided from 200 subjects who had the typical brain development from ages 7-30. Overall, functional connectivity MRI will allow doctors to determine a number of things such as if a brain is immature, spot troubles in development, abnormal brain connections, and much more. Also, this brain scan will help explain why children with autism behave the way they do because of their brain structures communication routes and abnormalities.
I chose this article because not only was it very interesting but I have experience working with children who have autism. I previously worked at a daycare where I interacted on a daily basis with three children who all suffered from autism. It was hard to predict and understand their behaviors and I always felt sympathy for not being able to communicate with them effectively. This article was interesting because it provides more hope that someday doctors will be able to better explain why autism occurs and why children with this disorder behave the way they do.
I expected to read about a new mental task or test doctors are using to determine brain age. The title didn't mention autism or functional connectivity MRI so I didn't expect to be nearly as interested in this article as I was! However, I found that this article was very interesting for me as well as being able to relate this information to our class. As I was reading through the article, I was able to relate the entire subject to material we have already covered in class and this helped me understand it better.
As I said before, the main idea of this article is using functional connectivity MRI to understand brain structures communication routes as well as gaining a better understanding about children's behavior that have autism. In our class, we have discussed the different tools doctors have used to understand brain structures. We have learned about MRI's and how they work. In this article, it discusses the functional connectivity MRI and how it gets a better look at the communication process rather than simply looking at the structures. Also, our readings from A&M have shown us many cases where brain structures were not communicating properly causing severe disorders. In this article, doctors believe the functional connectivity MRI will help us understand the brain structures communication routes and what behaviors or occur from abnormal communication.
Terms: MRI, Functional connectivity MRI, autism, brain structures/communication
URL:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129754434
I found an article on the NPR website that has some connections with what we have been learning. While it has some connections, it sort of stretches exactly how it is connected, but it adds to the overall understanding of the topics.
The article I chose deals with perception, and our perception of time. The author explains how when you are anticipating something or waiting for something to happen, it seems to take forever... while when you are not paying attention, time flys by and you wonder where it went. I guess I chose this article because I feel like this happens to me all the time, and while it may be pretty easy to understand why it happens, it is still interesting that it tricks our minds every time. We will still stare at the clock, waiting to be off of work or out of class.
Sense of time is subjective, depending on what a person may be doing at a certain point in time or within the actual perception itself. I expected to see in this article more about what exactly is going on in the brain, but mostly just got information about neurotransmitters like dopamine and adrenaline and how they affect our perceptions of time. Something I did not expect was a mention of Oliver Sacks in the article. The author mentions him while talking about his book "Awakenings". In the book Oliver tells how patients suffering from rigid paralysis awoke temporarily when given L-dopamine and had the correct sense of time, suggesting this connection between perception and dopamine.
The article goes on to talk about the affect that drugs have on perception of time, slowing down the feeling of things, and the rate at which the brain collects data. He ends the article stating that the only way to slow down time is to stay as engaged as possible, to be always learning.
It is obvious that this article deals with perception, so not a lot needs to be said further on the subject... The article also focuses on attention and the limited control we may have over that attention. We may be trying to not stare at the clock the whole time, but after thinking about it our attention is automatically focused on just that. Some of this occurs with automatic processing as well. We do not necessarily focus on the time that has passed by, but we may realize the time that has gone by as soon as we glance at a clock or notice it is getting dark out.
This article was sort of hard to connect with the material, but it does have connections nonetheless. It is always interesting to read a public article whe comparing to things you learn in a class or area focused on a specific idea. When an article talks about something it tends to be not very specific, and I saw that with this article. I like that he at least talked about drugs in the article, but didn't talk much about implications of things in great detail, or certain brain processes that may take affect in these processes.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2010/01/the_doors_of_time_perception.html
terms: perception, attention, automatic processing, neurotransmitters
I choose to read the piece ‘Purple Hearts Elusive For Traumatic Brain Injuries.’ The article discusses soldiers and their right to be awarded a Purple Heart when injured while serving. I had recently watched a news piece about the issue and was interested in finding out more about the discussion. I find the issue very important as it relates to individuals fighting for our country.
