Month: September 2019

Personal Experience with Neuropsychology

“The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body. The brain is made up many specialized areas working together as well as nearly 100 billion nerves that communicate in trillions of connections. “This is a phenomenon in itself that an organ no bigger than the size of a melon can control all the nerves in our body and tell us exactly what to do. Another phenomenon to discuss is how the brain operates at such a high successful rate each and every day, but the reality is the brain does have its deficiency’s. The study of Neuropsychology examines damage to the brain in certain areas. This damage deals with the relationship between cognitive, emotional, behavioral and brain functions. About half a year ago, I had an experience with brain damage in my family and got to experience Neuropsychology first hand.

During Easter weekend last year, my family came up to visit me as usual. We would go to church Sunday morning in Pasquerilla, and then have a nice Easter brunch at the Nittany Inn. On this particular Easter, my dad picked me up from my apartment and we went off to church, and everything seemed normal as I didn’t question anything. It was after church as we proceeded to go to brunch did my family notice a difference. When we got in the car, he started to repeatedly ask us “Where am I going?” and “Where am I?”. This wasn’t particularly too odd because normally dads will be dads and ask the same question over and over again just to mess around with you. But, then he asked my mom multiple times “Did we check out of the hotel?” after he clearly gave my mom the room keys to go check out. Along with this, he kept checking the back of the car to see if they were all packed not realizing that the trunk was filled and they were ready to go home. It only got worse as he mistook the pineapple on my plate for eggs, was not eating anything, and began getting up from his seat to walk around and just stare up at the ceiling blankly. It was at this point that my family and I knew something was definitely wrong. Fifteen minutes into brunch we left, and rushed to Nittany hospital. In Nittany hospital they put my dad into stroke alert and began performing tests on him. Luckily, my father did not have a full on stroke, but he did experience what is called Transient Global Amnesia. TGA is a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss and can often be associated with neurological conditions such as strokes or amnesia. The symptoms resided themselves within 24 hours, but their is still a portion of the day that my dad does not remember at all and for a slight second he could not even remember who I was. I think it is safe to say that we can classify Transient Global Amnesia as a study in Neuropsychology. Below is a link demonstrating more information on TGA as well as how the brain looks while undergoing this amnesia scare.

https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/brain-dysfunction/transient-global-amnesia

Image result for transient global amnesia brain

The image above shows the progression the brains takes as Transient Global Amnesia happens. Over time, blood vessels that head to the brain get clogged ultimately causing this neurological condition. The doctor showed us similar images to these and further explained how this cloggage messes up memory and some body motions.

Reference to opening brain statement:

https://www.webmd.com/brain/picture-of-the-brain#1

Performance Anxiety and the Autonomic Nervous System

The autonomic nervous system is divided into two parts -the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems – which are both located in the spinal cord. Both of these are self-regulated, meaning that we can’t control what they do. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system are basically exact opposites of each other when it comes to their function.

The sympathetic nervous system, commonly known for its “fight or flight” reaction, exists to help prepare your body for emergency or stressful situations that might require a rapid response. When it’s triggered by a stimulus, the sympathetic nervous system responds by dilating your pupils, increasing your heart rate, making you breathe faster, and causing you to sweat, among other things. These responses may not feel pleasant, but they allow your body to react more quickly and appropriately in an emergency.

On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for relaxing your body, and is often associated with the phrase “rest and digest.” This is in charge of regulating your body during normal daily activity, as well as returning your body to its natural relaxed state after your sympathetic nervous system takes effect. The graphic below demonstrates examples of how both the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems can affect the various organs in your body.

 

Like many musicians, I often struggle with performance anxiety – feelings of fear and extreme nervousness right before either a performance or an audition. One of my most memorable examples of this happened during my flute audition to get into the Penn State School of Music. As I walked into my audition, I started to get really nervous and freaked out. My lips started to shake uncontrollably, making it very hard to control my airstream while playing my flute. My hands also started to shake, and my heart felt as if it was racing. My palms were sweaty, making it hard to hold my flute. After my audition, I was able to calm down and relax. My hands stopped sweating and shaking, and I was able to breathe at a more regular rate.

