Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a serious disease. It can instantly shoot rapid stages of  sleep at any time. So you will fall asleep in almost any place this disease strikes. It is a sleep disorder and comes in a variety of stages or how harsh it is. Some are so harsh that in a day you can fall asleep 60 times. This is dead serious because without help or assistance then it can be fatal in case you fall asleep in the wrong place. We saw a video on this poor man who has a severe case of narcolepsy. He also has a disease where all his muscles just sleep too, and combined with narcolepsy it is highly dangerous. This man can fall asleep on an interview and even when walking on the sidewalk, you might laugh at him or what he does, but what if he fell asleep while crossing the street alone, or when cooking with a sharp knife? You should think more considerately and not be childish about this. This man is a fighter because without his will to continue his life with this rare and harsh abnormality then he would not be alive yet. So think about this and do something for a change.

Sleep and Dreaming

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Is a dream real? Does it show what we really desire? Dreams appear when we are sleeping. Dreaming is not as simple as "ohh we sleep and we immediately dream" it is far more complicated than kid's basics. Sleeping is composed of various stages that are continuously repeated various times as soon as we go to sleep. Scientists have developed many ingenious ways to test dreams, such as removing a cat's part of the brain that makes them be paralyzed during their state of sleep, and it resulted in the cat reenacting their dreams. This is a radical treatment that scientists refuse to try with humans. Also their is a scientist that proved that if woken during any other sleep state other than rem or rapid eye movement, the person will have positive thoughts or emotions and if woken in rem then they will have dark thoughts and emotions. Also they have tried to harness dreams. A scientist will flash a light to someone sleeping but this won't wake them but will simply make them aware of them being asleep. So the persons will be able to control their dreams. In conclusion dreams are fascinating but are still a mystery to u and we must wait till their secrets are revealed.

Genius, Savant and Autism

1. Explain in detail what "savant syndrome" means.

The savant syndrom can be gotten under certain circumstances and genetically. It means that the person is highly brilliant in a specific task but lacks in all others. Half the savants in the world have developed autism. It happens when the electro magnetic impulses in the left dominant side of the brain slow down to a almost non functional point.
2. What does genius mean?  Explain the difference between genius and savant.

A genius is a person who excells at most areas or a specific area while maintaining a greater strength in all other aspects. A genius is characterized for having an IQ of over 130. The difference between a Savant and a Genius is that Savants have a downside to being prominent in an area, and that is lacking inmensly in all other areas.

3. What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?Its a blockage in an artery that deprives the brain from oxygen, and thus disabling speech, and numbness, and eye vission loss. It could be permanent if not treated immediately, because the brain can not be deprived of oxygen.

4. What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?
It is a more specialized MRI that measures the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging. It helps us understand the mapping of the bran to a more detailed level related to blood and oxygen movement.

5. What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?
Its the flat bundle of neural fibers beneath the brain. Contains the most white mass, and it has been proven that it is generally bigger in musicians and artists, and it can be cut to reduce epilepsia.

6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?
Its a common chronic neurological disorder that damages the brain by making the part affected numb and facial expressions from that side are paralyzed.

7. What is autism?

 Its a disorder of neural development and it affects and impairs social behaviour and social interaction and comunication. 50% of all savants worldwide have it.
8. What is Asperger's Syndrome?Similar to Autism but detracts from it because of the linguistic and interest of those who have it. Some kids are inmensly interested in how molecular structure is at a early age.

WEB SITES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_collosum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_MRI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius

http://www.womensheart.org/content/stroke/what_is_a_stroke.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger%27s_Syndrome

http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_brain

Synesthesia

1.Synesthesia: Synesthesia is aneurologically-based condition in which a sensory pathway automatically activates a secondary pathway.

2.Grapheme-Color Synesthesia: A type of Synthenesia in which numbers are perceived as colors.

3.Ordinal-Linguistic Personification: Is a type of Synesthesia in which days of the week, months, are associated with personalities.

4. Number-Form Synesthesia: Type of Synesthesia in which numbers, especific dates appear as a map to people.

5. Sound-Color Synesthesia: A type of Synesthesia in which music appears as colors.

6. Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia: Synesthesia in which speaking, words and literature provoke the person to feel taste in the mouth.