A Purple Heart is given to soldiers that have served and sacrificed and unfortunately were wounded during that time. In order for a soldier to receive a Purple Heart they must have sustained an injury by “hostile action”. The soldier also must have sought medical treatment by an officer as well as making sure the injury was properly documented. The process would appear to be relatively straightforward but that is certainly not the case. It’s difficult when soldiers suffer from brain injuries, which are clearly not visible, and the soldier may not appear to be under a significant amount of distress. Indeed concussions also referred to as mild traumatic brain injuries are real, and can produce significant long-term, irreversible impairments. The debate stems from cases in which soldiers were denied Purple Hearts because their injury did not appear to be severe enough. Often times a soldiers’ commanding officer is the one in charge of either awarding or denying them a Purple Heart. According to the article, some commander’s simply say an award will not be rewarded for concussions that result in minimal medical intervention and doing so would lessen its [Purple Heart] value.
I found the article to be quite interesting. I can certainly see why soldiers would find the denial of such an award to be offending and quite frankly hurtful. I also have an understanding of where the skepticism comes in when the injuries are not clearly visible and obvious. In no way do I think an injury needs to be seen by the naked eye for it to be considered a “real” injury but with regards to concussions there may be a fine line. Often times, a lack of sufficient documentation and reporting of a concussion or other type of injury may be the reason a Purple Heart is denied and that would undoubtedly be a lack of compliance. It becomes tricky when soldiers may not report their injuries or seek medical care until after they have completed their duties and return home weeks or months later. In that case, it becomes incredibly difficult to pinpoint the details of when, how and where the injury occurred or if it was even a consequence of battle.
I think the article was relevant to what we have been discussing in class because like many of the readings it has to with a brain injury that could result in a lifetime of impairments. Like the most recent story, relating to Franco, neurological injuries are not always easy to discover and confirm. Concussions can cause severe headaches, forgetfulness, inability to perform simple tasks, attention or concentration difficulties, cognitive deficits and long-term and short-term memory loss and even loss of consciousness.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129606127
Terms: attention, long-term/short-term memory
I watched a video from www.npr.org - it dealt with composite sketches. I chose this piece because it is something interesting that we have talked about in class. We saw examples of how our mind and can lie to us - my mind lied to me! I wanted to know a little bit more about this topic. I did not now what to expect with this video. In class we talked about how inaccurate these types of things can be. I was surprised that such professional people knew so little about the actual memory and retrieval processes - this man was experiences in his field yet I disagreed with many of the things he said.
Though the video interviewed an experiences sketch artist he was not trained in psychology. I think there are some problems with the way he explained his work. One of the first things mentioned was that he ‘decoded expressions and turned them into images’. This would work if we all used expressions in the same way. In class we talked about perceiving information from the world. We have experiences that information is filtered through. Based on past experience we may perceive things differently than someone else. We may describe things in different way than the sketch artist is picturing them.
The sketch artist also mentioned that he uses photo references as memory enhancers. This may help to pick out features but it also may suggest things and allow the witness’ perception or memory to be swayed or skewed - without them realizing it. In class we talked about prior knowledge driving perception by interpretation. When we see someone we may (I know I do) start to make connections and assumptions about that person. If someone has had a bad experience with a Caucasian man and is then attacked at night - they may assume that this man is white as well. And the same may be true in other circumstances too. When we do not know certain information our brain wants to make sense of these partial thoughts - so, it will fill in the gaps based on past experience. That is where we can be mislead.
During the video the sketch artist talks about body language and nonverbal cues that suggest that the drawing is an accurate portrayal. This may be true, however, there are a number of unaccounted for variables that may have caused these reactions. For example, someone may become emotional due to stress from the situation and not because the picture is accurate.
Lastly, the sketch artist talks about the recall and recognition processes of the brain. When talking about recall we must remember encoding specificity - this is when the way we perceive something also decides how we retrieve the information. Going back to the emotional reaction example. When we have experienced something in a stressful situation we will most likely become stressed out when retrieving that information - that may be the cause for an emotional episode and not the drawing itself. When talking about recognition processes the sketch artist said that he used old photos to help enhance or jog our memory. I think these images would be more suggestive than helpful. In the video we see pictures of past or current inmates that are used to help pin-point features. I think seeing someone who we know has committed a crime would make us describe features that are similar to those people versus what we are trying to recall.
