Blog Post #6 Interview

1. When people have dreams, how do they relate to the people's thoughts and problems that they are currently having while actually awake?

I don't know too much about this, but from what I understand, dreams are connected to real life events or places or people because during REM sleep our mind is reliving the experience we just had that day. By doing this, memories are encoded from short term memory into long term memory.  I think this is why things come up in our dreams.  Also, there is a way to systematically control ones dreams called Lucid Dreaming that might be interested in looking into.

 

 

2. I've heard that colors have affects on people, for example the color blue makes people relaxed and calm. Is this true and if so, why do colors affect people's emotions?

Again, I don't know too much about this but from a quick search I found a website which suggests that we have color channels in our brains that perceive and react to color in certain ways.  That is all I really know about this topic.

 

3. What are some psychological disorders that people commonly have and why do people have them?

Some of the more commonly diagnosed psychological disorders are depression, phobias of different kinds are common, and ADHD or hyperactivity.  Still, the majority of the population does NOT have any of these.  They are just the most prevalent disorders that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

4. How does society's image of being "perfect" having an affect on people's minds?

Every person is influenced greatly by the social and cultural norms surrounding him/her.  I think the idea of being "perfect" is a very difficult idea to understand and people perceive what is perfect very differently. I think that when people are far away from their desired self then there is more anxiety, stress, and dysfunctional behavior. You might be able to look into Humanistic psychology and find more information about people's prototypes of beauty to see how much the idea of beauty can vary from culture to culture.

 

5. How do therapists analyze people who have psychological disorders?

There are lots of tests that psychologists use to determine whether people have disorders of any kind.  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4 (DSM 4) is the bible of disorders and gives specific guidelines for each disorder.  For example, depression according to the DSM 4 is not just people feeling sad.  It is having beyond usual sadness for extensive periods of time.  It also interferes greatly with normal duties and functions of one's daily life.  As psychologists interview patients, they narrow down the disorder it might be and then use the specific criteria of each disorder to determine exactly what disorder a person might have (if any at all).  Here is a link to an awesome podcast about the test used to identify psychopathshttp://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/436/the-psychopath-test.

Blog Post #7

Source:

 http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/brain-article/

National Geographics is a reliable source.

The two biggest parts of the brain would be the cerebrum and cerebellum. The cerebrum has two halves and is divided into four different sections. The frontal lobes are for speaking, thinking, learning, emotions, and movement. The parietal lobes are for touch, temperature, and pain. The occipital loves are for seeing. The temporal loves are for hearing and memory. The cerebellum is important because it coordinates muscle movements and balance. The brain stem is responsible for reflexes and basic functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. It also regulates when you're tired or awake. 

The Great Brain Book

            Title: The Great Brain Book
            Author: HP Newquist
            Chapter: 6; The Care and Feeding of Your Brain




-Each stage of cycle of your sleep can be measured by an electroencephalograph.
-Each time that a memory is made or an activity has been processed, a new connection is made between neurons.
-The more you repeat an action, the more connections are made which is why it's easier to retrieve the memory and do it better each time.
-You technically cannot just be classified as a left or right sided brain person, it's a mixture of both.
-Overcoming phobias takes a lot of time because the brain has to unlearn a fear that is has created.
-the first popular IQ test was made in 1916 called the Standford-Binet test.
-While your sleeping, the brain releases growth hormones.


Stages of Sleep:
1. you lose contact with the world around you right when you first fall asleep.
2. you're in a light sleep, which separates your brain even more from the world but you can still easily be awakened.
3. Hit deep sleep, most body functions have slowed down and if someone were to whisper to you, you probably wouldn't react.
4. Deepest stage of sleep "dead to the world"
5. REM-pons in your brain stem start sending nerve impulses and your brain tells different parts of your body to speed up. This is when your heartbeat increases but you're still in a light sleep.

In this book, HP Newquist, explains how the brain receives information and memorizes it. They also show the differences between the left and right side of the brain, memory tricks, phobias, and sleep patterns. 
One fact that supports these main ideas is that there is four main stages of sleep. There is a ninety minute normal sleeping cycle that happens repeatedly at least five times every night. 
Another fact that supports these main ideas is that a theory of why we dream is that our brain uses to dreams to help classify specific memories that didn't get classified when we were awake. Finally, the author gives the fact to support these main idea that, while you are sleeping, your brain can use that time to repair and replace damaged or dying cells. These ideas are similar to the movie Inception because in the movie, they use their dreams and they bring back memories in them. 

Hallucinations

-subconsciousness= sleeping mind
-conciousness= awakened mind
-when you're subconcious, everything that happens to you is labeled as a dream
-when you're conscious, it is considered an actual experience.
-when we are dreaming, objects and people are made up from memory.
-when we wake up, it switches from pictorial thinking to word-based thinking.
-Hallucination happens when the mind doesn't make the complete switch, or fails to switch.
-They're associated with mental illnesses (such as Schizophrenia or bipolar disorder)
Causes of Hallucinations:
-lack of sleep
-drugs
-certain types of epilepsy
-Delusion: an alternation of reality
-Hallucination: perception of events is being altered, but not to the extent where they believe in a different reality.
-prolonged meditation

Questions:
1. How does the brain handle hallucinations?
2. How does a delusion begin?
3. Can your brain recognize that something is wrong when you hallucinate?



http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper2/Krishna2.html

Comas

Three different types of neurons:
1. motor neuron
2. sensory neuron
3. interneuron
-motor neuron send messages away from the central nervous system
-sensory neuron regulates the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell)
-interneurons send messages between the motor and sensory neurons.
-a person in a coma is unconscious.
-they're still alive and able to breathe but they cannot respond to any stimuli
(sound of someone's voice or painful actions)
-they cannot perform any voluntary actions such as lifting arm or hitting someone
-the brain is still working but at it's most basic level
-consciousness depends on the constant transferring of chemical signals from the brainstem and thalamus to the cerebrum.
-they are connected by neural pathways called the RAS (Reticular Activating System)
-any interruptions to these messages put people into an altered states of consciousness.




http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/N/Neurons.html

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/coma.htm


1. How do people hallucinate?
2. What happens when a person is brain dead?
3. What happens to your brain when you die?

4/5 Charlie Lang: Neurons

-Neurons: carry information of the brain

-branched out (dendrites) like a tree

-they receive impulses and carry them to the cell body where they are needed.

-Glial cells are cells that surround the neurons in order to help regulate the environment within the brain and are also there for support and help and control the nervous system. 

-Controls:
1. body temperature
2. blood pressure
3. heart rate
4. breathing
5. 5 senses
6. psychical movement
7. think
8. dream
9. feel emotions
-the cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, taking up 85% of the brain's weight
-there are no pain receptors in the brain, so it cannot feel pain.
-uses 20% of the body's oxygen intake
-if the brain loses blood for 8 to 10 seconds then you lose consciousness.

http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9055388?query=neurons&ct=
http://www.nursingassistantcentral.com/blog/2008/100-fascinating-facts-you-never-knew-about-the-human-brain/

Q1: Are there different types of neurons?
Q2: Where are the neurons in the brain?

How does the human mind work?

1.) How do criminals mind work?
2.) What are the different parts of the brain?
3.) Is it possible to think of an original thought?

What do you already know about this topic?

I know that the right side of the brain is the creative, thinking outside of the box. Whereas, the left side of the brain is a more logical thing, straightforward type of thinking.