the brain.

there is a fairly new project called the human connectome. the idea behind this project is to map out all the nerves of the human brain. scientists are hoping that this will give us a better understanding of personality, memory, perception, cognitive ability, emotion, just basically who we are. they are examining different brains in different cultures to get the best picture of how they work. also when you know what is right you can know what has gone wrong. this will hopefully make curing some things easier. while working on this project they make a cool discovery. When we learned about the brain we mainly focused on neurons. but in an experiment scientists found a different type of cell that plays a huge roll in our brains: glia. these glial cells help sustain the brain by producing the myelin and distributing oxygen and all that other fun stuff. recently scientists put human glial cells into mice brains. these mice had improved memory and learning abilities. the important thing to note is that glia cells and not neurons were put into the mice suggesting that glia cells play a bigger role than we thought before.
for more information you can always check out the website: http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/

a pic of the neurons of the human brain

robotic therapy???

When first reading the chapter I started to think that therapy seemed really complex. To me it seemed like you needed a human there to think and respond to what you say. you needed a human being to be able to understand your issues and interpret all your body language and tones. but the more i thought about it the more my original thought seemed incorrect. For the most part people use the same body language: smile when they get happy, the make eye contact and are less fidgety when they are comfortable and they stumble over their words when they do not want to talk about something. and a computer can detect all of that stuff. the next question i asked myself was how could it respond correctly? but then i realized if we had handheld devices that could respond to what we say then a therapists responses do not seem out of reach. And out of the three thing all therapies have in common, it has two: it gives the client a new perspective and hope. the only thing that it is missing is the empathetic relationship. one could easily argue that is certainly has components of it though. the robot would always be empathetic and caring, more so than a human maybe, but you just wouldn't have the same human contact which is very important as well. and after doing a little research here is what i found:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ejczMs6b1Q4
check it out, it is really cool.

While studying for the cumulative exam I realized the applicability of the information we are learning in this class to our lives, and the way Ms. Perl applies it to her teaching method. The main example I could think of was methods for learning. As we discussed in class quite a while ago one of the best ways to learn new material is by repeating it, especially over an extended period of time. The work we are required to do for class show that this is taken into account. We are required to go over most of the information 9 times: the assignment, in class, studying for the test, correcting the test, studying for the mid term, correcting the midterm, studying for the cumulative exam, correcting the cumulative exam, and finally studying for the AP.

            Learning is not the only way we could apply this information to our lives. When discussing developmental psychology we discussed the multiple types of parenting and the affects it could have in children. As well as the way different personalities could affect our health. Applying what we learn in this class could allow us to lead more successful lives. 

Schizophrenia

When I was in Washington D.C. this summer, I was walking by Dupont Circle and noticed a man with a pen and paper writing down absolutely nothing (though making writing motions) and saying odd things out-loud (I had no clue who he was saying things to). I remember reading an article from the New York Times about schizophrenia, but I didn’t recall that there were subtypes of it. There are five subtypes of schizophrenia.

1. Paranoid- this is when the mind is preoccupied with delusions or hallucinations. 2. Disorganized- disorganized speech or behavior, or flat affect or inappropriate emotions

3. Catatonic- one who has this form of schizophrenia has trouble moving and has repetition of another’s speech or movements.

4. Undifferentiated- varied symptoms that aren’t specific.

5. Residual- withdrawal following hallucinations and delusions.

People with schizophrenia have increased receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine, which may intensify the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. When I was in D.C., I believe this person was paranoid, as he was perhaps complaining about something he was writing. But who knows…

Dealing with an illegal test

Disclaimer: The study method and other scenarios here is not accurate and I did indeed study. It is merely suggested to use several ideas of psychology.

Today we had an illegal test, to quote Ethan Cooper. The test that was given to us was an achievement test, covering everything that we've learned since the beginning of the year. That's 12 chapters! Although illegal, there was not much that we were able to do; we were stuck having to study for it.

Studying for a 12 chapter test is no easy thing. I had to read through all of my notes, several dozen pages, as well as go over hundreds of vocab words. On top of that I needed to read through about 50 pages of review pages in the book itself, not an easy task. Only thing is, I didn't do that. In fact, I was surprised when I walked into class today and we were handed a tomb to go through.

Having finished the test, I realized what had happened. When I first heard about the test, I was overloaded with anxiety. I thought, how in the world is it possible that I will need to be taking this massive test and succeed in it. So, I repressed it. I just buried the test in my unconscious, forgetting all about it and my anxiety.

Last night, however, I was quite anxious. I had an unnerving sense of worry that something bad was coming, something horrendous. When I was going to my room to watch some TV to calm down, I told a fellow dormer, "Hey, I'm going to my room now to study for test-I mean watch TV." I couldn't figure out where all the anxiety was. When I called my parents, I shouted at them, displacing my anger towards the illegal exam on to them.

And so it was, when I walked into class, I was surprised. Surprised, but at least satisfied that I knew why I was anxious.

Psychological Disorders

The psychological disorders we discussed were pretty scary, but, for now, I would like to apply a couple of the personality disorders to kids in our class. If this offends anyone please tell me and I will take down this post, but I do not think it will for two reasons: A) no one reads this anyways and B) I'm doing it in a joking manner and not seriously. Without further adu:
You know what, I was going to do that, but I as I was looking through the disorders I realized that I could not perform this without offending someone so I've decided to take the safe way and just avoid the issue all together.
I will go in a different direction and just talk about depression because I feel like it is something that has a lot of people thinking. You know, it seems these days like depression is a world wide phenomenon, and something that has been increasing as the years go on. I blame this on social media. Someone posts something on facebook that does not get an adequate number of likes or gets mean comments makes you feel depressed so that could be one possible reason. Also, people's quality of life could just be decreasing.
Whatever the case may be, depression is certainly something that is growing nowadays and if you would like to avoid this, dont get angry at yourself and always look at the positives of life.