Terms: Perceiving information from the world (from notes), Prior knowledge driving perception by interpretation (from notes), encoding specificity.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201009246
For this particular assignment I stumbled upon an article from BBC News relating to thinking and decision making. The article was titled “It’s good to think--but not too much, scientists say.” Right off the bat it sounded interesting but I wasn’t sure what to expect from this article. A few thoughts went through my head after just reading the title: scientists telling us not to think too much? This kind of research would not go over well with most teachers in a school setting. And students would probably love any excuse to not think as hard. After reading the article, it turns out this wasn’t exactly what the focus was. Research has been done indicating that individuals who think more about the decisions they make have larger frontal lobes, more specifically, individuals who are more sure of making the right decision have more brain cells in the anterior prefrontal cortex of the brain. However, there is a catch. Researchers also found that those who thought too much about their life and broad over decisions have a higher risk of depression. The study indicates that those who broad too much over decisions have poorer working memory, which has been linked to mental health.
The first concept this article relates to in cognitive psychology is the function of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is located around the forehead and extends to the middle of the top of the head. It functions in reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving. The second concept that the article relates to is memory, specifically working memory. According to the text, working memory is a “system that temporarily holds and manipulates information as we perform cognitive tasks. Working memory is analogous to a workbench where new and old material is constantly being processed, transformed, and combined” (MacLin, MacLin, & Solso, 2005, pp. 171). An example of this would be doing more complex math problems in which you have to remember previously computed numbers in your head to use a few seconds later to get the final answer. Alan Baddeley was the one who proposed the idea of this type of memory. In opposition to that idea that the brain can only hold seven bits of information in short-term memory at a time, he believed the capacity of STM depended on the speed and duration of which we can memorize the information. This relates a lot to what we just talked about in class today. When the 3x3 block of letters was flashed onto the screen for a longer period of time, we had a better chance of confidently remembering a portion of the letters.
Terms: frontal lobe—anterior prefrontal cortex, working memory, short-term memory
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11340881
"Where Your Brain Figures Out What it Doesn't Know," is an article on the NPR website that caught my eye. This is something that easily relates to what we have been talking about in class. The brain not fully understanding something, but at the same time the brain is able to figure it out or recall things we cannot physically remember. I found the title of this article very interesting because of the fact that the brain is one of the most amazing organs in our body. Our brain is constantly adapting and learning. I expected this article to talk about certain features of the brain and how it works in relation to what we are doing.
The article is somewhat surprising (to me) in that it starts off talking about how confident a person is when they are answering a question they do not know the definite answer to. The article uses "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," as an example. The article goes on to talk about self-monitoring and how it is something we do all the time. We constantly ask ourselves if we can trust this stranger, rely in our friend to do this for us, question whether we left the candle going while leaving the house, etc. There were studies done where participants were shown screens and had to tell which section of the screen was brighter, and how confident they were in their selection.
The results turned out, that people who were more certain about their decisions actually had more gray matter and more connections going throughout their brain. The particular part of the brain that they were generally looking at was the prefrontal cortex (dealing with high-level thought, conscious planning, monitoring brain activity, and is located at the front part of the brain). This can help with future research in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.
First off this relates to our text and what we have been talking about through metacognition (refers to ability to monitor, control, and organize activity). The textbook speaks about patients with lesions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and that they have problems with their ability to control and monitor their memories. This relates to the textbook through memory as well.
One example of this is working memory. The participants were shown the screen and then asked which section was slightly brighter. They had to recall or refer to their working memory ("system that temporarily holds and manipulates information as we perform cognitive tasks"). Along with working memory phonological loop and visuospatial scratchpad are mentioned. The phonological loop is a "rehearsal circuit that holds inner speech for verbal comprehension." The visuospatial scratchpad is when we briefly hold images in our memory. I think the factors of short term memory (memory which holds seven plus or minus two items, and has a duration estimated around 12 seconds) and long term memory (files called upon when "cued" can hold a lot more information that short them memory and will hold information for long periods of time), and may have something to do with how confident we are with trusting our answers.
