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The concept I have selected is the ability to recognize faces which is found in the right hemisphere. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and is described as the more artistic and creative side. Specifically, it specializes in combining parts to make a whole whereas the left hemisphere organizes things simultaneously. This makes sense because the process of recognizing a face involves looking at the individual characteristics of the face to associate the name with the face.

The reason I chose the ability to recognize faces is because of my interest in the INABILITY to recognize faces, or “Prosopagnosia”. This spark in interest was a result from a book I recently read titled, “Holding Up the Universe” by Jennifer Niven. The story includes a main character that suffers from Prosopagnosia. The character, Jack, is a teenager navigating through high school as the “popular guy” while he secretly hides his neurological disorder. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. This causes him to fear losing the people he can recognize. Jack survives by developing strategies such as relying on voice or physical attributes to identify individuals, which most individuals with the disorder do.

It is learned throughout the book as Jack researches his disorder, that Prosopagnosia is not associated to memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities. It is thought as the result of abnormalities or damage to a certain section in the brain called the fusiform gyrus or lateral occipitotemporal gyrus, which is a part of the temporal and occipital lobe. The character realizes the disorder was a result from an injury to his head. Jack affirms his self-diagnosis with a real diagnosis from a doctor that tells him he has severe prosopagnosia. And while there’s no cure, there are strategies he can develop to more effectively identify the people around him.

The character, Jack’s neurological disorder is related to the brain unit we learned in class. We learned about the right hemisphere, along with the temporal and occipital lobes. When researching Prosopagnosia, the affected area is called the fusiform gyrus, which function is not fully understood but is said to be related to recognition. Like the hemispheres, the left fusiform gyrus plays the role of recognizing “face-like” features in objects whereas the right fusiform gyrus plays the role in determining whether or not the recognized “face-like” feature is an actual face. It also makes sense that the fusiform gyrus is part of the temporal and occipital lobe, because in class we learned the occipital lobe oversees our visual system and the temporal lobe is involved in organizing and processing information.

The nervous system is divided into many sections with a variety of functions. One section of the nervous system is the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls bodily functions such as heart rate, respiratory rate, digestion and pupillary response. The autonomic nervous system is then divided into two more sections, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems. Each division enables the opposite functions. The sympathetic system arouses your body causing your heart rate to increase, your respiratory rate to increase, your digestion to slow down and your pupils to dilate. The parasympathetic nervous system does the opposite to all of the bodily functions.

When I was younger, I had an extreme fear of any medical facility, which is ironic considering I am now in nursing. I would avoid going to all medical appoints. When my mom would make me go to the doctor I would burst into tears and beg her not to make me go. One day I had to go to the hospital with my mom for her to drop off a sample, she convinced me I would be fine because I was not going to be a patient. All I had to do was walk to a desk, drop off the sample and go back home, seemed simple enough. This small task caused me such distress that when I was walking to the desk my sympathetic nervous system started to engage. My palms were sweating and my heart was racing. When I finally got to the desk the nurse asked me my name but I could not respond, I tried to hand her the sample but the next thing I knew I was on the ground. I fainted and fell straight to the floor. This small task of going to the hospital, caused fear to take over my body and my parasympathetic nervous system to overcompensate for the situation I was in. To help me calm down my parasympathetic nervous system lowered my heart rate, slowed my breathing and caused the blood vessels in my legs to dilate causing blood to pool in my legs. My parasympathetic nervous system slowed my down my bodily functions to such a degree that there was a lack of oxygen in my brain which caused me to faint. Luckily, I was in a hospital so almost everyone around me was qualified to help me increase my heart and respiratory rates back to normal levels.

Most people consider your autonomic nervous system the “fight or flight” response, what they fail to explain that there is also a freeze section of that system. Sometimes when the level of stress you are in is too overwhelming, you freeze because your parasympathetic system takes over for your sympathetic system.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-people-faint.html#targetText=The%20body%20reflexively%20compensates%20by,oxygen%20%E2%80%A6%20and%20you%20lose%20consciousness.

In the first part of class, we learned about the intrinsic structure of all our brains. Specifically, we learned how our brains our divided into two hemispheres and processing in the brain is done on the opposite side of the body; this is referred to as contralateral processing. Through research on subjects that had split-brains, subjects who did not have an intact corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres, researchers discovered that the hemispheres specialize in different information. The left side of our brains processes language and is more analytical whereas the right side processes information through art and music. If they are not connected, the brain hemispheres cannot work together but split-brain patients tend to live life normally because the visual field is the same for both sides. By designing tests that split the vision field, researchers were able to discover the lateralization because participants of the study could only read on one side and draw on the other.
When I was younger, a close family friend had a daughter who suffered from frequent and intense seizures. After her child went through several treatments, her doctors decided to remove one of her brain hemispheres. It was very scary news and I did not understand how anyone could live with only half their brain. Our close family friend taught us how her daughter will struggle with the side of her body that is opposite of the side of the brain that was removed, but the doctors were hopeful that she would still be able to walk and talk because the remaining hemisphere makes up for the missing hemisphere as much as it can. It has been years since the procedure and Ava can walk and talk. She does struggle with one side of her body but she has adapted to this setback. She no longer has seizures and is a beacon of strength in our family. She has really taught all of us how fascinating the brain is.
While learning about contralateral processing, a lot of things that I was told when I was younger with Ava began to really make sense. I am happy that I had the opportunity to educate myself and begin to understand her more.

