Ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Dementia affects an estimated 3.8 million people around the world. It is most common in the ages of sixty five-years and older. It is also the sixth leading cause of death in people of the United States, and the fifth leading cause in people over the age of sixty-five. Dementia can start early, and be a very slow process that is evident throughout the rest of the patient’s lives. There are currently no cures for dementia, but there are treatments to help some of the symptoms that go along…

Fear is by far the most driving force behind the evolution of humanity and of all other species. Fear is the single strongest force behind humanity and its survival because fear is what stops people from doing something that could harm or kill them. Fear is the most powerful chemical reaction in the brain, requiring more chemicals and less time to register then thoughts or memories and lasting much longer. Fear affects everyone in some way, and some much more cripplingly then others. Fear has…

Crib Tunes May Have Made You Smarter Music is an integral part of culture, economy, society, and, not surprisingly, our development. Different musical notes condition their brains to different sounds in the environment. Furthermore, musical complexities may subconsciously work their way into the calculating capacity of the child’s cognition and inspire toward a higher level of thinking at a younger age, ultimately influencing the behavior of the adult brain. Studies that try to delineate…

Go ahead and try it. Prick your finger on a pin. Kick a chair leg. Lightly, please - touch a hot stove. Barring an extremely rare disease, you will definitely feel something. Something strange and terrible; or, at least, that is what your brain tells you. You won’t want to touch that pin again; or you will be more careful when passing through the dining room; or you will remember the next time you cook to keep some distance from hot metal - all because your brain has told you to refrain in such…

Researching the correlation amongst brain anatomy and physiology is a primary pursuit of neuroscience. Simplistic in its composition the brain is astoundingly the most complicated machine known to man. This mass of protein and fat in addition to being responsible for maintaining homeostasis also encompasses attributes that not only make us unique, creative, empathetic, moreover human. Overview of structure & function The brain of humans is primarily composed of two general classes of…

This essay discusses the misconception about the percentage of the brain we use at any given time. Despite there is no scientific evidence the commonly held notion is that humans only use ten percent of their brains is the most common among neuromyths. The lesser know reality is that we have access to our full brain potential. Throughout human history, rumors and exaggerated stories spread like wildfire. They seem to be related to human fears, and the collective effort to ménage them. The…

is a very common childhood mental disorder, with symptoms ranging from difficulty paying attention to general hyperactivity. Many previous studies have analyzed this mental disorder and have found correlations with a decreased size of the frontal cortex, along with abnormal activation of the basal ganglion; both of which help with cognitive processing and decision-making. While these may…

cells fail due to the down regulation of acetylcholine and the over activation of glutamate, which result in the death of neurons (IOS Press, 2008). It is believed to involve the irreversible loss of cholinergic neurons, specifically in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus (Advokat et al., 2014). The onset of this disease usually occurs after age 60, but is increasingly being reported in people younger than 65 (Advokat et al., 2014). Symptoms of Alzheimer’s involve cognitive…

higher reading scores among the students. The neural responses they measured come mostly from the auditory midbrain. Midbrain’ plasticity is precisely mediated by the two above-mentioned pathways (top-down and bottom-up) and the activity of prefrontal cortex (Kraus et al., 2014), which is the executive center of our brains. Given the behavioral and neurophysiological outcome of the Harmony Project, it is tempting for us to reevaluate the role of co-curricular music programs for children at…

My reaction to the subject of identity helped me to fully understand it. After reading the text book todays lesson and my personal experiences I fully realize how important identity has been in my life. In the class activity and lecture, I was fully able to understand the concept of identity. I found that with the photo you asked us to pick out and the group conversation, I understood identity and how we develop identity. My photo was a picture of me and my sister at her high school graduation,…