Physiological Psychology Course Blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wxewRynV3g In the video “Visual Thinking and Animal Behavior,” Temple Grandin details the different types of minds and why she thinks it’s important for them to all work together. Temple is an Autistic Savant who has done extensive work bettering the lives of both Autistic people and Animals through creating a deeper sense of understanding of how they think. Temple details all the way her photorealistic mind works, including how she has a seemingly infinite database of images that she can recall and also manipulate, making “movies.” It was this ability that allowed her to visualize cattle chutes in her mind and design one that efficiently uses the animals natural behavior in order to maintain movement through the chute. Temple details how the animal mind and the autistic mind process similarly, both being visual thinkers and thus increasingly sensitive to how things look. Temple then outlines the other types of minds, including

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190319112206.htm Chronic pain has been an ongoing battle for many individuals, which seems to have no permanent cure. Chronic pain is classified as neuropathic; because there is impairment to the nerve cells. Examples of chronic pain include Rheumatoid Arthritis, Phantom Limb Syndrome, and side effects resulting from a stroke. There has been a new study that has been done by researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine that have found new evidence as to where chronic pain originates from, as well as multiple target points for treating chronic pain. The research study looks at concentrated nerve cells that are found near the base of the spinal cord. This grouping of concentrated nerve cells, called the dorsal root ganglia, gave the researchers a once in a life time chance to study them due to them being removed by surgery from cance

Behavioral disorders in kids with autism linked to reduced brain connectivity https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190418164340.htm In this article, Yale researchers have found a biological cause that regulates emotional functions differently in children with autism who also have disruptive behavior disorder. Very little was known about what causes such aggressive behaviors in these children before this study, and it is one of the main reasons children with autism seek psychiatric treatment and hospitalization. This study used fMRI scan to conduct an emotional perception task and compare it to children with autism who do not have disruptive behavior.  The children were asked to view pictures of human faces that showed calm or scared expressions. Researchers found that there was reduced connectivity between the amygdala and ventrolateral cortex. This pathway is very critical to the regulation of emotion. This reduced connectivity is uniquely associated with disruptive be

https://neurosciencenews.com/brain-aging-physical-activity-12018/ In our everyday lives, we are constantly taught as people that exercising is extremely important for our over all well being. In this article, the researcher provides evidence that when engaging in constant physical activity, individuals that do so may be able to prevent declination of cognitive abilities, and dementia. Whether it being a full on early morning workout five days a week, or simply twenty minutes of walking here or there, evidence suggests that "Active individuals have lower metabolic and vascular risk factors and these risk factors may explain their propensity for healthy brain aging." For substantial health benefits, it is important for people to engage in 150 minutes or more of "moderate-to-vigorous" activity throughout the week to see substantial results. Scientists provide data that led to researchers concluding that with each hour of time spent doing some sort of physical activit

https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_genova_what_you_can_do_to_prevent_alzheimer_s?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare Blog assignment Lisa Genova explains that DNA or old  age doesn't doom us to Alzheimer's and how we can prevent the effects of the disease. According to Statistics 1 in 3 people either have alzheimer's or in some way affected by it. This disease can be terrifying because it can not be treated or cured. Alzheimer's happens in the synapses of the brain.when neurons are communicating  they release amyloid beta along with other neurotransmitters, this is peptide is cleared from the synapse, they are usually cleared away by microglia “cleaners”. Scientist believe that the buildup of amyloid beta , makes plaques . After 20-30 years of build up of the plaques, there is a threshold. Ones the threshold is passed out microglia “ cleaner cells go on overdrive and may even clear the whole synapse, which can result in cell death.

https://neurosciencenews.com/olfaction-cigarette-craving-11085/ In this article, research conducted by Michael Sayette, PhD and published by the American Psychological Association evaluates the role of pleasant smells in helping adults who are trying to quit smoking curb their craving to smoke a cigarette. In the research study, 232 adult smokers that were not interested in quitting were recruited. Before coming to the study, these adults were asked to refrain from smoking. At the beginning of the study, the participants were all asked to smell a pleasant odor, tobacco from their preferred type of cigarette, and no odor. During the study, participants lit their cigarettes, but did not smoke it and then once they extinguished the lit, unsmoked cigarette they were given a container that had one of the odors that they had been exposed to earlier in the study. Each participant had to rate how tempted they were to smoke every 60 seconds for five minutes from the time that they extinguishe