I am majoring in speech language pathology and in the future, I would love to work with children and adults with autism as a speech therapist. My nephew has autism and it fascinates me to observe how his brain works, his behaviors, his speech, and his way of life. In order to understand how a brain of a person with autism operates, it would be best to focus in and study the neurotransmitters of that human. Neurotransmitters are chemical substances are released at the end of a nerve and sends an impulse which diffuses across the synapse which then causes the transfer of the impulses to other nerves. After doing research, I found that Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Research states that an imbalance in synaptic excitation and inhibition is observed to be an addition onto the diseased physiology of autism spectrum disorder. As most know, people with autism have a tendency of being less communicative, have less eye contact, and they have a harder time expressing their emotions or feelings. Oxytocin is a hormone that is responsible for social bonding, sexual reproduction, childbirth, and the period after childbirth. The hormone usually has pro-social effects on a human. Research has shown that the neuropeptide oxytocin has been implicated to autism. This is a logical stance because social impairments are closely linked to autism spectrum disorder and they lack having social bonding and attachment during childhood and soon after (Neurotransmitters). It has also been found that there is a link between neurotransmitter imbalance and brain connectivity between the two regions of the brain. The imbalance and the lack to communication between the regions plays a role in social communication and language in people autism (Staff).  Therefore, it is evident to see that there is a relation between the neurotransmitters and the brains of people with autism spectrum disorder and it is due to the imbalance of neurotransmitters and the communication loss among regions in the brain. I find this interesting because knowing that I will be working with children with autism in the future, it is helpful to know a little about what the neuroscience is behind why they behave and operate in the manner that they do.

Works Cited:

• • “Neurotransmitters: Spectrum: Autism Research News.” Spectrum, www.spectrumnews.org/wiki/neurotransmitters/.
  • Staff, Science X. “Link Found between Neurotransmitter Imbalance, Brain Connectivity in Those with Autism.” Medical Xpress – Medical Research Advances and Health News, Medical Xpress, 6 June 2018, medicalxpress.com/news/2018-06-link-neurotransmitter-imbalance-brain-autism.html.

 

Today I am focusing on the modern perspective of social-cultural psychology. In psychology, there are multiple viewpoints and theories on why humans behave the way we do. When studying social cultural psychology, it is hypothesized that the environment an individual is a member of will have an effect on their personality, beliefs, and values. The cultural norms and expectations of others will have a large influence on the behavior of an individual. This could be said about a lot of things. For example, in certain cultures, upon greeting one another some people bow, some kiss cheeks, and some shake hands. It is based on the environment they live in. This theory may be evaluated from personal experiences.

For 16 years, I grew up in a mostly white, upper-middle class neighborhood in New Jersey. The town I was originally from had high taxes, nice neighborhoods, and a well-run administration. The one thing it lacked was diversity in its schools. It was my junior year in high school when my parents decided to move out of the district. My family and I relocated a few towns over and this school district had a larger population of minorities compared to my previous. I soon figured out that the school I was now enrolled in was significantly more “woke”. What it means to be woke is to understand the oppression that others in society go through or simply be “cultured”. Furthermore, my new school had more awareness of social, environmental, and political problems that are occurring today. This was shown through clubs and organizations that were offered at the school as well as the overall beliefs of the student body. I gained more of a grasp of what others that are struggling to go through.

Social cultural psychology ties in with my story. This is shown by the fact that I developed different values from my new environment. Previously, I was merely aware of issues both global and locally, it is once I moved to my new community that I started to become more involved. For example, it was the norm for people in my school to use metal straws. Since everyone had them, this influenced me to get one and support the use of them. Now, I tend to not use plastic straws at all; I involuntarily use metal straws, reusable bags, and save electricity. Also, I do not judge people as much as I did. I feel as if I have become more cultured just being surrounded by more woke people. My new environment has affected my beliefs socially and environmentally. I can truly say that this experience has changed me as an individual and that is why social-cultural psychology is an important study.

