Sensory Deprivation

Being trapped in a mini-sized room  for 48 hours without light must be very difficult to support. A study was made with several volunteers and they were deprived of several senses like the ones we take for granted. (taste, smell, hearing, sight, or touch). Six people were under the deprivation of senses for the long 48 hours and they were somewhat tortured. In sensory deprivation, the brain is deprived of stimulation. Each one of them was tested before and after the experiment. Scientists wanted to know how deprivation affected the brain and how much did it change someone´s aility to think. Through the whole experiment they were filmed and observed non stopping. Weird reactions started to show after about 24 hours in the dark room. People who are more reserved and spend much more time reading and indoors without much interaction with people are the ones who support this conditions the best, because they are somehow used to it. People who are used to be around people interacting all the time are the ones who suffer the worse. Long time ago, in wars, this was used as a torture against soldiers. When people went out after the 48 hours, they enjoyed things in the environment they would have never cared before like the flowers of bird songs.

SYNESTHESIA

Synesthesia: is a perceptual condition of mixed sensations: a stimulus in one sensory modality (hearing) involuntarily elicits a sensation/experience in another modality (vision). Likewise, perception of a form (a letter) may induce an unusual perception in the same modality (a color). http://www.synesthete.org/







Grapheme-color synesthesia: this person perceive particular colors when seeing a letter, word or number (grapheme). Most of these studies have reported extra activations in the fusiform gyrus, which is known to be involved in color, letter and word processing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19302164 




Ordinal- linguistic personification: the involuntary and automatic tendency in certain individuals to attribute animate-like qualities such as personality and gender to sequential linguistic units (e.g., letters, numerals, days, months). http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1245903




number-form synesthesia: consciously experience numbers in spatially-defined locations. For non-synesthete individuals, a similar association of numbers and space appears in the form of an implicit mental number line as signified by the distance effect–reaction time decreases as the numerical distance between compared numbers increases. 


Sound color synesthesia: In this type of synesthesia, when the person hears a certain sound they automatically think of a certain color in reaction to the first stimulus. It is sometimes described as "fireworks".  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia#Sound_.E2.86.92_color_synesthesia 



Lexical-gustatory synesthesia: This is the rarest type of synesthesia, where  a specific word awakes a taste in the gustatory glands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia#Lexical_.E2.86.92_gustatory_synesthesia

1.      Explain what "savant syndrome" means.

Savant syndrome: a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations.

2. What does genius mean?  Explain the difference between genius and savant.

Genius: A person of extraordinary intellect and talent.

The difference between a savant and a genius is that a savant is born with it and a genius is not. A genius person is someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability while a savant is someone who has difficulties in learning, thought becomes talented in a specific are such mathematics, music, science

3. What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?

A stoke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function(s) due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can lead to death or affecting a part of the brain and not making it function. It can lead to inability to move, understand language, or inability in the vision are.

4. What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?

It measures the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging.

5. What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?

Is a wide, flat bundle of neural fibers beneath the cortex in the eutherian brain at the longitudinal fissure. It connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication.

6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?

Is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. This makes people have difficulties their whole life.

7. What is autism?

Autism causes kids to experience the world differently from the way most other kids do. It's hard for kids with autism to talk with other people and express themselves using words. Kids who have autism usually keep to themselves and many can't communicate without special help.

8. What is Asperger's Syndrome?

Is a neurobiological disorder that is part of a group of conditions called autism spectrum disorders. The term "autism spectrum" refers to a range of developmental disabilities that includes autism as well as other disorders with similar characteristics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/genius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy#Causes

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/asperger.html

Made Genius

In this class I learned that genius can be made. In the video shown in class, a girl with practice and with his father’s teachings becomes an expert playing chess. She becomes the best woman player in chess and even wins against many expert chess players. Intelligence is something you acquire and not are born with. A genius has to begin to practicing something very frequently at the age of two or four so that it really becomes an ability for the child and an admiration by others. I will try to make one of my daughters a genius in something. Developing some kind of preferences will help and make the person outstand in life. When comparing the child with a teenager, this child will go beyond expectations teenagers have. I admire and wish to be one of these type of people. They seem to see life so easy and perfect.

