...of this chapter but for me the three that stood out was Anxiety decision making, Sadness decision making and Positive decision making. However let us first define decision making which is making a selection from various options, often in the absence of full information. In anxiety decision making studies have found that people have make a choice under anxiety they are impaired. This is fascinating because it shows how people can influence by outside stimulus and that keeping calm is a good idea. The second interesting portion was sadness decision making. Scientist has found that we people are sad and have to make decisions they typically people process strategy with a lot of attention to details. This is an interesting fact for a lot of decisions we tend to make when were sad. For example how people respond to decisions after a bad break up in a relationship. The last part of the chapter that was interesting was positive mood decision making. I found this to be stimulating because research has shown that people...
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...First impressions strike us quickly and come from a two areas of the brain. The amygdala controls and moderates our motivations, allowing us to navigate our social world. (Starr, 2013) The posterior cingular cortex (PCC) is the seat of autobiographical memory, attention and emotional influence in memory. (Starr, 2013) The PCC is also active when we decide the value of things, make choices, gamble, etc. According to Starr, meeting people activates the same region of the brain responsible for assigning prices to objects. So a first impression of someone basically assigns a value to that person based on our own ideas, morals, religion, etc. This all happens extremely quickly. Taking into account that the amygdala also controls fear and alerts us to possible danger, it is easy to see how fast a first impression can come. If you are walking on the path in a forest and see something that could be a snake, the lightning like fight or flight response you get comes from the amygdala assessing the threat. This is the same part of the brain that creates first impressions, so you can see how quickly they are made. When I picture John after reading the first scenario, I see a confident, friendly person who eagerly talks to many people throughout his day. I see a man who knows who he is as a person and is very likeable. The scenario seems to show him as a very likeable individual who is very full of life and outgoing. I can almost see him smiling as he walks around, just enjoying...
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...encourage you to repeat that activity again in the future? If yes, you are experiencing positive reinforcement. I have also been a participant in a similar position. My mother recently gave me an additional increase to my monthly pocket money for cleaning my room punctually. Not only was it impeccable, but also my clothes were neatly arranged into the drawers and cupboards. Due to this, my mother also gave me a bonus which made me clean my room without her having to tell me every month. Why do people behave differently toward different responses? The above phenomena is known as OPERANT CONDITIONING. Operant conditioning can be described as a procedure that attempts to modify behavior through the use of positive and negative reinforcement. Through operant conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence. The behaviorist B. F. Skinner originated the term “operant conditioning”, who believed that one should focus on the external, observable causes of behavior. Not only are there punishments and reinforcements, but these responses are either positive or negative. The 2x2 matrix consists of : 1. Positive reinforcement 2.Negative reinforcement 3. Positive punishment 4. Negative punishment The situation described by me above is an example of Positive Reinforcement. “The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount” – B. F. Skinner. Positive reinforcement works by presenting a...
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...when she was hit by a car. Her pelvis was shattered, her skull fractured, her knee torn. Yet for her, the most serious damage was far less visible: she lost her sense of smell. Birnbaum, now 29, was an aspiring chef, and the loss meant the end of her career. It also meant something else, something that was potentially even more life-changing. "I felt like I lost a dimension of my memory," she says. "It made me worried about the future. If I couldn't smell ever again, was I losing this important layer”? (Konnikova) A. This was a story told by Maria Konnikova. B. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker with a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University told this story in an article called, “Smells like Old Times”. II. After reading this article I started thinking about how certain smells trigger different memories. A. Like how the smell of Beautiful, a perfume by Estee Lauder, reminds me of my great grandma’s house and her trying to cover up the smell of cigarettes when we’d surprise visit her. B. Or how the smell of tea bags reminds me of the year my family made these cute tea-bag dyed pillows on Thanksgiving. C. I could go on and on about certain aromas that trigger memories. Sometimes they are memories that I consciously didn’t even think I knew. D. We all experience this phenomenon whether its perfume,...
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...Brain Manual By: Alex Barree, Kyle Surette, Purandhri Pandya, Liz Shoelttle, Kristen Ferris Forebrain Cerebrum: Cerebral Cortex: The Cerebral Cortex is the thin surface layer on the outside of the brain that is made up by interconnected neural or Glial cells. This acts as the ultimate control and information processing center. Occipital Lobe: The Occipital Lobe is the lobe of the brain located in the back of the head that focuses on controlling vision and visual stimulation. Parietal Lobe: The Parietal Lobe is the lobe of the brain located on the top rear of the brain and it processes sensory information. Temporal Lobe: The Temporal Lobe is the lobe of the brain located above the ears and is primarily dedicated to auditory information. Frontal Lobe: The Frontal Lobe is the lobe of the brain located in the front of the brain that has many functions including: muscle movements, planning, judgment/moral decisions, and personality traits. Somatosensory Cortex: The Sensory Cortex is the area of the brain that specializes in receiving information from the skin senses and from the movements of body parts. It is located at the front of the Parietal Lobe. Motor Cortex: The Motor Cortex is the area of the brain that specializes in controlling the body movements. It is located at the back of the Frontal Lobe bordering the Sensory Cortex. Visual Cortex: The Visual Cortex is the area of the brain that specializes in visual processing. This area is located in the Occipital...