This demonstrates the autonomic nervous system because my brain sensed that I was fearful and nervous and sent signals to my sympathetic nervous system to react accordingly, sending my body into a “fight-or-flight” mode. After my audition, my brain sensed that the fearful situation was over, it triggered signals to my parasympathetic nervous system, allowing my body to relax and function much more normally.

Works Cited

Haneef, Deena T. Kochunni, Jazir. 9 Differences between Sympathetic Nervous System and Parasympathetic Nervous System. https://www.majordifferences.com/2017/03/9-differences-between-sympathetic.html. Accessed 19 Sept. 2019.

The Process Of Attention Cassidy Rushlow

 

Cassidy Rushlow

Psych 100

Professor Wede 

Due September 18th, 2019

Blog Assignment #1

Psychology is “the study of behavior and mental processes”. (Wede). Becoming educated and being aware of the ideas brought forth in this study helps individuals better understand themselves in a more in depth way that relates to many aspects of their life. One aspect of psychology is the study of attention. Attention includes many factors in order to make this possible, it is not just focusing on one thing in particular. When having attention and focusing on something, the body uses many different parts of the body in order to make this possible. The factors of attention more specifically selective attention is something I have personally experienced. 

The body is only capable of focusing on and interpreting one thing or direction at a time. This is called selective attention. Unfortunately, when you have selective attention, your body only allows yourself to focus on one thing at a time, resulting in missing details included in your surroundings.  An example as to when I noticed and experienced selective attention was when my phone was stolen. At the time, I was at the movie theatre with my friends and had my phone placed in the empty seat next to me. Although my phone was placed in a different seat then the one I was sitting in, I made sure if was visible to me, in my line of sight, so I was able to make sure I knew where it was and it wouldn’t be stolen. 

When watching the movie, I became very interested in what was playing on the movie  theater screen. My interested caused me to apply myself require energy and use mental effort for what I was looking and focusing on,  a side effect of part attention. Part attention is the act of not completely focusing on one thing in particular.  As I watched, my retinas were assisting in my understanding of the movie. This is a result of my retinas properly using the sensory receptors they contain in order for what I was seeing to be processes and the information sent to my brain.  As my interests in the film progressed, the movie became the main thing I was looking at and focusing on. This is the moment I believe my phone was  stolen. At this point, I was no longer looking at and paying attention to where my phone was, allowing it to be stolen and me not noticing. 

This particular situation involving my change in specific types of attention resulted in my phone being stolen. Although I was aware of my phone at the beginning of the movie, my attention focus shifted in a way that affected my awareness of my surroundings. Due to my main focus bringing on the film, I ended up to being able to distinguish a specific time as to when my phone was taken. At the time, I was not aware the ideas about attention brought forth in psychology which limited my ability to understand the concept as to how it was possible for me to not notice my phone was gone.

Experience Changes the Way You Perceive- Sammie Riley (Group 8)

Experience Changes the Way You Perceive
Every Tuesday and Thursday, I go to Psychology class. Every time I attend Psychology class, I learn something interesting and worth sharing. One thing I have noticed around the classroom and in lecture is the idea of experience changing the way we (humans) perceive things.
The idea that one person perceives the same experience in a totally different light isn’t just an idea- it’s a fact.
Think about it: every person is born and raised differently. Not to mention, everyone has an entirely different biological and chemical makeup.
This idea can be backed up by many personal anecdotes; everyday we perceive situations [differently than our peers or family members] based of our experiences- whether it be subconsciously or consciously.
One personal example I thought to share is related to my experience as an only child. Majority of my friends from pre-kindergarten school, elementary school, middle school, and high school have a sibling or multiple siblings.
When I was younger, I begged for siblings. I loved going to my friends’ houses just to see what having a sibling (or siblings) was like. To me, having a sibling was having an automatic way of having a friend to hang out with and talk to all of the time. However, I quickly picked up on the fact that literally none of my friends felt the way I felt. Occasionally, one of my friends would change the typical “No you don’t want siblings. I hate them,” into, “I don’t hate them, they’re just the worst.” Occasionally.
In reality, I honestly didn’t understand: how could you “get” a sibling and not want to hang out with them all of the time?
Now, I realize that my experiences with my friends and their siblings were always good ones due to the fact of them being playdates. All we had to do was watch a movie or play hide-and-go-seek for two/three hours before I went home. My experiences were always fun. However, when I went home, my friend was still with her sibling. I understand now that when you have a sibling, there’s no escape. That’s the difference and the reason I perceive siblings in a different light than people who actually have siblings.