Terms: Short-term Memory, Long-term Memory, Working Memory, Phonological Loop, Visuospatial Scratchpad, Metacognition, Prefrontal Cortex
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/16/129910351/how-your-brain-figures-out-what-it-doesn-t-know
Topic: cognitive neuroscience, autism
Article: Autism Gives Woman An 'Alien View' Of Social Brains
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129379866
"We all avoid different things. I avoid polyester clothing. They avoid talking about death." – Lisa Daxer.
This week I have found an article that really attracted my attention. It is not exactly related to the topics covered in class so far, but rather synthesizes and combines some of them. The article is dedicated to the problem of brain development and autism, or, to be more concrete, developing social skills among autistic individuals.
Human beings are predisposed to be “social animals” and have “social brain”. From the moment of birth the evolutionary modulated mechanisms in our brain start to work on maintaining and progressive developing of social contact and skills. This is one of the things that make us humans and one of the conditions of surviving, both as a species and an individual. However it is not always the case. Although social skills play a tremendous role in cognitive and personal development, sometimes we might observe certain disfunctions based on the abnormal brain development. One of the examples is autism.
Autism is usually described as a neural development disorder mainly characterized by the impaired social communication and interaction, as well as restricted and repetitive behavior. As recent studies have shown a possible explanation of the phenomena on a physiological level might be connected with the mirror neurons. This particular type of brain cells found in animals and humans was first discovered by Giacomo Rizzolatti. The peculiarity of these neurons is that they are activated in two situations: when an individual performs an action or when he/she observes someone performing it. Areas where such neurons might be found in humans are: premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, primary somatosensory cortex and the inferior parietal cortex. Some scientists like V.S. Ramachandran believe that mirror neurons have a great impact on such processes as language acquisition and imitation.
It should be noticed that the function of mirror neurons is not finally defined or proven yet. Some tend to see it as connected with the theory of mind, others only with language abilities. At the same time there are evidences that mirror neurons play an important role in understanding other people’s feelings and actions, learning skills by imitation. Several studies have also proposed that cognitive disorders like autism might be caused by the abnormal development or lack of activity of mirror neurons. In one of them held at the University of California, San Diego, ten participants – autistic boys defined as “high-functioning” – took part in the EEG scanning. The results showed dysfunctional mirror neuron system: their mirror neurons respond only to what they do and not to the doings of others.
Such studies help us uncover what causes autism or at least what happens in the brain of autistic people. But how do they feel? What do they think about it? The article I have found tells a story of Lisa Daxer – majoring biomedical engineering at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Having autism Lisa has experienced many problems in maintaining social skills since childhood. She mentions that other children all had friends while she did not; and it seemed like she did not really need to have some. Common skills like reading faces and understanding what’s on another person’s mind are a real struggle for her. Autism made Lisa feel “like an alien” among other people. Although she accepts her condition and even like it, Lisa says she has “a weird brain”.
As “an alien” Lisa started her own blog, describing personal findings and observations about “neurotypicals” – other non-autistic people. She reflects the fact that these others constantly socialize, throughout their everyday activities and routines. One of interesting examples is how Lisa describes watching popular TV series “Friends” in a group of students – “I think it's a silly show, a very neurotypical show actually. It's all about relationships. I would watch their faces as they watched the show. They were mirroring the people on the screen, I think”.
Having troubles in developing true empathy, or figuring out what are the taboo topics for a conversation, reading other people faces and maintaining sufficient social contacts are a constant challenge in a life of this 27 year old woman. But at the same time it reveals for us the mystery of brain functioning and its influence on everyday life interaction.
Terms used: mirror neurons, EEG, autism, neural development disorder, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, primary somatosensory cortex and the inferior parietal cortex, imitation, empathy, theory of mind
Additional source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050411204511.htm
I found out about the discovery of a new type of brain scan on NPR.
The new scan is really a modified MRI. It is called functional conductivity MRI. What is does is, it identified brain networks. It shows which part of the brain connects to other parts of it. I think it is cool.
The NPR people were talking about using it to identify children who are falling cognitively behind. They can identify these children because as a child ages, the brain sheds some connections while forming more important tracts. By detecting which networks did not get pruned and which were supposed to form but did not form, they can find out the child's "Brain Age."