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...Social Development. I will also discuss the topic of classroom integration, and if it helps those with autism develop Social skills quicker. This specific topic is truly a passion of mine as I work with many children on the spectrum within the Abbotsford School District as a special education assistant. It is fascinating to me that there are so many different branches within the disorder, and how every single person is entirely unique. My purpose of this presentation is to debate if peer interaction, and integration to classrooms is a good idea. Slide 2: Aims and Intentions Page. Slide 3: First, we are going to start off with “What is ASD?” According to Medline Plus 2018 definition, Autism Spectrum Disorder “is a neurological and developmental disorder that begins early in childhood and lasts throughout a person's life. It affects how a person acts and interacts with others, communicates, and learns.” –MedlinePlus, 2018. Slide 4: There are three main types of autism which include Autistic Disorder which is what most people think of when they hear the word “Autism.”...
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...considering we only have access to a very little portion to the brain, which we consider our conscious mind, what does the rest do? Eagleman answered this question in an understandable and mind-blowing way that made reading this book a wondrous experience. We always thought that our consciousness was what was really running the show, but through this book we realize that that could not be even more wrong. The rest of our brain that we cannot gain access too is what is really doing all the work. So many interesting points are made in this...
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...taste are chemically based senses that are unique to the other senses in the way in which the brain interprets them. Unlike other senses which are perceived and categorized analytically, taste and smell both pass through the emotional response center of the brain on the way to their being stored as memories, evoking an emotional association to their formation as engrams. Consider the unlikely association between taste and smell and the emotional response that they can trigger; a chemical reaction that gives off a gaseous “odor”, completely quantifiable by scientific standards, can trigger a purely emotional, unquantifiable response. The question then becomes, how do smell and taste play on our emotions? How do Smell and Taste Effect Each Other? The senses of smell and taste are integrally linked, the ability to do one without the other is not possible with the way that the brain is wired. Physiologically speaking, the way that humans are “designed” or the way that we have evolved is that the nose and the mouth are located in proximity to each other. This means that as we taste a food we are also inhaling particles that create the aromas that are generated by that food, and the brain’s interpretation of the stimulus from the taste buds along with the olfactory sensors in the nose is simultaneous; the memory engrams that form based on the association are also closely associated. Consider, the smell of a lemon-pine cleaner as the brain interprets the scent; what would come to...
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...was just a little more sensitive and cautious than the other kids, but either way I still would tend to feel like I didn’t belong some days. When I was fourteen I visited a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD); at the time I had no idea what the words she was saying to me even meant. That was the day that my mother revealed to me that she also suffers from GAD. It is difficult for people without anxiety disorders to understand how constant the anxious feelings really are and that they can escalate to become much more severe than any normal anxiety. I’ve been knowingly living with GAD for four years now and I have many questions about it that have yet to be answered. Considering my mother and I both suffer from this disorder, I want to know if it could possibly be genetic or if I was simple conditioned to it from observing her. I also am curious about what happens in the brain of someone who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and how it causes the symptoms. Most importantly I want to find information on possible treatments that would not only allow me to deal with my anxiety in a way that will better my life, but also I need to know how I can help my mother because seeing her deal with this disorder and being able to relate to her pain inspires me to make some changes that will hopefully benefit both of us. I was surprised to discover how many different types of anxiety a person can experience; Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, an assistant professor...
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...meaning of infinity. And this peculiar recursive quality that we call self-awareness, which I think is the holy grail of neuroscience, of neurology, and hopefully, someday, we'll understand how that happens. 0:51OK, so how do you study this mysterious organ? I mean, you have 100 billion nerve cells, little wisps of protoplasm, interacting with each other, and from this activity emerges the whole spectrum of abilitiesthat we call human nature and human consciousness. How does this happen? Well, there are many ways of approaching the functions of the human brain. One approach, the one we use mainly, is to look at patients with sustained damage to a small region of the brain, where there's been a genetic change in a small region of the brain. What then happens is not an across-the-board reduction in all your mental capacities, a sort of blunting of your cognitive ability. What you get is a highly selective loss of one function, with other functions being preserved intact, and this gives you some confidence in assertingthat that part of the brain is somehow involved in mediating that function. So you can then map function onto structure, and then find out what the circuitry's doing to generate that particular function. So that's what we're trying to do. 1:51So let me give you a few striking examples of this. In fact, I'm giving you three examples, six minutes each, during this talk. The first example is an extraordinary syndrome called Capgras syndrome. If you...
