A Not So Beautiful Mind?

A Beautiful Mind is the first time I ever heard of/ actually learned about schizophrenia.  In the movie, John Nash (Russell Crowe) is a math genius who believes that he is enlisted by the military to crack some code and if he doesn't they will get him.  When I first saw this, I was in 7^th grade and my health teacher showed it in class as an example as schizophrenia.  I haven’t seen it since then, but I remember thinking that it was a really good movie.  I hadn't really given it any thought until this week and I started to think that at age 11, I believed that Russell Crowe was schizophrenia.  I never thought that it may not be like that for all people.  Now as a psychology major, I know that not all schizophrenia is like that, although, it is the most common.  There are five different types of schizophrenia: paranoid-type, disorganized-type, catatonic type, undifferentiated-type and residual-type.  Each of the types is respectfully named for the main symptom.  WebMD describes the basics that makes up each of the five types, but PsychCentral takes the cake. From their screening test  to all their tabs on the left, there is all sorts of other links (within their website) that really go into schizophrenia.  I found it really helpful to have all the information in one place. This year I have really fallen in love with youtube and psychcentral.  Although, they aren't my only learning tools, they certainly help to enhance anything I read about.  

The video above is a simulation of paranoid schizophrenia.  The person believes the weather is out to get him and everyone is helping.  I don’t know if it actually goes like this, but this video is merely a simulation of what it could be like and it helped me grasp it a little better.  

Moody or Bipolar?

“You’re so bipolar!” My siblings would throw around that phrase when we had unexplainable mood swings. Never did we give a thought of what it really meant or that one of us would someday be diagnosed with it.  I always knew my brother was a little “crazy”.  He would get so hyper and run around sometimes and then be blissful and then just angry and antisocial.  Bipolar has three main subcategories: type I, type II, & cyclothymia.  Type I, previously known as manic depression, is basically one manic episiode (at least) and periods of major depression.  Type II is hypomania (not full mania but bursts of energy and impulsiveness) and episodes of depression.  Cyclothymia is less mood swings, but is similar to type II.  There are several symptoms like being easily distracted or poor judgment.  Each person varies with their symptoms and sometimes can even be diagnosed as depressed instead of bipolar.  The hyperlink above on bipolar gives detailed symptoms as well as treatment and mood stabilizers that are usually used.  Bipolar is an actual disorder and not something that should be taken lightly.

I’ve always wondered what causes it, how can a doctor be sure that someone really has a bipolar disorder and what part does genetics play? (Click genetics to access the article)  The Scripps Research Institute has found variations in genes that increase the risks of bipolar disorder.  Those genes appear to be associated with a biochemical pathway know as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling system.  About 29 genes determine if someone’s risk is higher than another persons. 

This disorder is 5 to 6 more likely to happen in someone that has a sibling or family member with bipolar so I find it interesting that testing one’s genes can tell a person’s possible story before they even live it (so to speak just because someone has a higher risk doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll get it).  The video below is of girl explaining what it’s like to live with the disorder.  She goes into what it is, how it feels, and types of treatment she’s tried.  Hearing her personal struggle and how treatments are different in everyone makes it feel more real and easy to relate to.  Finding the right “concoction” is important and does make a difference on how a person reacts from day to day.  I also found it really cool that psych central has a screening quiz so the link on the bottom of the video.

Bipolar quiz: http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/bipolarquiz.htm

PTSD: Blame It On the Genes?