Genius

Have you ever imagined having your son or daughter being a genius? This is amazing and something to be proud of. Children who are genius have the ability to perform and do things older people are supposed to do. They are extremely advanced in school programs and have a specific talent. Mark is a super mega genius. I admire him! These children have an early stimulation development that makes the brain work differently that other kids their own age. Mark is about six or seven years old and can hear a classic melody and play it perfectly in the piano. He knows about 40 classic melodies by MEMORY! Her mother teaches him at home and he is learning the same math lesson as I am. Mark has seven years old and has a program of a 15 years old teenager. If you practice for several hours something, your cerebellum becomes bigger and things are learned faster.

Accidental Genius

People who are born with a mental accident are called savants. When someone imagines the word mental accident, we think of the worst. We think of an accident that caused a mental injury or someone who has brain damage caused by another person. These kinds of people develop their abnormal brain before they are born and they actually have a disability. Savants have a left-brain damage that causes the right side of the brain to develop with high efficiency and with greater abilities. This is so amazing because you will develop great skills. On the contrary, this is a bad thing. Since your left brain is damaged, people have problems interacting with others. They are solitary people that have no friends and it is very difficult for them to be part of society. It is incredible the skills that people develop. For example, Kim reads 500 or more pages an hour. That is IMPOSSIBLE to do for me and I am sure my whole class. Whatever he reads, he memorizes and this is a perfect example of what a savant can get to do so easily. He knows over nine thousand books by memory. This is awesome and very interesting.

Nature vs. Nurture

The biggest topic of controversy had been mentioned in our psychology class. Everyone having a different opinion of homosexuals, it is very difficult for people to know if they are born this way, or if their surroundings make them this way. Scientists have been studying this problem for many years and still, the answer has not yet been proven. Nature or Nurture? In the video watched in class, a pair of twins was tested. One of them had childhood gender nonconformity. This is when a child acts like the opposite sex. He or she wants and likes everything the opposite sex would like. The twin with this problem liked pink bright colors and dolls, he had his nails done. On the other hand, the other twin liked guns and cars, and blue and dark colors. Another thing that we learned was that there is a higher percentage of someone being gay the more older brothers you have. In the case of the twins, the boy was gay by nature, but his mother did not do anything to change it at a young age. In my opinion, this boy could have been changed by his mother and prevent society discriminating him as they do with all gays.

Criminal Mind

Have you ever wondered what is happening inside a criminal´s mind? A normal mind and a criminal´s mind works completely different. Experts say that criminals have a mind that includes violence against other people. This can be caused having bad experiences at a young age. Some criminals could have suffered because of their parents or even been abused. This has effects later on in life and other people are affected because of them.  Making the right decision is very difficult because they have a certain brain damage. Deciding in what moment the right thing should be done or not, they never know. Studies have been done and images show that criminals and normal people think differently. Dr. Dorothy Lewis has been studying several cases and discovered that criminals act how they do because of three reasons which are brain damage, abuse, and mental illnesses. High controversies have been happening all over the world in which people ask themselves logical questions. Are criminals innocent because of their mental illnesses? Do they have the right to be assassins? Everyone has its own opinions, but I think that they know what is right and what is wrong. They do what they choose to do.

Living with Traumatic Brain Injury

Brain damage is very difficult for people to live with. Having a brain injury and watching people capable of doing everything is traumatizing. Life is different and will never be the same. How is this caused? Well, brain injuries are caused when force is applied to the skull and causes deformity. This does not allow the brain to function in the correct way. There are three types of brain injuries, the contusion, the axonal injury, and bleeding inside the brain. Brain damage can lead to misunderstandings of language, difficulties of thinking and speaking. Recovery is a great help for patients who suffer from this. With exercises the brain can get better and better every time, but not always this technique helps you recover entirely. In most cases the person with the brain injury depends from someone else, because difficult tasks cannot be performed by them. I learned from the video, that everyone has a reason for life. A perfect example is Brian. He knows that he still is important in this world full of obstacles. Brian continues with his daily activities and performs them with great importance and care.