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-brain-food/201106/hearing-voices-what-s-happening-in-the-brain-schizophrenics In the article “Hearing Voices: What’s Happening In The Brain of Schizophrenics” written for Psychology Today, Gary L. Wenk explains how this disorder truly works in the brain of an individual suffering with it. Wenk begins his article by explaining how the body senses work together with the brain, sending signals when needed, he explains that it is not possible for an individual to tickle themselves because their body is sending signals to their brain, letting the brain know where their fingers are going, and what they plan on doing, so the individual would not be surprised by the action. But if someone else where to tickle them, it would come as a shock causing them to laugh and jerk their body, because the brain is not receiving signals informing the brain/individual of what is going to happen. Wenk compares this process to speech and explains how an in

Preparation for fatherhood can be anxiety-provoking. A father can often be nervous about not being nurturing enough but this article suggests that there might be an optimal solution to that worry. The solution being the body odor of pregnant women. The specific body odor form pregnant women could possibly change the levels of testosterone. By lowering the level of the male’s testosterone, it can show a change in the behavior of the male cause him to become more nurturing. Previous literature has suggested that there are possible hormonal changes that can influence care-giving behaviors in males. The researchers took this information and predicted that men who were exposed to pregnant female odor would reduce interest in mating, display increased paternal motivation, and reduced salivary testosterone levels.                    They proceeded to do this experiment by exposing men (split into different groups) to odors from pregnant women. The men then took a RAS test, gave a saliva sa

https://neurosciencenews.com/hunger-learning-11051/ Researchers in India have been conducting research on the relationships between test score discrepancies and food insecurity throughout childhood. Nearly half of the children participating in this study at some point, had experienced food insecurity in some way. This even extended to children from wealthy families - indicating that money was not necessarily the main reason for the lack of food availability. Scores from all subjects (vocabulary, reading, math, local languages and English) showed overall lower scores. There was a positive correlation between severe shortage of food and the frequency of lower test scores. It was also observed that the effects of food insecurity during mid-childhood and adolescence were associated with diminished ability in math and English. Nutritional deficiency due to lack of food is a growing issue throughout the world. This study is just a sample of the entirety. These researchers hope to uti

https://neurosciencenews.com/early-depression-memory-loss-10934/ https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/793ACA061D1FCADB853235F7DD9B83A1/S0007125019000242a.pdf/longitudinal_associations_of_affective_symptoms_with_midlife_cognitive_function_evidence_from_a_british_birth_cohort.pdf A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that a history of experiencing symptoms related to affective disorders, such as major depression and anxiety, may predict the occurrence and intensity of later cognitive decline. Participants were pulled from the National Child Development Study (NCDS), a group of 18,558 individuals born in England, Wales, and Scotland over the course of a single week in 1958; the NCDS collected data such as socio-economic position and education on these individuals at eight different intervals between the ages of 7-50, which were utilized as covariates. At ages 23, 33, 42, and 50, participants were administered the Malaise In

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190418095137.htm Mood and Anxiety disorders cripple many adults across the nation. In the united states  40 million adults age 18 and older develop an Anxiety disorder and 21% of adults develop Mood disorders.  A series of studies from Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University, and ICES researched the effects Canada's early intervention program called First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program (FEMAP) for young adults. This outpatient program treats emerging adults between the ages of 18-25. FEMAP uses a patient-centered approach with a multidisciplinary team. Many studies have shown that the FEMAP have yield significant improvements in patients outcomes within 6 months into treatment. Patients reported having less anxiety and mood symptoms and higher health satisfaction. Another studied showed that patients were 3 times more likely to see a psychiatrist and lower rates of emergency department visits. Studies also have also l

http://www.brainfacts.org/Brain-Anatomy-and-Function/Body-Systems/2019/Finding-the-Truth-Behind-Funny-041119 Robert Provine is a researcher who has studied laughter for over a decade. He conducted a study in which he brought participants to a lab, showed them some comedy sketches and recorded their laughter. He found that people laughed a little to be polite if that and found that the best laughs have nothing to do with any jokes. He described laughter as "one person's brain connecting directly with another's." He also stated that laughter was the building block of communication and that laughter and speech are controlled by different mechanisms in the brain that compete with each other. Laughter causes the brain to release naturally produced opioids. English and Finnish researchers conducted PET scans on people who were around friends versus those alone and found that people who were with friends laughing had more opioids in the brain that promote pleasurable feel