It sounds useful, but it reminds me a whole lot of the Binet intelligence tests. They were originally meant to identify those who were falling behind and help them but eventually became the basis of defining "normality." (we can tell who's average or not by seeing their intelligence). But I think it is cool.
The clip I listened to also mentioned autism. With this new scan, they've formed an insight into that disease. Apparently, these children do not prune some of the networks they are supposed to and that might be what is causing problems. They still don't know how to solve it. I hope they will not try to lesion these connections out.
link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129754434
"Concussion Worries Renew Focus on Football Safety" by Thomas Goldman was the article I happened upon on NPR's website. I found this article/broadcast interesting because it really correlated to many of the readings that we have done in class. The article deals with the sudden suicide of an "all-ivy league defensive lineman" Owen Thomas. What was later discovered was that Owen Thomas had suffered from and early onset of CTE. The article/broadcast doesn't really go into detail about the disease itself and becomes interested in the superficial facts surrounding the issue, however it was a great segue for me to conduct some research of my own on CTE.
So what exactly is CTE? Well it stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. If you understand the last term in the name you'll find that it pretty much explains itself. I however did not. Encephalopathy literally means disorder or disease of the brain. So in a sense the name means chronic head injuries leading to a deterioration of the brain. The chronic head injuries is something that is necessary to note when diagnosing a person with this disease. Because often times it can be mistaken for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Which is a disease that is also characterized with many of the same symptoms but occurs because of degeneration of motor neurons. This degeneration causes neural cells in the central nervous system to degenerate leading to a loss of voluntary muscle functions. These symptoms are very similar to ALS, however as mentioned earlier head trauma is necessary to diagnose CTE along with many other symptoms that will be listed later.
CTE, is often times found in professional athletes hence why evidence that showed Thomas was suffering from it was so alarming. CTE is caused by numerous amounts of concussions and head injuries. Many of these injuries are occurring at the top of the brain. The head injuries create a foundation for excess/build up of a tau protein eliciting defective neurons. The microtubules than become destabilized, leading to dementia. This disordered process is a characteristic that is often found in Alzheimer's patients. The symptom of dementia is a phenotype of CTE. Other symptoms include, deterioration in attention, concentration, and memory. Disorientation, confusion, headaches, lack of judgment, suicidal thoughts often times leading to destructive behaviors such as drug addictions and erratic behavior. Death often occurs in this disorder and is commonly caused by overdose or suicide.
So how does this deal with cognitive psychology? Key symptoms that deal especially with cognition are the deterioration of attention, concentration and memory. The question I have is what exactly is that deterioration characterized by? Is there a loss of encoding information, or does it deal with the storage and retrieval process of memory? The thing I find fascinating about this disorder is how it needs to be studied on an individual basis. When looking at the symptoms it is obvious that some of this damage occurs on the top of the head which happens most often with football players. But is also found in boxers and hockey players. With damage being cited throughout the brain, spawning many different symptoms and cases. This disease is every Cognitive Psychologist dream I feel . Because with the donation of brains by so many professional athletes we may be able to begin narrowing down with better accuracy the functions of the brain. I am not proposing a resurgence of phrenology however, if we could study individual cases and compare it to the direct damages and degenerations of the brain. In which we may be able to label and categorize in a more finite manner the functions of the brain.
Overall I found this article interesting and a great segue to future research and application.
Sources
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=130081779&m=130093644
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130081779
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Amyotrophic+lateral+sclerosis
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/2009/10/22/busm-cste-diagnoses-first-former-college-football-player-with-cte/
http://www.mahalo.com/chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy
While checking out the NPR website I found a book excerpt that really caught my attention. The book is called "The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain" by Barbara Strauch. The book looks at research about cognitive abilities over time and when the inevitable decline in ability begins. What most of us have been led to believe is that we are the sharpest, fastest, and smartest when we are in our twenties, around the age of 25. Our brains go through all sorts of changes and growth up to that point and after seem to have platued, or even worse that our cognitive ability seems to decline. We may be familiar with the idea of the average middle aged person forgetting their car keys, wandering around the supermarket trying to remember what they went there for in the first place. We fear aging and have been instilled with this thought that we will never be as sharp or smart as we were in our youth... everything after thirty seems to move steadily down hill.
