Topics 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 topical blog assignment.
What I would like you to do is to either go to NPR (http://www.npr.org/ ), the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) or any news site listed at the bottom of this page (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ listed in their news sources) 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 BRIEFLY telling us in essay format:
What your topic is and what the piece you chose was. Why you picked it (what made it interesting for you) and what did you expect to see. What did you find most interesting about the piece
Next discuss IN DETAIL how it relates to the class using terms, terminology, and concepts that we have learned so far in class. Include definitions.
Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
The piece I chose for this blog post was “Boston hospital team performs first full face transplant in U.S.” I originally saw an article on BBC’s website about facial transplants but it did not have enough information and I decided to look for other articles elsewhere. I found this article on the Washington Post website. I picked it because I was interested in how a facial transplant will affect sensation. I expected to see some information about the surgery that occurred and how the patient is doing so far.
This article discusses the first full face transplant that was completed in the United States to a man whose face had been badly burned when his head touched a high-voltage power line. A team of 30 medical professionals transplanted the muscles, forehead, nose, lips, and skin from an anonymous donor onto the man. Unfortunately they were unable to restore his vision but he should receive up to 90% of the sensation on the right side of his forehead, check, upper and lower lip. The left side of the face had too much nerve damage to expect more than minimal sensation. However, this transplant should help him breathe, eat, talk and restore some expression in his face.
This article relates to the class because it discusses how damage to the skin, eyes, etc. can influence our ability to sense and perceive what is happening around us. After the initial electrocution the patient probably experienced extreme pain. Pain is felt through nociceptors which have bare nerve endings. These receptors signal to the brain that there is tissue damage. They may have used forms of endogenous opiates that help block the transmission of pain. By damaging the nerve endings some of his face will not be able to regain sensation. However, it is remarkable that he will gain 90% sensation on his one side of the face. I could not imagine what he has gone through for the past three years and what it would be like to be able to smile, and feel the movements in his face. The doctors were unable to regain his eyesight which means there was considerable damage to his eyes from the burn.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/boston-hospital-team-performs-first-full-face-transplant-in-us/2011/03/21/AB9SD68_story.html
I chose an article called “And the Blink Shall See”, which is about a device called Argus II that helps people who have gone blind to see. Like cochlear implants that help deaf people hear, this device is inserted into the eye. People using this device wear glasses that have a tiny video camera on them which converts the images into electrical signals and send them to the device inside the eye. It’s called a retinal prosthesis because the device is implanted in the retina. This is so because the process of seeing begins in the retina. The light from an outside source is transduced, transformed from light to electricity, into information that can be read by the brain. The article talks about the story of one man, Elias Konstantopoulos, who gradually lost his sight after his mid-40s. He was diagnosed with a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which eats away at the photoreceptors in the retina called the rods and cones. Rods are responsible for light and cones are responsible for color and detail. The loss of both would result in severe blindness, something Konstantopoulos suffered from. He had the device implanted and now he can see the luminance of an object and therefore is able to navigate around a room. This is possible because instead of the light having to go through the retina to be transduced, it goes through the device and straight to the brain through the optic nerve. This is a fairly new device so complete vision is not present but it’s being worked on.
I picked this article because I think it’s amazing how far technology has come in the past few decades. The cochlear implant has already allowed for thousands of people to hear and it’s only a matter of time before this implant allows for people to see again. I think the most interesting thing about this article is the fact that these devices exist and seem to work at a minimal level.
Terms: retina, transduced, photoreceptors, rods, cones, blindness, luminance
http://health.iafrica.com/healthnews/719262.html
The chimps yawned more when they saw their group members yawning. Yawning is contagious not just for humans, but for our primate relatives, the chimpanzees, according to a study. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, US, have used footage of yawning chimps to test the phenomenon in a group of the animals. The chimps yawned more after watching the videos. And they were affected more by yawns of their group members than by those of unfamiliar chimps. Dr Matthew Campbell and Dr Frans de Waal showed the footage to 23 adult chimpanzees, which had been raised in two separate groups. Each animal viewed several nine-second video clips of other chimpanzees either yawning or doing something else.