Reflexes

Reflexes are the automatic response of a muscle, caused by a stimulus and does not involve consciousness. The stimulus could be a hot stove or something sharp that excites an afferent nerve causing the muscle movement. Afferent nerves are sensory neurons which carry information from the stimuli to the central nervous system (CNS). In the case of reflexes, the afferent nerve carries the impulse to the spinal cord, where instead of just traveling up the spinal cord and to the brain, an efferent nerve (which transmits information from the CNS to out muscles) carries a signal straight from the spinal cord back out to the muscle, causing a response to the stimulus–without thought. At the same time, the signal is sent up the spinal cord to the brain, where the information of the stimulus is then processed. Because the signal takes more time to get to the brain, by the time the brain has processed that you’ve burned your hand, for example, you’ve pulled it away. The image displayed below is called a reflex arc, as described above, it involves a stimulus to the skin, the information moving via an afferent nerve to the spinal cord, straight back out via an efferent nerve to the muscle.

In my experience, I can think of many times my reflexes have prevented severe injury. Over the summer, I cooked for my family. While in the kitchen, I went to move a tray of roasted veggies to make space for the dish I was holding and forgot that the tray was still hot from the oven. Before I knew it, I had quickly taken my hand away from the tray. At that point, I registered the pain of my hand and the burn. This is a good example of how the reflex arc works faster than your brain in registering the stimulus.

Works Cited

Noback, Charles R, and Graham Ratcliff. “Human Nervous System.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 June 2019.

Helixitta. “Two Neuron Reflex Arc.” Wikipedia, 11 May 2019.

the complex brain

Freshman year my mom dropped me off back at school after thanksgiving break. While we were unpacking my things her vision started to get blurry and had a really bad head ache. She thought she was getting a minegraine because that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for her. She was able to drive home but things weren’t getting any better after a few days.

My mom decided to go to the hospital where they performed an EEG screening and a MRI. At the time I didn’t really know what these test did but after talking about them in class I now have a better understanding of what they do and how they help. An EEG shows a recording of the electrical waves sweeping across the brain’s surface and is measured by electrodes that are put on the scalp. A MRI gives a very detailed pictures of soft tissues and can help detect tumors.

After these scans came back they doctors found a mass that was pressing on the back of my moms brain. This mass was pressing against the occipital lobe which explains why her vision was blurred. The occipital lobes primary control is to control vision as we learned in class.

Image result for occipital lobe function

After many other tests and experimental treatment the mass actually started to shrink and eventually wasn’t causing a problem anymore. My moms vision went back to normal and wasn’t having these horrible head aches anymore.

I think that it is interesting because when they knew that my mom was having trouble with her vision they almost knew right away that it had something to do with the occipital lobe. Just like when other problems in the brain arise we can almost pinpoint the are of the brain that is being affected. For example speech is controlled in the Broca’s area, words and pronunciation is processed in the motor cortex, and the Wernicke’s area interprets auditory code.

It is super important for all parts of the brain to work together to function properly. If not we see how the brain has a hard time processing information like in people who have a split brain. People who have a split brain can only do certain things based on what side of the brain controls that function.

When my mom was going through all of the problems with her brain, I really got to see first hand how complex and interesting the brain is. It has so many moving parts that all need to work together. If one thing fails it could have a huge impact on our day to day lives like not being able to see, hear, interpret commands, and store memories.

