Physiological Psychology Course Blog

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mice-smell-share-each-others-pain    In this article, researchers found that mice could share pain with each other. This finding came out when researchers were poking the mice paws with a thin fiber. The mice going through withdraw showed this sensitivity, but the healthy mice sharing the same bedding with the withdraw mice showed the same sensitivity. Researchers found that  olfactory signals contributed to the sharing of pain; certain odors transmit pain information to other mice. Although olfactory senses contributed to this sharing, researchers also found that social transmission contributes to pain as well. These transmissions include; hearing squeals of pain and seeing the other mice going through pain. These signals influence pain perception to the healthy mice. Researchers think this could explain why some people experience pain from an injury longer than expected. I found this article especially interesting after just learn...

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37567362 A research team from Harvard, Columbia, and California universities conducted a study to test the roles the hippocampus and the striatum play in influencing the way teenagers learn. The study used an MRI to scan brain activity in 31 adults and 41 teenagers during a picture-based game. The results showed that the teenagers answered more questions correctly than the adults did, and the teenagers were also able to better recall details to explain why they chose their answer. The MRI results showed that both the hippocampus and the striatum were highly activated in the teenage brains during the game, but only the striatum was activated in the adult brains. This study suggests that teenage brains are wired to learn from their experiences, which the researchers propose makes them better prepared for adulthood. This article has interesting findings, but I wonder if the author exaggerated the correlation between learning from experiences and preparin...

Maddie Wilhide  Blog 1  Coffee associated with reduced risk of MS  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/03/04/drinking-coffee-associated-with-reduced-risk-ms.html         This article discusses the high association between consuming coffee and reducing the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. The study had large sample groups, which makes it easier to generalize to the whole population. The researchers found that the participants who drank the most amount of coffee, had a lower risk than the participants who did not consume coffee. Based on the study, the researchers theorized that caffeine contains a protecting agent, that reduces the breakdown of the myelin sheath. As we know from class, the myelin sheath is a very important aspect in neural conduction and assists with movement. It is important to mention that this study shows an association, NOT a causal link.              ...

http://www.medicaldaily.com/sleep-quality-can-predict-teen-drinking-and-marijuana-use-study-says-398305 This article suggests that a study has discovered that sleep quality and the length of sleep in late childhood can predict alcohol and drug use later in adolescence. The study in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal, was put together by researchers from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Pitt Department of Psychology. The researchers studied 186 boys from Western Pennsylvania. They looked at the responses from the Child Sleep Questionnaire that the boy's mothers filled out. The responses to the survey helped to figure out the quality of sleep the 11 year old boys were getting. At ages 20 and 22, they were then interviewed about their marijuana and alcohol use. A lot of factors came into play, such as, race, socioeconomic differences, neighborhood issues, self-regulation- when the connection between sleep quality and substance use was founded. As a result...

http://www.medicaldaily.com/what-aphasia-brain-condition-causes-language-impairment-1-million-americans-398257 This article mentions that language sets humans apart from other species in the world. Although, the condition Aphasia directly effects a person's language ability. This is not a well-known condition, but there are about 80,000 new cases diagnosed every year. This language impairment was even mentioned on TedEd Talk. Here, it was described as, "a brain condition that can impair all aspects of communication, from speech and language comprehension to even reading and writing". Most often, there is damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, due to stroke or injury- which causes aphasia. It depends which part of the brain is affected in order to tell exactly what impairments will follow. For example, if someone damaged their Broca's area, then that person would have problems naming objects. If someone damaged their Wernicke's area, they would have proble...