They yawned 50% more frequently in response to seeing members of their group yawn compared with seeing others yawn. The findings suggest that contagious yawning is a good empirical measure of empathy. The team says that it was this social connection rather than just how much attention the chimps paid to the videos that influenced the "contagiousness" of the yawns. The researchers wrote in the journal: "The chimpanzees actually watched the videos of unfamiliar individuals more than the videos of familiar individuals. "They [paid more attention] to the unfamiliar yawns, but yawned more to the familiar yawns," they explained. "Given that chimpanzees exhibit both altruism and extreme violence toward others, studying how and when empathy is engaged may tell us about how humans switch between these two extremes as well.
In a way this relates to what we have learned in Sensation and Perception because the chimpanzees are using their selective attention skills and using their visual system to mimic what the familiar or unfamiliar animal or human is doing such as yawning.
Terms: visual system, selective attention
Watch the short video!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9450000/9450234.stm
For this assignment, I found an interesting article about a hearing aid that is in the mouth. The article I chose is titled, "Dental Hearing Aid Approved in Europe" and is from the Huffington Post. According to the article, there are approximately 25 million people in the world who should be wearing a hearing aid. However, there are only about 5 million people who wear them. The author of the article thinks that part of the reason why some people don't wear one when they need it is due to the stigma. Therefore a device that is virtually invisible may lead more people to be willing to use a hearing aid.
Soundbite, is a new hearing aid device that has just been approved in Europe is a hearing aid that is inserted in your mouth and attaches to your upper molars. This new device is primarily for people who suffer hearing loss in only one ear. This device is different than all others because it uses bone vibrations to transmit signals. How it works is that once the device is in your mouth, a small microphone outside your ear will pick up sounds, transmit them to the device and then to the brain. This is believed to stimulate the natural hearing experience that would take place in the brain.
I chose this article because I thought it was interesting, and I liked the fact that it is a new way to help people who suffer from hearing loss. We have learned in class the different main parts of the ear; the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. We have also learned about cochlear implants, which are hearing aids that are surgically entered. However, we have never discussed the possibility of a hearing aid using bone vibrations to transmit and interpret sounds.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/dental-hearing-aid-approv_n_839007.html
The device, called SoundBite, is primarily designed for people who are deaf in one ear. It attaches to the upper molars (left or right) and once in place is barely visible. However, the typical hearing-aid look isn't completely tossed aside; the device on your teeth "communicates" with a small microphone in your ear. The small ear mic picks up sound from your surroundings and transmits them wirelessly back to the device in your mouth, providing the ability to hear spatially.
Whoa, so once in place, does that mean that you can eat with it on/in? I looked at other websites that talked about these soundbites and could not find the answer but this European invention is legit.
For this weeks assignment I decided to look at the looming shut down of the government. Currently the Republicans and the Democrats are unable to find some middle ground on the budget for the entire Federal Government. This means that if a budget deal is not reached by the end of Friday, that all non essential government jobs will shut down until one is reached. This means that thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people will be out of work. Not to mention things like the IRS and National Parks will be shut down. One might ask why would these two sides not just come to some middle ground for the sake of the country? This is where the psychology comes in, each side is trying to play the other and make them look responsible for the problem, so that when election time rolls around in 2012 they can use that to help them campaign. They think if they can convince the public that one side is responsible for the shut down of the government, that will give them a huge momentum burst come election time. I think that this a poor strategy from both sides because i think that these law makers are forgetting what their job is, and that is to serve the people. I have to ask how the government shutting down is good for the people? I think these politicians need to be reminded of what their job is and to actually get down to serving the people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/government-shutdown-2011_n_846525.html
A recent study published in the Archives of Otolaryngology shows evidence that newborns who eventually needed cochlear implants are being overlooked by screenings performed by doctors. These infants suffer from delayed onset and progressive hearing loss. Cochlear implants are electronic devices that stimulate the auditory nerve and allow those with severe hearing loss to process sound. The reason that one third of these children disorders not being caught during screening is unfortunate is because the longer the patients go without hearing the less help the implants seem to do. This is especially bad news because apparently the majority of hearing disorders are progressive and not apparent at birth. One might think that they would tighten up the screenings in states with mandatory screenings of infants but actually the researchers of this study are suggesting the exact opposite. They claim that if screening times are pushed back then babies with delayed onset progressive hearing loss might be caught. This is because signs of hearing loss often go unnoticed by parents and primary care physicians especially after a screening for hearing is passed. Research like this is a reminder that although many strides have been made in helping individuals with hearing loss we still have much further to go. Hopefully this study can shed some light on how to move forward and help children with hearing loss.