 

Sources;

Class slides

https://www.google.com/search?q=occipital+lobe+function&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS772US772&sxsrf=ACYBGNTgO7OiqdsWEqBA7QWUs_08Hc9RdA:1568872988533&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=LlT5du40znz2aM%253A%252C1l0pOeQwYW97OM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQC_JQak13YcIZA9ZKLNO6F1fFcyQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiGiLepm9zkAhVRgK0KHVhVCUgQ9QEwAHoECAUQAw#imgrc=zaMch4f2P0RolM:&vet=1

 

Behaviorism

Behaviorism was a form of psychology in the 1920’s which used objective, scientific analysis. It was the idea that mental events are triggered by external stimuli that lead to behaviors. An excellent example of behaviorism was shown in an Office clip during class. In this clip, Jim offered Dwight an Altoid whenever his computer rebooted. After doing this several times, Jim rebooted his computer without offering Dwight an Altoid. Even though Jim did not offer him one, Dwight automatically held out his hand.

My experience is directly related to behaviorism because my friend who took the class last year did a behaviorism experiment on me without me knowing. His plan was simple: whenever his phone made a sound he would offer me a piece of gum. I did not pick up on this at all. I just thought that my friend was being really nice and kept on offering me gum. In fact, I thought that my friend was so generous that he would not care if I took food from his room. So when he was at class, I would go into his dorm and take whatever snacks I wanted.

Now, the behaviorism has taken on a different form. Instead of me reacting to the sound of the phone, I reacted to my friend’s generosity. Specifically, I thought that he was so generous that I could take advantage of him. If he did not offer me gum, I would have been hesitant to go into his room and take snacks. But since he was so nice, I thought that he would not care if I took some food from him. But this begs the question: wouldn’t a normal person not take food from somebody who is nice to them? I think that I saw his generosity as an invitation to take and share whatever is his. I wasn’t taking food to anger him, but rather because I thought that it would do harm. If I thought that it was ok to take food, why wouldn’t I?

My friend’s experiment ultimately failed. His phone’s sound went off and I did not react at all. But, the experience still has an important lesson about behaviorism: people are more inclined to take from people that are generous to them. If my friend set some boundaries and did not offer me as much gum, I would have likely not felt welcomed to take food from his room.

My friend eventually told me that he performed the experiment on me and discussed how it backfired on him. Although it failed, we both agreed it was a funny and memorable experience.

Taking a Look Inside the Brain

Head trauma is no laughing matter; and following proper protocol for any instance is critical. Lecture five helped to teach us about the composition of our brains as well as how we can go about measuring brain activity and state. Growing up as a running back  for my town’s youth football league quickly introduced me to the concept of a concussion. Over the course of my life I have had a total of three MRIs. An MRI is magnetic resonance imaging similar to an x-ray but can examine soft tissue. My first MRI was when I was nine years old because I suffered from migraines growing up. Don’t get it mistaken, I did not get an fMRI, which is a functional MRI. A functional MRI measures concentrations of oxygen to observe and measure brain activity. Another technique to look inside the brain is an EEG, however this technique detects problems in electrical activity while checking for brain disorders and I have never needed an EEG. My second MRI came at the age of eleven years old at the running back position. I stood up after being whiplashed to the ground and blacked out for about fifteen seconds, I can’t really recall. Repeated hits in contact sports for a prolonged period of time can eventually lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy better known as CTE. My reason for a final MRI was actually quite the scary experience. Senior year of high school I was on maybe my fiftieth sprint in the hardest practice of the year for basketball when during the final sprint I felt a shock of definite and crippling pain in my brain. The second it hit I couldn’t keep running I just stopped. For the next three days I had an ever lasting migraine and I was seriously getting nervous. After four days when I thought I had recovered I returned to practice and I soon as I started jogging that same bolt of pain in my head would strike. Immediately my mom took me in for an MRI. I thought perhaps a different technique would’ve been used at the time because I was uneducated on the matter and quite nervous about my state. Looking back now I remember thinking I might’ve had a small seizure or something perhaps in my Corpus Callosum but clearly the heat of the moment was getting to me. The MRI came back clean and I took a week off from practice. Luckily when I returned, my head was all healed! Its a good thing my athletic career has come to a close and I can lower my guard against head trauma.

