Scientists only recently discovered the so-named mirror neurons, existing in our frontal and parietal lobes. This topic we learned in class really hit home for me, literally, because of my dad and sister.

Mirror neurons are active during observational learning. They give the sensation to the observer of actually doing the activity him/herself. This is how humans can learn from watching others make a mistake, and also why humans are so susceptible to the encapsulating TV shows and movies nowadays……

My dad and sister are a true case of the saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Since I was young, I can always remember my dad being glued to the TV when a football game(especially the Steelers) was on. He is your typical couch quarterback: shouting at the TV, shooting up out of his chair during tense moments, and being completely oblivious to everything else around him. His mood will even depend on the outcome of his football games. If the Steelers lost, you better have left him alone. It is really like he is living out his dream of playing football through the TV screen.

My sister is similar, yet a hopeless romantic, and a real sap for all the current trends in entertainment. Her niche is dramas, “dramadies”, and “rom-coms”(*shiver*). Her emotions are all over the spectrum, when she is enthralled in one of her movies. I DREAD the tears, that will come soon after I hear the start of, “The Notebook”! However, akin to most teenage girls, it is really as if she is living vicariously through characters such as, Bella from the Twilight series.

It is truly remarkable how producers of media can elicit such a rise out of folks, singularly due to these microscopic cells in out brains.

I, however, will be sticking to my books to stimulate my mirror neurons!

 We recently discussed Alzheimer’s disease briefly in the chapter about the brain. I would like to share my personal story ,when I was ages 8-14, about my grandma and her struggle with the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and worsening condition causing the sufferer to forget just about everything, bit by bit. The disease is thought to be caused at least somewhat because of a lack of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, in te brain which is known to be associated with memory.

It started out as normal dementia does in all elderly people. She would forget little simple things such as, where she put her purse, the remote, or why she had walked into a room. Normal stuff really. After a long while though, her behaviour became more strange. I would go to here apartment often, just to see her and keep her company as she lived alone. I would find that she had put silverware in the fridge, or a frozen box of waffles in the microwave, or just have a carton of milk left out on the counter to spoil. I would point this out to her and she would claim she didn’t know how or why these things were in these unordinary places, and she didn’t remember putting any of the items there.

My mother noticed these symptoms too, and took her to the doctor, where she was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It was a very shocking moment for me. I knew what Alzheimer’s disease was, but had never known or heard of anybody suffering from the disease. She was put on a number of medications with the most notable on being Tacrine, an inhibitor of acetylcholine metabolism. These treatments did work for the most part and kept her somewhat sane for longer, however we knew from the start they would not stop the disease indefinitely. After a time, she became ever more forgetful, and now was argumentative with my mother and me. She would claim she hasn’t forgotten anything, even though she could not tell us the correct day of the week. Communicating with her was an endless struggle. After, a few more months, my grandma had to be moved to an assisted living home, where she would have caretakers around to make sure she took her medicine, ate her meals, and to help her with daily tasks. Seeing her was more and more depressing each and every time. She would lose more and more by the day, as her condition was worsening at its highest rate. On the bright side, right up until the end, she could still always recognize my mother and me. Nonetheless, communication became even more difficult than before. She would lose words, and just couldn’t say what she wanted to say, the words weren’t there, similar to that of a sufferer of Broca’s aphasia.

Eventually, she had to be moved to a nursing home, where nurses would be around 24/7. We went to see her less and less, as it became increasingly difficult each time. Not long after moving to the nursing home, she was no longer able to walk or say any more than a few words. She depended on nurses for every aspect of her life, including moving, eating, and going to the bathroom. A very poor existence indeed.

Her passing on was bittersweet. It was undoubtedly a gloomy time, although my real Grandma had left years before.

Have you ever experienced a gut-wrenching encounter? How about butterflies before an athletic event or nausea after hearing of a tragedy or hardship? The gut has been referred to as the “second brain” and has very similar characteristics to the brain. The gastrointestinal system and the brain are intimately connected and that is why our psychological factors, social and mental stresses, and nerves can tear up an individuals’ gut.

A year ago my family and I received a phone call telling us our cousin, Paul, had suddenly passed away due to a heart condition. The feeling I got was in fact gut-wrenching, like my stomach had dropped 100 feet, like I had been continually punched in the stomach. This is because the digestive tract (gut wall) is lined with an interactive nerve complex communication network known as the Enteric Nervous System. This system connects and communicates with the brain, through the sympathetic nerves that pass to and from the gut through transformers. These nerves connect to the spinal cord followed by the brain. The parasympathetic nervous system, which is the division of the Automatic nervous system that calms the body and conserves energy, links to the brain base through a nerve in the upper gut. Between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain the use of chemicals called neurotransmitters are sent as electrochemical messages to one another by way of these nerves. In short, the Enteric Nervous System is influenced by the connection held between the spinal cord and the brain, which allows neurotransmitters, hormones, and connections to the central nervous system.

When you feel it in your gut, its literal, it’s real. Neurotransmitters are chemicals, which enable the transmission of signals from one neuron to another during the process where the ending of one neuron connects to the endings of another, otherwise called a synapse. Due to these neurotransmitters a hardship like a death can cause you not to eat or keep food down. The digestive tract is intimately attuned to a persons state of mind and emotions, therefore the gastrointestinal tract has more receptor sites than our brain and that’s why when we experience a gut-wrenching situation and have butterflies or nausea, it’s a real feeling, not something we dream up. These receptors allow us to feel it first in our guts.

Before taking this Psychology class, I had no previous knowledge on the actual study of this science including even the most general knowledge. After only a few weeks I feel as if I have already learned so much about a variety of different topics, including one that I have found most interesting, the brain. It is mind-blowing to me that there are billions of interconnecting neurons that control every single action we perform. Lecture after lecture, I learn new things about the brain that I never would have imagined possible. For example, the procedure of actually splitting the brain in two to prevent deadly seizures. As we learned in class, these people are referred to as “split brain patients”. Hearing about this, I thought to myself “I have to know more”. Sure enough I began researching different patient stories and found one rather interesting.

In one article “The Split Brain: A Tale of Two Halves” by David Wolman, the author describes the affects of spit brain patient, Vicki. After having many near death experiences because of her epileptic seizures, her doctor offered to perform the surgery and without hesitation, Vicki agreed. As we have briefly learned, the surgery affects the contra-lateral processing of the brain. This means different movements and actions could be affected because the left and right brain would be no longer connected. Soon enough after her surgery, Vicki began facing these differences. Simple tasks such as grocery shopping and getting dressed became an every day struggle. While in the grocery store, Vicki would actually have trouble picking up items to put into her shopping cart. She knew what she wanted, but her brain and arms would simply not work together to complete the task. In the article, Vicki compared this process to “repelling magnets” because there was a constant battle when she wanted to reach for an object. Getting dressed was also difficult because once again she found her arms and legs not wanting to cooperate with what she wanted to do.

As time passed, Vicki eventually got the hand of things and was completing tasks normally, still struggling every once in a while with certain tasks. Even with the difficulties after the surgery, Vicki was thankful that she no longer had the risk of being injured from her seizures. Her surgery along with many others went on to become part of many experiments and scientific papers. Reading about Vicki’s story as well as some other short ones here and there, really opened my mind to a unique type of science (psychology). It is astonishing alone that doctors can actually split the brain, but the fact that humans can survive and go on to live a pretty normal life is amazing. It is discoveries like these along many others about the human brain, that keep psychology interesting to new learners, including myself.

article: http://www.nature.com/news/the-split-brain-a-tale-of-two-halves-1.1021