I'm not much of a tv person, but one show has always had me hooked since high school, Grey's Anatomy.  While I admit the last year I haven't been that committed and I'm super behind, (Of course I had to start all the way from the beginning again. Got to love Netflix.) I now understand some of the stuff they're saying!  Playing catch up I have re-met Dr. Major Hunt whom is the trauma surgeon and has served a couple of tours in Iraq.  As the show progress, it hints in on to Dr. Hunt having post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).   Post traumatic stress disorder is caused by a experiencing a severe traumatic experience which leads to long-lasting state of frequent distressing recollections and nightmares about the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders of it and exaggerated arousal in response to noise and other stimuli. Grey's Anatomy is fictional so I know that not everything is accurate; however, Dr. Hunt cannot sleep, overreacts when he gets startled and has uncontrollable flashbacks, which now I can see so much more clearly as symptoms of PTSD.  It made me wonder why some people get PTSD and others don’t.  Here is a basic guide to PTSD. I thought this picture was really neat with all the statistics and basic knowledge of the disorder. (It's a little small, but if you click on the link under, it should take you to the see the picture larger.)

http://msw.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder-PTSD-Awareness-Infographic.jpg

Studies have shown that smaller than averages hippocampi are more susceptible to PTSD. Also, those resulting with PTSD have lower than normal cortisol levels possibly meaning that they aren’t “equipped” to fight.     Recently, in my memory class we have discussed PTSD and how certain genes may lead to a higher risk of being more vulnerable to get PTSD.  In the link below, is an article that discusses how serotonin transporting genes may have to do with PTSD.  It is still relatively new and studies are still being conducted to further locate and specify exactly what this means.  I find this completely exciting that something like PTSD that happens from traumatic events can be found in a gene and how it just takes one life changing event to activate this disorder that seems to take a great toll on people’s lives.  


Heredity Article.

Dream Me Up, Scotty

We all do it. Even if we think we don’t or don’t remember doing it, it still happens.  Why is it that we can’t remember and why do we dream about the things we dream about?  A consistent dream I would have was of an old lady running up to me and stealing my stuff and me running after her screaming that it was mine. Then out of nowhere I would find myself on a spaceship but invisible to everyone. I would have that dream night on end during high school and I hadn't had it in awhile until a couple of nights ago.  So why is it that she has reappeared and what does it represent? Different dream theories would say that this dream represent different things.  For example, Freud would say that she was part of my unconscious desires, thoughts or motivations.  Maybe there was an old lady that was trying to take my things and I wanted to say something, but never did and maybe the spaceship meant I wanted an adventure. With his psychoanalytic perspective, it would suggest that I wanted to act out the aggression in my unconsciousness that I wasn't able to express in my conscious life (or something sexual, but I don’t think really think there's anything sexual to this one). The activation-synthesis model of dreaming would suggest that I was just processing daily activities and trying to connect loose ends.  Maybe I saw that old lady everyday and I had lost something each day or maybe I was wandering around school feeling invisible. I don’t know how this theory would really interpret my crazy lady/ spaceship dream. The video below takes the activation-synthesis model as why we dream.  Also, gives interesting facts on why this is the most effective and how it makes us most effective.  It also helps understand REM sleep and NREM sleep better.  It’s kind of long and he talks really fast so it’s a lot of information to take in but he makes it fun. Bottom line of it is “our brains aren't here to make us friends; they are here to win.” Our brains are here to help us process our days and help us solve our problems while we are sleeping.  While we sleep we are making connections we didn't/don’t make during the day.  In conclusion, it is difficult to figure out why we are dreaming or even how due to the fact that only the person that’s having the dreams can see it.  I can explain the crazy lady in my dream to someone else and even tell them details about the ship, but they will only know what I tell them. What if I myself am not getting the whole story or am missing key details?  And to think that this is only interpreting my dream using these two theories and none of them dream dictionaries or dream interpreter people. Whew! So many possibilities and questions still left to be answered.  Thank goodness for science! 