Selective Attention

The human attention span is so astounding yet so small. Even when we think we are processing everything in our sight, we really are not. There simply is just too much information going on for our brains to process all at once. Selective attention is the way we are able to receive and understand the little amount of information our brain thinks is important. This selectiveness causes our brain to not notice other things going on around us. Missing these details could be very dangerous. For example, if you are playing music in headphones while you study, you will probably forget that you are even listening to music. This is because your brain has shifted its focus from listening to the songs to reading and studying your notes.  Although attention seems like a natural occurrence that does not take much effort, there actually is effort on our part. We have to select an area to focus on and continue to focus on it so our brains can soak in the information and turn it into stuff that makes sense.  

A time I can remember when my selective attention almost caused me great injury, was in my car. I remember driving down a dark creepy road covered in woods after leaving my friend’s house (also in creepy dark woods). Because I was by myself, I was getting scared. I decided to call my friend, so I felt less alone. Our conversation shifted from me driving and being scared to drama our friends were fighting about in our group chat. I finally approached the main road, still on the phone with her. I was so distracted by my phone call that when I turned onto the main road, I ran a red light. I was so confused because I didn’t even notice it was red. All I said to her was, “OMG I just ran a red light and I have no idea why. I wasn’t thinking.” After hearing about this lesson, it automatically made me think of this time. It makes sense now why I didn’t notice the light was green. My selective attention was on my conversation with my friend and that was the only information my brain could handle then. I almost felt like I went missing for a split second while I drove through it because I was so focused on my phone call. It seemed like I didn’t need to put effort into driving because I thought since I was “looking” I could “see,” but turns out I didn’t see shit! 

Behaviorism and Football

The concepts and theory we have learned throughout the lessons of Psychology 100 can be applied to many of our life experiences we go through daily. The concept I have decided to write about is behaviorism and how I have experienced this throughout my upbringing and childhood. In my opinion, behaviorism can be applied to anyone since their experiences can directly impact their mental awareness. I also believe through the theory of behaviorism you can find out exactly what traits and characteristics you have by tracing back your personal experiences and what you have gone through.

Behaviorism can be dated all the way back to the 1920’s when it first started to come into the world of psychology. The concept of behaviorism revolves around the idea that mental effects are directly correlated to external events that you experience which eventually develop into the behaviors that you possess. It also focuses more on behavior itself and its measurements rather than actual consciousness. This contrasts William James’s functionalism and Wilhelm Wundt’s structuralism theories for how your mind changes through experiences and consciousness.

I can directly correlate how my life experiences were related through behaviorism. As a child, I started playing flag football at the age of five years old and played for the next ten years of my life until I finished my senior year of high school. The game of football taught me more than just offensive plays and how to read defenses and instilled behaviors and values into my life that are still with me today. If I ever showed up late to practice, there was a severe consequence which taught me to always be early to all events that I attend. There were also consequences put in place for players who didn’t know their exact role or position on the field. This can be translated into my everyday school work, jobs, and social life which taught me to always be fully prepared and ready for any group work or when I was needed to be relied on in any situation. Just as there was consequences for wrongdoings, we also got rewarded for the completion of tasks that were done correctly and for directions that were followed in an orderly fashion.

These values that I learned on the field since I was six years old all the way up until I was eighteen are directly correlated to my behaviors that are instilled within me today. Behaviorism talks about how external stimuli directly correlates with your behaviors and I truly believe without the lessons I learned on the field, I wouldn’t have those same behaviors that are instilled within me today. Till this day, I always make sure to be early to any events and always makes sure to be prepared for any group activity where other team members are relying on my performance. I can directly relate how the concept of behaviorism affected my life and I am grateful that it has implemented behaviors that will help me become more successful in life every day.