Physiological Psychology Course Blog

Transgenderism has been around for a very long time. With new abilities within science, they are finally doing research on the topic. Within this past few years, people of trans* identifications have been largely in the spotlight. Examples are Laverne Cox from Orange Is The New Black and one of the world's largest Trans Rights activists, Caitlyn Jenner, the bathroom arguments in North Carolina, and the Department of Defense working to lift the ban on transgendered individuals from serving in the military. A lot of people argue that transgenderism is abnormal and that it is a choice. There is some research that supports that transgenderism is biological. Twin studies have shown that identical twins are much more likely to both be transgendered. However, this article targets the brain in regards to transgender people. Imaging of the brains of males and females have shown that their brains have a slight difference in their structure. Based on this, it is theorized that transgender i...

Link:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160118134938.htm            In this article researcher’s study how human sounds can convey emotions clearer and faster than words. Researchers in the study believe that the speed in which the brain 'tags' these sounds and the preference given to them compared to language can be traced back evolutionary. The role of decoding vocal sounds has played a major part in human survival. "The identification of emotional vocalizations depends on systems in the brain that are older in evolutionary terms. Understanding emotions expressed in spoken language, on the other hand, involves more recent brain systems that have evolved as human language developed," says Marc Pell, Director of McGill's School of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The team discovered that the participants detected vocalizations of happiness or laughter more quickly than anger or sadness. However, angry sounds and speech ...

Link:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160913173436.htm   This article studies the relationship between selfies and happiness. The goal of this study was to help researchers learn about the effects of photo taking on a person. They focused in three areas: self-efficacy, pro-social, and self-perception. The study included  41 college students. Each student was instructed to continue their normal day-to-day activities while taking part in the research. Researchers collected nearly 2,900 mood measurements during the study and found that subjects in all three groups experienced increased positive moods. Some participants in the selfie group reported becoming more confident and comfortable with their smiling photos over time. The students taking photos of objects that made them happy became more reflective and appreciative. And those who took photos to make others happy became calmer and said that the connection to their friends and family helped relieve str...

http://neurosciencenews.com/young-memory-aging-5048/ When people think about aging and becoming older, we think about how our body becomes physically deteriorated, how we have trouble doing simple jobs, and how our memory is not as good as it was when we were young but this new study has found that some older people can remember just as good as younger people. This study looked at participants brains and their corresponding memory capacity to determine which parts of the brain helps people to remember things when they become older. Participants in this study included two groups who had similar results on a memory test. One group involved the older adults, or the "Super-Agers", ages 60-80. The other group was the younger adults, ages 18-35. "Super-Agers" are older adults who have resilient memories that are similar to memories of a younger adult. The study showed that the brain of the "Super-Agers" were similar to those of the young adults. In usual circu...

How the Immune System Influences Suicidality The article that I chose is addressing the topic of a possible relationship between the body’s immune system, inflammatory chemicals and suicidality within an individual. The article expands on the possible biological causes of suicidality in individuals. The author speaks on how certain personality traits, environmental and social hardships can have an impact on suicidal thoughts. The immune system, however, may have an impact on both depression and suicidality. Treatments for certain types of cancers combat the illness by enhancing immune responses within the body. It is pointed out that these medications may have an adverse impact and actually “increase the risk of depression and suicidal thinking.” Disorders and illnesses that fall into the autoimmune classification (such as lupus and multiple sclerosis) are correlated with suicidal behaviors. These disorders attack the brain and increase these suicidal thoughts. The author discusse...

http://neurosciencenews.com/aging-appetite-serotonin-5010/ Do you want to know the secret to living longer? Of course you do! Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School may have found some important information regarding the aging of fruit flies which could help us find out that secret. These researchers studied the eating patterns and diets of the fruit flies and had some interesting findings regarding how their appetite affected how long the flies lived. Research found that when the flies became hungry, they were drawn to protein rich foods. After eating these foods, the flies felt satisfied because serotonin was released in the brain as a reward for their behavior. Serotonin is a chemical that creates a sense of pleasure after an organism completes an action and it can be found on neurons in the brain. In the study, the researchers had different groups of fruit flies, flies that were allowed to eat protein, flies that were blocked from eating protein, and flies w...

http://neurosciencenews.com/brain-evolution-development-4940/ The size of the average human brain has increased in size by about 350% over the course of human evolution.  Previously it was thought that this increase in size was the reason for the advancement of human intelligence.  However, new research has found that this may not be the only reason for this increase in intelligence.  While brain size has increased significantly, so has blood flow to the brain.  Research has found that blood flow to the brain has increased by 600%, and that this increases seems to correspond with the evolution of human intelligence.  Previously studying the evolution of human cognition was limited to estimating brain size from discovered human skulls.  However, scientists say that cognition could be more accurately understood through the measure of cerebral metabolic rate.  Metabolic rate in the brain is proportional to cerebral blood flow rate, and for this re...

http://neurosciencenews.com/aging-genetics-molecules-longevity-4985/ Everyone fears aging. They do not want to get older and experience weaker muscles and bones, deteriorating memory and brain functions, higher risks for diseases, etc. People have been trying to combat aging for hundreds and thousands of years. Researchers from Concordia University and Idunn Technologies have been doing research on six different plant extracts that can affect aging. The plant extracts affect the signaling pathways in the body. The positive thing about these extracts are that Canada has deemed them safe for human's to eat and digest. While all six work to delay aging, Salix Alba is the one that is the most effective. The researchers used yeast to determine the effectiveness of these six extracts. The reason they used yeast was because the cellular aging process is similar in both the yeast and humans. When using the yeast, they studied how the information was moving through the signaling pathw...

http://neurosciencenews.com/memory-connectivity-neuroscience-4954/ There are two different proteins that are important when dealing with memory. There are Wnt proteins that help maintain connections within the brain, allowing information to be passed through synapses, and Dkk1 proteins that block the action of Wnt proteins, not allowing information to be passed through the synapses. When discussing Alzheimer's, researchers have found there is a lack of function in the Wnt proteins which can account for memory loss. According to what Professor Salinas says, "Synapses are absolutely critical to everything our brains do. When these important communication points are lost, nerve cells cannot exchange information and this leads to symptoms like memory and thinking problems". To understand how the Dkk1 protein can inhibit actions of the Wnt protein, researchers created a study in which they used genetically modifies mince where the Dkk1 can be switched on. The researchers h...