Brainstem

“Follow your dreams,” quoted by Kobi Yamada. Now one may think this quote is talking about the dreams as in goals and things people want to do in their life, but think again. Have you ever wondered about real dreams? The one’s you have when you’re asleep at night; the normal dreams, lucid dreams, the false awakenings, and even the nightmares? A dream is a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep (Dream). Dreams are a great wonder to the world that…

One of the first studies that looked at the effects of gaming on the dopaminergic pathway was a study by Koepp and colleagues (1998) that took positron emission topography (PET) scans of eight male participants while they were playing a video game. The authors found that there were greater dopamine increases in the ventral striatum (where the NAc is located) in the experimental condition (playing the video game) than in the control condition (looking at an empty screen). Furthermore, while…

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 Courageousness. Courageousness and confidence and dignity. These are the principles of standard charisma in even the most elusive parts of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s mind as he was buckled into a heavy corset with braces that ran from his hips to his heels. Pushing away thoughts of meeting his malevolent driveway headfirst, he…

“Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It’s not about entertainment as much as it’s about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the working of someone else’s mind, you can begin to fix a problem.” (Jodi Picoult) Music Therapy can be used to improve the quality of life for people dealing with many different medical and psychological issues. Have you ever wondered what music therapy is? Music therapy is a health profession where…

Terri Schiavo collapsed in her St. Petersburg home in full cardiac arrest on February 25, 1990. She suffered massive brain damage due to lack of oxygen and after two and a half months in a coma her diagnosis was elevated to a vegetative state. Between her parents and husband there was a legal battle on whether the equipment that had been used to sustain her life, specifically a feeding tube, should be disconnected allowing her to die (Funk & Wagnalls, 2002). Both her family and doctors had a say…

IV. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy Another major facet of sports-related concussions is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as it’s considered to be a gradual neurodegeneration due to repeated mTBI (Gavett et al., 2011). Since there are many high-contact sports (such as football, hockey, boxing, etc.) as well as high chances of accidental injury in non-contact sports – repeated head injuries are very common (Gavett et al., 2011). This is another reason sports-related concussions…

Schizophrenia Assignment This essay will be focused on a mental illness known as Schizophrenia, which Jonathon is experiencing in the Case Study. It will outline its symptoms, the brain structures of Schizophrenic patients, how neurochemistry may be a possible causative factor in it and how medication can affect the brain structure and neurochemistry to manage symptoms in diagnoses of Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a serious chronic mental disorder which is described chiefly by defalcation in…

Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug in the world. Millions of people consume caffeine, in various forms, daily in order to feel more energized, but when consumed in amounts that are out of proportion, the effects can be counterproductive or dangerous. Caffeine is both a natural and man made substance that is classified as a drug, food additive, and stimulant of the central nervous system. Its chemical classification is Xanthines because it 's derived from the purine base Xanthine.…

An individual’s growth is characterized by various developmental categories including physical appearance, regulation of emotions, cognitive and language abilities. Often the development is thought to be differentiated by the numerous cultures globally yet in the documentary Babies directed by Thomas Balmès illustrates the similarities among all four countries he documents. As one infant (Ponijao) is from Namibia his culture is largely different in comparison to the baby (Hatti) from the United…

Those who open attack on several innocent people are often questioned on their motive for the occasion. For instance, everyone remembers the Sandy Hook shootings, but the motive was not completely clear. This event in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, was a such a gruesome thing to learn about. Adam Lanza, the killer, shot his own mother and then continued his shooting spree to at Sandy Hook Elementary School. News reports have noted that Adam Lanza was fascinated or “obsessed” with mass murderers…