What the book focuses on is research done by Sherry Willis and her husband K Warner Schaie that appears to show that the old theories are wrong, that our cognitive abilities are at their peak during middle age (age 40 to 65). The findings are so revolutionary it really is hard to believe it. what makes this research so much different than what has been done in the past is that this was a longitudinal study started in 1956. Over 6000 people have been tracked for over 40 years, with cognitive ability tests being administered to the participants every seven years. Most longitudinal studies were not began until the 50s so results and analysis from this type of research is just now becoming available. Previous research looks at groups of differing ages and compares cognitive ability between different sets of people. Tracking the same person over time gives a better picture of when each individual peaks cognitively and when the decline in abilities begins. This new study may change the way we look at the aging brain.
I like knowing that the area of science we know as cognitive psychology isn't done being explored. There is still so much we can discover. We live in a world filled with questioning people seeking to find the ins and outs of our entire existance. Here we see that there is room to change and improve and revolutionize our views to look at our brains in a new way. I want to be in a world that has room for new ideas and space for me to let my questions wander, and I like thinking that even as I age my brain will cooperate and have the capacity to function at a high cognitive level.
The NPR website only gives a brief excerpt from the book, but of course this makes me very curious to see what else there is to learn. I'm very curious to see why its so common to be absentminded and forgetful during middle age even if this is the time of life where our memory is supposed to be so great. Why is it that past research found such a different age to be the peak of cognitive performancce and this reseach says different? Is there a difference in that these participants knew they were going to be tested cognitively, did they do things to preserve and improve their abilities? The bit I read had a brief discussion of differences found between men and women. I am curious to know what these differences are. I just turned 30, and I guess what I liked most about reading this is the promise that my brain hasn't put its best years behind me yet.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story.php?storyid=125902207
For this blog I choose an article I found on the NPR website. The article is called Football’s Brain Injury Lessons Head to Battlefield by Jon Hamilton. This article discusses TBI (traumatic brain injury) acquired by soldiers while at war. I choose this article because it talks about two interests/passions of mine. Obviously I am interested about the brain and I am actively involved in soldiers/veterans affairs. I am highly involved in the VFW and have had numerous involvements with this population. I am very passionate about their treatment both at war and after. So this article instantly got my attention.
When I first noticed this article I wasn’t for sure what it was going to entail and I thought maybe some short of treatment that is currently being used in football had found its way into the war zone. What I found most interesting about the article was the different types or ways a soldier can receive a brain injury. As we all would probably first think of when we think of a soldier receiving a brain injury is the image of shrapnel or debris either violently hitting the head or actually entering it causing damage to the brain. This form would be called secondary blast injury. The second one that we would probably think of is when a blast sends a soldier flying and they crash into something hard causing their brain to be violently shaken inside the head. This can cause a coup-countrecoup injury; causing damage to both front (Frontal Lobe) and back (Occipital Lobe) sections of the brain. This kind of brain injury would be categorized as tertiary blast injury. The last kind is not one that is certainly not thought of as much. It is called primary blast injury. What happens here is the wave from the blast (while at war) very quickly travels and then creates a vacuum thereafter. This blast easily penetrates the armor, skull, and brain. You do not have to see the damage done for it to actually have been done. Apparently the pressure created by the blast compresses the torso, lungs, and blood vessels which sends a blast of dangerous energy into the brain and/or can travel directly through the skull to the brain.
This article relates to the class because we have talked/read a lot about injuries that can occur in the brain affecting such things as sight, memory, speech, and thought processes. The article also talks about lower the resistance of the brain after a first “attack” making any subsequent injury far more devastating to the brain. We have talked a lot of the functioning of the brain and things that impede it and this definitely qualifies and should be taken a closer look at. There is video with this article that helps show the devastating effects TBI can have on a person. It affects every portion of their lives.
Terms: TBI/Traumatic Brain Injury, Secondary Blast Injury, Coup-Countrecoup Injury, Frontal Lobe, Occipital Lobe, Tertiary Blast Injury, Primary Blast Injury, Sight, Memory, Thought Processes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130436629