Terms: colear Implants, auditory nerve, delayed onset progressive hearing loss.
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/651020.html
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/25469
The controversy behind medical marijuana is if really is helps relieve pain. Chapter 12 states that pain is a subjective state. We experience the perception of pain as both a source and the emotion that accompanies pain. I thought it would be interesting to see what researchers believe medical marijuana helps with. Does it reduce a painful source of the pain or the emotion linked to pain.
The article “Marijuana Provides Pain Relief, New Study Says” states marijuana is associated with the reduction of muscle spans and pain that comes with neurological injuries or illness. California is the only state that sponsors medical marijuana research. The research has found similar findings. That migraine headaches and facial pain are reduced by smoking marijuana which decreases the activity of nerve cells that transmit pain. The article also stated that out of the patients who smoked the real marijuana reported improvement, and most said that they experienced relief from pain.
However the article states that the most potent marijuana caused mental confusion. The potency of the drug was not associated with relief of pain. This could mean that it really helps with the source of the pain, not so much the emotion.
http://www.google.com/search?q=marijuana+provides+pain+relief%2C+new+study+says&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8
I choose to search for anosia. I found this topic to be interesting in the book. I always find disorders that have to do with loss of a scent to be interesting because we take our senses for granted and never think about what it would be like to live without them. This article is about a women who lost her sense of smell and talk about her experience along with a book that she has wrote about her life since. I thought it was interesting that in a study most people said that hey would rather lose a big toe than their sense of smell. Taste is made of of 90% of our sense of smell. If food smells good, it will taste that much better to us. Bonnie lost her sense of smell due to a cold remedy called zicam. She talks about not being able to smell anything in her garden or any perfume that she is given. I thought it was interesting that she said the side effect of anosia is that is it invisable. Poeple in your life will forget you have it and almost rub it in your face then that you cant smell something wonderful in your environment. Bonnie uses her husband and daughter has her nose and relies on them for even some survival tatics. Overall i found this article to be interesting because you get to see how anosia actaully affects someones life.
anosmia is the total inability to smell most often resulting from sinus illness or head trauma. fractured cribriform plates( a bony structure riddled with tiny holes, at the level of the eyebrows, that separates the nose from the brain. the axons from the olfactory sensory neurons pass through the tiny holes of the cribriform plate to enter the brain.) typically scar over when this occurs and that precents the new OSN axons from passing through to the brain and crippling the sense of smell for life.
Terms- anosmia OSN and cribriform plates
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bonnie-blodgett/anosmia-the-quiet-killer_b_648971.html
While reading chapter 12 I came across phatom limb. This is a term I have heard about before and I am very interested in the science behind it. Phatom limb as defined by the book is a perceived sensation from a physically amputated limb of the body. To me this blows my mind that a person can feel something that is not there! But hey, thats how the brain works right? I decided to conduct further research on phantom limb. What I came across is very interesing and still has to do with touch. In the article title, it says "Beware of PVS!"... You might ask, what is PVS? PVS is Phantom VIbration Syndrome. This may sound silly but the person writing the article really does believe this occurs. The weird part is, so do I! TO me it only makes sense because I really do sometime feel my phone vibrate in my pocket when it is not there. Whether or not people like to admit it we really do anticipate for our phone to vibrate. I know if you are anything like me, you wait for it. We need to feel needed. It is this idea in our brain that makes the slightest virbation feel like it is our phone going off in our pocket when it is not there.
Even more interesting to me is that people are actually going to the doctor for this to try to get it treated! Some people are silly. Doctors have no idea how to treat PVS. Doctors are actually working on different approaches to try to figure out a way to treat PVS. (I hope our money is not going to this research). There are actually foundations springing up to try to raise money for reasearch on PVS. This concept is crazy but true. It makes me laugh but can also be serious to some people I guess. If you are interested, I would really encourage you to read the article. It really makes you think.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-hidary/beware-of-ppvs-its-spread_b_751661.html