Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that affects sleep and wake fullness. It usually begins between ages of 15 and 25, but can develop at any age. This sleeping disorder affects people and makes them sleep at daytime at any time. This is uncontrollable and you can sleep suddenly doing any activity. It can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. For people who have narcolepsy, stages of sleep are not followed normally. Rapid Eye Movement or 'REM' sleep happens immediately after falling asleep. This also happens during the day. In this stage we experience dreams and a muscle paralysis. These 2 factors are some symptoms experienced by narcolepsy. The cause of this disorder is not yet known, but scientists think it is associated with genes. Some symptoms include hallucinations and cataplexy. There is no such cure for narcolepsy but there are certain drug medicines that can be used to control REM sleep stages. Antisepressants are given in such cases.  Some changes in the lifestyle such as exercise, good diet, avoidance of alcohol, nicotine and caffeine are also necessary to alleviate the symptoms of narcolepsy.

Sleep and Dream

When we sleep I feel so happy and rested. Everyone needs at least nine hours of sleep. Until now scientists have discovered new things about dreaming. Why do we dream? Where do our dreams come from? Do they have meanings? When we dream we are organizing information from the past. It was only 55 years ago that neuroscientist really started to investigate about dreams. When we dream we are in REM sleep or in a rapid eye movement stage. Our muscles paralyze and we are extremely relaxed and calmed. I find dreaming hugely fascinating and really interesting because it is a mystery that everyone wants to know about.  This video showed and explained that we dream to learn a lesson or to be prepared for something strong. For example when we dream that someone dies, it is kind of preparing us so that it will not be that shocking later on. Some people like Tom for instance in the video shown act out their dreams. He was highly energetic while dreaming and sometimes aggressive. His wife wanted doctors to treat him. I am really afraid of dreams because they can sometimes be so crazy and frightful. I learned so many things from this video that I had no idea about.

http://lupyee-livedalife.blogspot.com/

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.