Brainstem

Chapter Two Literature Review 2.1 Multiple Sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that remains incurable. The disease manifests as a wide range of neurological deficits including cognitive impairment, impaired coordination, visual disturbances, and extremity numbness (Weinshenker et al., 1989). MS affects approximately 400,000 people in the US and 2.5 million worldwide and it is the most common inflammatory neurological disease…

Sudden infant death syndrome is when an infant, under the age of one, dies during the night from an unexplained cause. It is rare for SIDS to occur within the first month, chances are higher around 2-4 months of age. There are no signs of infant distress in most cases and many mothers have stated that the infant feeds right before being laid down. It is only diagnosed after reviewing the infants’ clinical history and a complete autopsy examination is done excluding all other causes of death.…

that the neocortex overrides the reptile/ primitive brain in certain situations such as food intake. The neocortex deals with high functions of the brain processes such as: attention, perception, and reasoning. The reptile brain is composed of the brainstem and the cerebellum, and deals with basic functions of the body…

The Brain Network of Serial Killers and Psychopaths A Serial Murder Symposium was held where all the attendees discussed and agreed that there was no generic profile of a serial murderer. How a serial killer commits a crime depends on a lot of different aspects including motivation, his behaviour, how he was raised and what circumstances he had faced in childhood. How are they identified and arrested? A police officer should be trained, how exactly to decipher one from another? The Behavioural…

This is called the “tenth cranial, or vagus, nerve” (Fredrickson). This is an important nerve that emerges from deep within the skull at the brainstem and connects various different internal organs to the brain. The most important organ that connects to it is the heart, which is the whole body’s regulator. One’s “vagus nerve is a biological asset that that supports and coordinates [one’s] bodily…

Neurodegenerative diseases are distinguished by progressive neuronal cell loss with clear patterns in disparate disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson and Huntington’s. They are responsible for around 4% of fatalities worldwide and 5% of disability-adjusted life years from a non-communicable disease (NCD). Neurodegenerative disorders are not only caused by genetics but protein misfolding disorders and protein degradation by the proteasome system. These disorders continue to increase as well as…

Pseudobulbar Affect Have you ever laughed so hard you literally couldn't stop? How about when you cried so hard you thought the tears would never stop? You probably have experienced both of those situations and felt extremely embarrassed or uncomfortable. There are people who suffer from uncontrollable laughter and crying. Pseudobulbar affect is a condition that has taken over people's lives with it's symptoms, treatments, and how it impacts their social, political, and daily lives. PBA or…

INTRODUCTION: The various competing sound present in our environment is being constantly untangled by our brain, and attributed into distinct perceptual streams analogous to the distinct sound sources in listeners’ environment (Bregman, 1990; Moore & Gockel, 2002; Carlyon, 2004). The process with which the nervous system makes sense of complex patterns of acoustic stimulation is called auditory scene analysis (Bregman, 1990). Thus, segregating the sounds arising from various sources in the…

For most people, watching the news on television, reading the newspaper, or checking out the news on your phone is one of the first things you do in the morning. You’ll read about the upcoming elections, the scores of the previous night’s sporting events, and whatever or whoever else is getting their 15 minutes of fame at the time. Then, you’ll read about who has overdosed. It’s to the point where you’re expecting it. “Teen overdosed on Heroin two months before graduation,” or “Mother leaves…

A number of studies have shown the effects that medical marijuana has on the human body. Medical marijuana has many practical uses; today it is used as a part of modern medicine. However, the risk factors associated with medical marijuana use, pose a threat to medical marijuana’s legalization. As of April 2015, 24 states have legalized the use medical marijuana (ProCon.org, 2016). As research continues to expand, states are legalizing medical marijuana throughout the United States. This is due…