That schizophrenic guy on that video

I don't know why, but over the weekend, I couldn't stop thinking about that schizophrenic guy who lived in the subway that was documented in that video we watched. Just a refresher: schizophrenia is a psychological disorder with several symptoms, including disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions and hallucinations, and inappropriate emotions and actions. This guy in the subway's reasoning for thinking that somebody is out to get him certainly fits these symptoms. But just the way he said it, his choice of words, really intrigued. Over Shabbos, I spoke to my mother, who is a nurse, about her rounds when she was in school, and she told me about some of the schizophrenic people she met and talked with. I know this sounds insensitive, but I think it would be kind of cool to observe these people. To conclude, I recently watched a movie called 'Ghost,' and there's one ghost who lives in a subway train (you can see a clip of him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjkkKO5Gsno), and I couldn't help but think from certain scenes that he is the ghost of a schizophrenic dude. I just thought I'd share my personal thoughts about it.

Analyzing Personality Disorders

     To start off, personality disorders fall in axis 2 as opposed to the other disorders because there is nothing to do to prevent them. There is no medication or treatment.
     Antisocial personality disorders/sociopath disorder is by far the worst form of personality disorders. People with this disorder are usually manipulative and cold to another's face. The worst thing about this disorder is the fact that you don't feel any guilt or remorse after doing something deemed inhumane. One of the symptoms for this disorder is torturing animals at a young age (I hope I don't have it despite the fact that this symptom applies to me). Avoidant personality disorder is the fear of being rejected. This disorder governs every interaction with people and you can imagine how that turns out. Schizoid personality disorder is when you are eccentric. You are so eccentric that you think you are too cool for school and you won't even interact with people because you think they are on a lower level than you. Narcissistic personality disorder is when you are so self absorbed and you think everything revolved around you at all times. Histrionic personality disorder is when you say things just to get attention. Someone with this disorder is very dramatic and also impulsive. There are people in our class who clearly have these symptoms but I won't mention any names. Finally, we have obsessive compulsive personality disorder. That is not obsessive compulsive disorder. many get confused between the two. OCD is when there are thoughts in your mind that you can't get out, and those thoughts interfere with your life. This personality disorder is when you have to be orderly and neat. Nothing can be out of line. This disorder is not about intrusive thoughts as opposed to OCD.

Shout out to Isaac Graber for completely demolishing the race this morning.

Running "Intelligence"

Today Jake Pollack, Akiva, and I ran the Germantown Half Marathon. It was a really cool experience, and I made it to the finish alive, but it really got me thinking about how the winners can just run and run and run at basically 5-minute-mile paces and live to tell the story.

I still don't know how they do that, but I have come up with ways to explain their running through a psychologist with an intelligence theories, as well as a psychologist who could not reason their ability through intelligence

The key psychologist who can explain movement prowess through intelligence is Howard Gardener. Though L.L. Thurstone also split intelligence into categories (even though these were eventually still labeled "general intelligence" after correlating in tests), he only considered capacity for different thinking abilities within the mind, like verbal comprehension, memory, and inductive reasoning. Other psychologists who do not explain running "intelligence" include Sternberg, Cattell, and Spearman. Gardener's theory, on the other hand, was upheld as explaining different types of intelligence (and NOT labeled as "generalized intelligence"), for it showed that other abilities are "equally important to our human adaptability." Therefore, according to Gardener, movement is a type of intelligence.

According to Gardener, the runners at the race today were "intelligent." They were skilled at moving their bodies the right way. However, some of them may have been (another Gardener term) idiot savants for they might not be intelligent in other ways, but running and forms of exercise may be their "island of brilliance."

I am not moving at all anymore for 3 days by the way.

I'll Forever Do This Wrong

It's technically Sunday. If you have a problem with my timing, I don't care because I'm being literal Larry tonight. Anyway, I'd like to start off by saying that the Perl Bar Mitzvah service was phenomenal. Nothing was better than getting multiple plates of that delicious salad. Oh, and not to mention the delicious chicken fingers. Just a solid all around morning. Mazel Tov!

Anyway, I was thinking about Schizophrenia recently. I thought about the person I know who has it. I won't mention any names. I honestly find it to be the coolest abnormal psychological disease we learned about. Can you imagine a voice in your head perpetually misleading you? I can't imagine going through life thinking someone is always after me. This person, though, he always feels he's being watched. He always thinks the police are on to his activities, despite the fact that his activities are innocent.

What I find to be so interesting about Schizophrenia is the actual biology of it. Enlarged ventricles don't seem to be so impactful, it's just a bit of an abnormality. That's what it seems at least. In reality, those enlarged ventricles plant a misleading guide in your head forever. I don't know why this is so fascinating to me, but looking at a picture of a Schizophrenic patient is just intriguing.

For the person I know, I know how terrible it is. I know it ruins his life. I often see him riding his bike, talking and smiling to himself. It's truly heartbreaking. This is a disease I would never wish upon anyone, not even my greatest enemies.

Happy Sunday, y'all.