Sources:

https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/opinion/woke-mean/

https://www.slideshare.net/kbolinsky/introduction-49481503

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/413205334552386339/

 

Selective attention has always been a hard concept for me. I do not understand how we can focus on something completely off topic knowing that what we should really be focusing on is more important. In a large classroom setting like we have here at Penn State, it is very hard to focus all of your attention on one thing. No matter where you sit in the classroom or large lecture hall like Thomas 100, something (often more than one time) takes your attention off the professor and to that one thing. During your time when you are off focus, you often miss important information that your professor is saying. You could have your focus on the distraction for only a few seconds, or you can be focused on this distraction for the whole lecture time. 

For me, this experience happens more than once during each one of my lectures each day. I usually sit in the back of the classroom because that is usually where I am more focused because not everyone is looking at me. The location to which I now sit in large lectures has changed drastically because of one experience. 

I was sitting in the back of my Biology 240W lecture class in Thomas 100 (where I always sit) when my attention was taken off the professor for the entire 50 minute lecture. The girl who was sitting directly in front of me was watching “FRIENDS”, which is one of my favorite television shows. Instead of listening to the professor, I focused my attention on the girl’s computer watching the hilarious show. When the lecture was over, I was in shock that I did not pay one single minute to the actual content of the class (and I missed all the clicker questions). This was not a good outcome when I got back to my dorm to complete the homework, realizing that I knew nothing of what was just discussed. I had to ask my friend to meet up that night and help me with the homework to understand the content. With her assistance, I did end up understanding what was discussed in lecture while I was watching “FRIENDS”. 

To ensure that I would not be distracted in the next lecture and have to inconvenience my friend for her help, I moved my seat closer to the front so there would be less distractions. And sure enough, I was able to focus all my attention on the professor during the next lecture because I was close to the front, with little distractions, and the professor was very close to me so I was more motivated to pay attention.

From this experience, I now sit closer to the front in my large lectures to avoid situations like this, and that has helped me tremendously in all of my classes. With this change, I noticed a large change in how well I understand the content by paying attention and not being as distracted. 

         Blog Assignment #1: The Nervous System

          The nervous system is the key communication system in the body, absorbing and producing data from the surrounding environment that unites the body and mind. The environment effects the way that the nervous system reacts to and organizes the information incoming to the brain. The basic element of the nervous system is a special cell that transmits nerve impulses through chemical and electrical signals, called the neuron. Neurons communicate both to other systems and other cells in the body due to synapses that form between the neurons (The Brain and Nervous System).

An example of how the nervous system would work in a specific instance could be explained through an experience my brother had at the beach several years ago. Already placed in a calm setting with a light breeze and crashing waves in the background as the sunlight streamed down on a seemingly perfect afternoon, my brother noticed he was getting hungry (which is controlled by his hypothalamus) and needed lunch. He decided on a meatball sub sandwich which was permitted by his frontal lobe as it controls the ability to make choices. Eating his massive sub on the warm sand, my brother did not notice the seagull flying above the tasty looking sandwich, circling the little blond boy while waiting for the opportunity to strike. The chance came as my brother turned his head away from the food. As the seagull swooped into view and grabbed the entire meatball sub from his little hands, his nervous system was quickly activated.

The nervous system has two separate parts, called the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and the central nervous system (CNS). General information is taken in by the PNS’s sensory neurons and then sent to the CNS to be processed. The CNS then communicates instructions back to the PNS of how to react to a specific setting or situation. The neurons that are responsible for bringing information to the CNS are called afferent neurons, which carry nerve impulses towards the brain, while efferent neurons use axons to transport impulses towards the body’s muscles and are used to carry the responses back to the PNS (Boundless).

My brother’s PNS absorbed the information in his surrounding environment, using its sensory and motor neurons to connect the CNS to the rest of the body. The CNS, which consists of the brain and the spinal cord, processes the data to transmit a response back to the PNS, where the autonomic and the somatic nervous system comes into play (Nervous System). The autonomic nervous system controls his self-regulated action and internal organs and glands, which transform into either the sympathetic (arousing) or the parasympathetic (calming) division, commonly understood as the fight or flight response. Because my brother got scared, his body was in distress, sending signals to his brain from the PNS that he needed to remove himself from what he viewed as a threat, resulting in him flinching away from the seagull with a yell. In his panic, his blood pressure and heart rate increased, making the parasympathetic division work harder to try to calm him down, both physically and mentally. He was able to quickly move away from the bird due to his somatic nervous system and his cerebellum, which controls his voluntary muscle movements.

The CNS tells the PNS how to react – what muscles to move, decides if lungs need more oxygen, and any other biological processes – and the PNS allows the response to happen. The body’s nervous system is what keeps us safe, alarming us of potential danger and calming us when we need to relax. A functioning nervous system is imperative for human survival as it keeps us safe.

 

 

Works Cited

Boundless. “Boundless Psychology.” Lumen,            https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/the-nervous-system/.

“Nervous System.” Visor Gang Science, https://visorganganatomyandphysiology.weebly.com/nervous-system.html.

“The Brain and Nervous System.” Noba, https://nobaproject.com/modules/the-brain-and-nervous-system.