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...room was bathed in a mesmerizing night sky of green and blue, synchronizing with the sway of the vibrating bed. Still, “Tim’s” brow was furrowed as he repeated, “Why won’t we do that?” The classical music in the background was not enough to calm his echolalia. As I adjusted Tim’s weighted blanket, I began to hum a harmony to the song. Since Tim was not fond of noise-blocking headphones, this was the closest I could get to relaxing him. Why did this happen, and how could we dampen it? Since sensory input and pain has an effect on all our daily activities, it is a crucial treatment focus in occupational therapy. My first exposure to occupational therapy was a required class for direct support professionals at Bridges. To introduce us to sensory...
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...FUNCTIONS OF BRAIN PARTS - AMYGDALA: memory, emotion, aggression - HYPOTHALAMUS: basic biological functions (hunger thirst, temperature, sexual arousal, emotion - MEDULLA: vital functions (breathing, heart rate) - CEREBELLUM: coordinated movement, language, thinking - THALAMUS: switching station for sensory info; memory - SPINAL CORD: transmits signals between brain & rest of body CORTICAL HOMUNCULUS (Sensory & Motor) - picture representation of the anatomical divisions of primary motor & primary somatosensory cortex - “distortion” not based on size of body part greater representation = greater sensitivity - areas have to do with motor neurons DORSAL ANTERIOR -------(< ‘ )-------POSTERIOR (ROSTRAL) (CAUDAL) VENTRAL LATERAL -------- < : )8( MEDIAL )~ -------- LATERAL METHODS OF LOCALIZATION - assign specific functions to particular places in the cerebral cortex - LESION STUDIES: any pathologic or traumatic discontinuity of brain tissue - SURGERY: Wada Test (anesthetize one hem), Tumor Removal, Split Brain - INFERENCE STUDIES (talk while balancing broom) - FUNCTIONAL IMAGING - PET (positron emission tomography): track blood flow associated w/ brain activity; used to assess physiology, including glucose & oxygen metabolism, and presence of specific neurotransmitters - SPECT (single photon emission...
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...The Brain I chose to learn more about psychology and the advances made in neuroscience. I specifically read Carl Zimmer’s article in National Geographic called, “Secrets of the Brain.” I was able to learn about Van Wedeen’s research and the new technologies being used that are allowing us to discover more about how the brain actually works. It is a very interesting article because it is written first hand by Carl Zimmer, as he is being “experimented” on by Wedeen. Neurological discoveries are significant to me because I am able to expand my knowledge of the brain and apply these findings into my own life. Wedeen discovered a way to “grid” the brain by using a fMRI scanner. This scanner is able to trace white matter patterns in the brain, and therefore can record the brain as it is in action. This has “helped reveal networks involved in all manner of thought processes, recognizing faces, to enjoying a cup of coffee, to remembering a traumatic event,” Zimmer explains. The brain has always been a huge mystery to the scientific/medical community, so being able to understand a little more about how it works, signals, and organizes is a very big deal! Not only is it...
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...regions of the human brain undergo development during adolescence and beyond. Some of the brain regions that undergo particularly protracted development are involved in social cognitive function in adults. In the first section of this paper, I briefly describe evidence for a circumscribed network of brain regions involved in understanding other people. Next, I describe evidence that some of these brain regions undergo structural development during adolescence. Finally, I discuss recent studies that have investigated social cognitive development during adolescence. The first time Uta Frith made an impression on me was when I was 15. That year I was given a copy of her book Autism: Explaining the Enigma (U. Frith, 1989), which had recently been published. I knew nothing about autism and found Uta’s book captivating. It inspired me to write to its author and ask if I could do a week’s work experience in her lab. With characteristic generosity, Uta agreed. So in the summer of 1990, I spent a week in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognitive Development Unit, where I observed children with autism being tested on the Sally Anne task, and joined in when Uta’s group were generating spoonerisms like Dob Bylan and Himi Jendrix. At the time, I didn’t quite...
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...reading, I found some of his concepts are difficult to fully envision for logical reasons. A number of his concepts give an overreaching impression and are a bit too broad. While Raine brings up many valid points, I found myself asking important questions while reading Anatomy of Violence. Does this new research and belief give criminals a “Get out of jail free” card? While reading this book, I asked myself, Will this new theory allow violent offenders to get away with violent offenses? However, I also ask myself, if these criminals in deed have brain abnormalities/malfunction/defects, is it fair to throw them in jail without proper treatment if it is out of their control? As a future defense attorney, I appreciate a book that allows me to question and examine what I believe and know to be true. It is important that...
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