LINKS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

http://www.synesthesia.com.au/id1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinal_linguistic_personification

Sensory Depravation

Sensory depravation is a very radical thign to do, and this experiment made shows how extreme this can be and how dangerous it can be. There is a video we saw earlier on a little girl who was kept secluded from every single aspect of society and this causes her brain connections to be lost and not be able to get a full brain capacity.This girl brought scienctists an excellent speciment to find out more about what seclusion can do to the brain and why. That little girl brought many questions to the scientists investigating her. Some are: Why is she so under developed or why can't she have full brain capacity. So in the new video we saw we can see an experiment on sensory depravation made by the United Statesto prove what Sensory depravation does to humans and its cure. The video shows how people start to lose it because of not being able to use their senses in life and at the end the mental result is amazing and shows that after the seclussion peopel where "slower" and more lost. So never seclude a kid from his problems so there is no problem because of miscomunication.

Accidental Savant

Accidents happen, are they always wrong? Well for the 2 guys in the videos we saw there are huge pros as well as bad cons. The first one can do huge calculations to a extreme level, and can "remember" over 20000 digits of pi. He doesn't see them but his brain does the formula and he gives out the formula by seeing it. Our second "savant" as we call them, people skilled in some areas better than others. Has mental retardation, but he has memorized not read memorized over 9000 books. He is walking encyclopedia, and knows many maps by memory.  The third is a guy who got a stroke that practically paralyzed his left brain side which granted him artistic abilities. Savants are born or created like the first one who gained his power by a stroke as a kid. Savants are great people we need to inspect to know and unlock our brains potential.

Trained Genius

Chess is a game of the mind. Some just don't have what it takes. Well the woman in this video proves genius genetics wrong. She is a grand chess master, and she got to that level of playing not thanks to genetics. She tells her story of how her dad taught her everything she knows, and how she became a pro. She practiced and practiced until she became one of the best. She plays by recognizing chess move the same as we recognize a face. This has been proven by using MRI. She is a trained genius and prodigy who is also revolutionary because she is a girl, which most men thought was not possible. She has a great perception and makes moves almost instantly because she remembers them by memory alone and does it almost by instinct. Her ability is awesome and she is good example that you don't need to be born a genius to be a prodigy at something.

Born Genius

Being a genius is a privilege some simply don't have. The little pianist as I like to call him, is the little kid in our video. He is a genius in the piano. He also has a hearing so good he can distinguish pitches of sounds perfectly. At age 4 he could play 4 pages of music. He is a born genius because even though he practices 8 hours a day, no kid would willingly practice that much. He is a worthy appraisal of what the human brain is capable when created.  His abilities are captivating and inspire awe and amazement when he plays such beautiful pieces by memory. He knows 40 pieces by memory and can play without seeing too. Being who he is inspires admiration. He is a prodigy and makes many people want to put him as an example as he puts another prodigy as his example.

Homosexuality and You

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     Homosexuality, are you born with it, or acquire it throughout life? Being gay is totally fine, and it is simply ones taste in love. In psychology we watched a video regarding homosexuality. It says every male has a certain probability of becoming gay, and having older brothers increases your chances of becoming homosexual. At first you have a 5% chance of becoming homosexual if you are the first male born into the family, but after every male's chance increases by one third. So being gay is just something we can be born with. Also I know my friend Fuad Hasbun, has two younger brothers and neither seems to be homosexual, which seems to prove that they missed the probabilities of becoming homosexual. This could mean also mean that it is a very little chance of being genetic, also gay and non gay twins is a good way to observe these changes, I would have never thought of a way to see genetics by using twins. It proves that sometimes being gay is a genetic cause, and that sometimes it is simply something that comes from where you live and the environment you live in. For example I think that living in a neighborhood where everyone is gay will simply make you gay. People can recognize a gay person by simply observing their sign language and how they are. This proves that you can differentiate homosexuals from glance. I don't have anything against them and I think that people who hate them are haters and they will be hated. I think that if you are born with it then there's nothing wrong with it.