Lauren Bailey https://neurosciencenews.com/brain-aging-physical-activity-12018/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+neuroscience-rss-feeds-neuroscience-news+%28Neuroscience+News+Updates%29 This article is about evidence supporting the idea that light amounts of exercise can reduce aging in the brain. People who engage in more physical activity at a young age and continue through adulthood may have a reduced cognitive decline and dementia. Studies have found that 150 minutes of moderate exercise have substantial health benefits and those who participate in an additional hour of physical activity result in about one year less of brain aging. Those who did not participate in the activity showed lower brain volumes when compared to those who did participate in exercise. This provided insight into the effects of physical activity and mental health. I found this interesting to read about because of the book we read in class, Brain Rules. In this

https://neurosciencenews.com/rest-learning-memory-11073/ In this study NIH researchers closely examined how memory and learning occur during a novel task.  Subjects completed a typing test using their non dominant hand for a series of repeated trials over several days while performance and brain waves were concurrently monitored.  Researchers found that the beta rhythm brainwave patterns associated with learning were actually present during the brief breaks in between trials of the motor task, as opposed to during actual task completion.  This suggests that learning and skill refinement actually occurs during the rest period while performing a complex motor task, where a recent memory of task performance can be examined for relevant information.  Additionally, the cumulative improvements of subjects between trials in one day exceeded the improvement between days of testing, indicating that this between repetition rest was just as critical to learning as rest between practice sessions

David Fregly https://phys.org/news/2019-04-method-off-target-effects-crispr.html CRISPR is a method of gene editing that allows scientists to edit specific parts of a selected subjects DNA. One problem with CRISPR is that when it makes cuts in DNA, there is a chance that it could make cuts into other sections on the DNA that were not intended to be cut. So scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), with collaborators at AstraZeneca did research on how to track the locations of where the DNA was cut to figure out where cuts in the DNA were made. This is because there are issues that can arise from the unintended cuts in the DNA. The article relates to psychology, and physiology in that with the advancments in CRISPR technology, there is a chance we will be able to prevent genetic diseases, as well as gain a better understanding of how genes effect human behavior. CRISPR could be developed to help with antibiotics that are more targeted to spe

https://neurosciencenews.com/cotinine-nicotine-addiction-12022/ https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences. Addiction is normally related to drugs, but also to smoking cigarettes. About 34.3 million adults in the U.S. currently smoke cigarettes. Cigarettes or tobacco are known to be addicting due to nicotine. Psychology professor Brady Phelps stated that "when you smoke, nicotine is converted into a metabolite called cotinine." Even those that inhale second-hand smoke can also produce cotinine. Cotinine can actually last in the body longer than nicotine, as far as 15 hours compared to nicotine's 2 hour half-life. Cotinine may be amplifying the addictive properties of nicotine, making it harder for smokers to quit. To be studied, Phelps conducted an experiment that involved light phobic aquatic worms. The w

It is well known in the psychology field that participating in physical activity can lead to increasing your chances of living longer. While people are aware of the short term effects of physical activity such as maintaining weight, increased energy, and improved circulation, these people might be unaware of the long term effects such as reduced, and healthy brain aging. As discussed in the article, even light intensity level of physical activity can help improve aging. “Spending an hour participating in light intensity physical activity was associated with the equivalent of 1.1 years less brain aging. Every additional hour spent exercising was linked to higher brain volume” (Neuroscience News, April 2019). In the Framingham Heart Study, participants were asked to use Actical accelerometers, which would measure the total steps per day, the moderate to vigorous physical activity, the light-intensity physical activity, and sedentary time. Participants got an MRI test after the eight da

https://www.psypost.org/2019/04/long-term-meditation-practitioners-have-a-faster-psychophysiological-recovery-from-stress-study-finds-53468 A new study published in the Psychoneuroendocrinology, has recently found that people who practice meditation have a faster physiological recovery from stress. Researchers examined 29 long-term meditation practitioners who had been meditating regularly for at least 3 hours a week, for at least 3 years, and 26 people who did not practice meditation. Upon testing how the groups responded psychologically and physiologically to a test inducing stress.Findings showed that the meditators had a faster cortisol recovery after a stressful incident (the level of cortisol lowered and returned to normal more quickly than that of the non-meditators). Cortisol is the hormone that floods the body during times of stress or crisis. The hormone increases heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and several other areas to prepare the person to fight or flee. Re

Colorblindness and macular degeneration are both eye diseases that scientists have been researching in order to eliminate. In a study set for publication in the journal Science , biologists at Johns Hopkins have created “organoids” as a model to study the development of the human eye. Developmental biologist Robert Johnston and his team focused on the growth of cells that allow people to see the colors red, blue, and green. The team grew human eyes in a lab from stem cells as opposed to experimenting on the eyes of mice or fish as they can’t process color the way humans can. It was discovered that the three color detecting cells (red, blue, and green) were induced by thyroid hormone. Determining how much thyroid hormone made a particular color cell allowed the team to manipulate the outcome creating specific color photoreceptors. Their finding gives insight as the why pre-term babies have higher evidence of vision disorders since they have lowered thyroid hormone.

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