Oxytocin: The Trust Hormone

Hormones. They're responsible for alot of things, especially how we act and react.  Testosterone for example, helps men grow facial hair, increase muscle mass, as well as help grow male organs.  I think that's pretty incredible, but we always hear about testosterone and estrogen and never really about the other hormones like oxytocin.  Oxytocin is often known as the trust hormone or the cuddle hormone.  It's what makes humans humane.  The link above provides a list of ten reasons while oxytocin is the best thing since sliced bread.  From helping in social situations to helping moms be moms, oxytocin boosts pleasures.  Although it is notoriously known for trust and love, oxytocin's perhaps most important role is helping stimulate contractions of the uterus during deliver of a baby.  To me, I think that helps the most. Imagine if women had nothing to naturally assist ease child birthing.  Today we have medicine and technology and fancy things to help us, but imagine before.   If our bodies didn't produce this hormone in the past, I can't imagine how women would have gotten through that.  The video below is a study on how oxytocin helped men become “nicer”.  Men took either a placebo or oxytocin nasal spray and the ones with the oxytocin typically acted nicer.  It’s amazing how our body has all these chemicals that work for different things.  As time moves on, technology helps us discover newer and more natural remedies to our problems.  For example, the video also states how oxytocin may also be used to treat social anxiety or autism in the future.   One day perhaps all dangerous drugs can be replaces with natural things our body just makes on it’s own. 

Synethesia: I Taste Blue & Hear Orange

Ever wonder what it would be like to hear the color orange or taste the color green? When I first stumbled upon this disorder, I thought it was so peculiar how our bodies could somehow be cross wired and pick up things not meant for them.  It sort of felt like what it would be like being on a walkie talkie on a different wavelength picking up signals meant for someone else.  Most people would find tasting colors is just silly, but to people who have to live with synesthesia that is often the case. Synesthesia is the perception of one sense is simultaneously perceived by another or other senses.  Although this disease has no official established method to diagnose, about every 1 in 200 people have synesthesia.  It is thought that people with synesthesia’s neurons and synapses that are supposed to be within one sensory system somehow cross to another sensory system. It is also believed that these synesthetic experiences happen in the cerebral cortex. The most common form is colored letters and numbers.  The way a person with synesthesia perceives life is involuntary.  They don’t think of what they are seeing they just see.  It is projected outside of the body rather than just in the mind when they are asked to imagine something.  For a patient to have synesthesia, it must be the same everytime.  For example, if you see blue when your try to imagine a 7, it has to be blue always. The video below is a short film I found on Youtube.  The two boys have different kinds of synesthesia.  The boy who is putting headphones into different foods perceives tastes as sounds.  The boy who is on the floor smelling records perceives sound as smell.  The items all coming out of the giant speakers show that sound can be perceived as different colors, shapes or textures. 

Memory: CPU's Muse?

Memory has always been an interest of mine.  The brain is a fascinating thing and no one really knows how it works.  We have tried to come up with different methods and experiments to better help us label each part and assess what part is responsible for what, but when it comes to memory nothing is really concrete, yet anyway.  Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist whom is often called the father of memory.  Best known for his nonsense non-syllables,  Ebbinghaus was the first to experimentally investigate the human memory.  Using himself as the only test subject, Ebbinghaus would have a list of nonsense non-syllables (basically jibberish) that he would set off to try to memorize and then would test himself later. With this, he established a forgetting curve. The longer he waited to test himself, the more he forgot.   This was one of the first things discovered about our memory.  Since then, many other psychologists have given their fair time to trying to decipher how our memory works.  Most recently, Alan Baddeley has more clearly made up a model that explains our memory.  No system is perfect and his model has been criticized, but his model is the latest and sets a foundation for any future models to come. 

This model, explains the memory most like a computer.  Our sensory memory is seen as the input devices of a computer.  What we see, hear, touch, etc brings in information just like typing into a keyboard or scanning something into a computer would.  What we just saw or felt, is then sent to our brain and can stay there for awhile in the short term memory, but if we don't transfer it to the longer term memory it will be forgotten.  On a computer, we would have something up on the screen, but if we don't save the file, it will be lost and not retrievable.  All this work is all done by the central processing unit (CPU) on a computer which matches our central executive system in our memory.  Below is a video comparing and contrasting why a computer is/ isn't like the brain.