Murderers Mind Is it their Fault?

A murderer is a evil person acording to society. Or so I saw it up until I saw that informative video with Mr. Dougherty. I learned that sometimes, a killer was created by a trauma, bad memory, or abuse as a child. This causes the killer to feel no remorse or lamentation over killing people or causing bad things. A criminal is never to be understimated and can reveal its true intentions thanks to the MRI scan. While scanning the crikinal while showing him gruesome pictures and his brain shows happines by wwatching it then it means that the criminal mind is still there and will stirke back. Murderers who feel no remorse or pain by commiting atrocious crimes are not safe from society. But these murderers are not born like this. These generally come formed thanks to a trauma the murderer suffered from a young age and or abuse received by young age. All these things formed the killer people see and despise all the time. If only people knew why murderers commit such things, that way we can stop them and get them the health they so desperately need. If there was a cure for the neurological desorder killers have then life would be easier for all of us, no deaths, nor murders. If we try to see people this way then we can see they don't have "all" the fault for trying to murder someone. I think that if a person's willpower is strong enough, then this indivivdual may have enough inner strength to overide their brains and take control over their actions. This can be done by encouraging people to take the right decisions and instruct since little what is right and what is wrong. Trying will help and is definitely making a difference from people who consider murderers to be "born" evil. I think that if we all took a part in helping criminals, then our lives would be much safer and easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5NKsuXmkDM

Brain Damage and its Effects

Brain damage, is and can sometimes be fatal. We must be careful of what we do and what we cause by our actions. Hurting your head with the wall or headbanging a friend only affects your chances of living a normal life. Brain damage is a very common thing to happen to humans while living our everyday life. People in the video viewed in class show problems doing everyday tasks, or multitasking, and simply remembering stuff. I think that we as thinking human beings should try to be more careful while doing dangerous stuff or just around us. Why don't we think throughly our actions instead of ending with a brain truma that will possibly change our lives forever? Lets consider these thoughts based on the video we watched because if we are not carefull, then you might be the next person with brain damage. Mental retardation may be the result of a concussion caused by a game between friends and that simple game just cost a friend his lifestyle. I don't think we should not play, but to play with precausions and being careful. So keep in mind that we may be the difference between brain trauma and a normal lifestyle thanks to our good actions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtHvBF4t-E

MRI Mind Reading

The human brain, a highly complex thing. It controls our every thought and is what gives us personality, intelligence, and emotions. It has been practically imposibleto study the human brain without a extraction of it. But thanks to technology MRI or magnetic resonance imaging, we can "see" the brain without extraction. These advances in technologies are excelent for finding brain tumors, or simply mental problems a person has. Experimentation has brought us to the point of being able to distinguish with the machine what the Person is saying. It is simply awesome what people can do now. Machines never stop to amaze you, and their benefits are invaluable. Reading a person's mind to a little extent is a marvelous thing, but developing more complex computers that specify in even more complex mental patterns, then we may get to the extent of even finding out if a person is thinking a full sentence. And a future extent of this technology may take us to the power of telepathy or mental talk. I love what scientists can do and use their machines for. MRI is a great marvel of this era and if upgraded will save more lives and make our capabilities extend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jc8URRxPIg

My first Assignment (My teenage mind and I)

The teenage brain is very different to any other brain stage, since it is in a very important yet dangerous stage. My thoughts on this is that it is very accurate. The video tells us that we are in a stage where good and bad is hard to distinguish. The video also tellls us that parents will usually give us a hard time. I know all of this and can relate to it. Teen's brain needs more sleep in order to develop and therefore waking up early for class affects highly this. I sleep in class alot, and there are many teachers who can prove it. This is thanks to my evolving brain, which is allowing me to reason why I am posting this right now. I have a peculiar thing that my parents are angry at me for is that I see things differently in my mind than my parents do. What I find as simple logic is not right to them even though I am 100%  sure that its the right thing to do. My mind is exactly as the video shows except the exageration of the teenage whining Charlie had. I am just a normal teen with parent issues that I hope are over soon.