Can Inducing Neurogenesis Be A Future Treatment For Autism?

The research argues that PS affects the amygdala, a socioemotional control center in the brain that plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders. The claim is backed by several studies. PS plays a major role in abnormal psychological, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in both human and animals. Charil

Because of Patient SM’s condition, she has been harmed, held at gunpoint, and has even had history of being involved in domestic violence. She does not have the capability to learn from the situations she has been through. The amygdala is very important and it is also the reason why we connect fearful stimuli to a particular situation. Therefore, Patient SM lacks the ability to connect the stimulus and memories she has obtained through these situations.

Scientists are motivated for the need to understand the brain to explain neurological diseases such as Autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, and many more. The cure to many of these may just be found hidden in the brain. Could it really be just simple as rewiring the brain or replacing defective or missing parts? The

Since it is close structurally to the hippocampus, the amygdala is involved in controlling memory consolidation, especially emotional memories; when a memory is emotionally charged, it has a better retention rate than one that is not. The hippocampus is generally seen as having an essential role in the creation of new memories about past experiences; it's even responsible for memories that can be verbalized also known as declarative memory. Damage to it result in difficulties in forming new memories and being able to access new memories formed before the

Studying parts of the brain that are involved in dealing with fear and stress also helps researchers understand possible causes of PTSD to begin formulating a plan to treat PTSD. The amygdala is known for its role in emotion, learning, and memory. The amygdala appears active in learning to fear an event as well as in the early stages of fear extinction. In storing extinction memories and dampening an existing fear the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in problem solving, decision making, and judgement, is seemingly

In Chapter 8 “Where the Wild Things Are,” the author Le Doux looked at the how our brain regions and systems functioned during the development of anxiety disorders. He introduced many researchers’ ideas and theories such as Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental conditioning; then, he listed the brain regions that were associated with anxiety and fear conditioning such as hippocampus, amygdala, sympathetic nervous system, and various brain cortexes. He also explained how our brain became conditioned for different anxiety disorders.

This paper explores two published journals that report on results from research conducted on human brain. The first journal, Parkin, Alan J (Parkin,1996) suggests that brain-damaged patients such as amnesia are related to the hippocampus and also existing memories. The second journal from Deborah E. Hannula (Hannula, Tranel, Cohen, 2006) suggests that hippocampal amnesia results in both short-term and long-term memory. Together, these findings suggest that hippocampal damage can affect the memory.

Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are

Autism is a scientific labyrinth, providing an infinite amount of questions but very few answers. Over the past few decades there has been a significant rise in the number of people who have been diagnosed with Autism. Due to the increase in Autism diagnoses, there is also an increased need for better research and understanding about this complex neurological and developmental disorder. Autism has been documented and diagnosed in all social, economic, religious, and ethnic groups. Autism is referred to as a spectrum because of its wide range of severity levels and disorders. Autism is characterized by its impact on communication, cognitive ability, socialization, behaviors, and emotional understanding. Autism was initially speculated to be an early form of schizophrenia, which sparked the belief that it was caused by negative experiences or bad parenting. With

Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by inabilities to understand social skills, communication difficulties, self-stimulatory behaviors and other variations in strengths and weaknesses (Scheeren et al., 2013). Children with autism are more inclined to lack emotional regulation, resorting to limited social understanding (Joseph et al., 2004). This restricts their ability to impute beliefs of others and themselves. Theory of mind is said to be absent for children with Autism ( ).

Due to its primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions, over the last decade and a half psychologists have been linking the amygdala to psychopathy. It is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning and is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, produce the same functional impairments displayed by psychopaths. Two famous studies conducted by Tiihonen and Kiehl respectively have confirmed this. Tiihonen used a volumetric MRI to test and confirm the positive correlation between low amygdaloid volume and a high degree of psychopathy in violent criminals (measured by the Hare checklist-revised) while Kiehl used a functional MRI to prove reduced amygdala response during an emotional memory task in individuals who scored high on the Hare checklist-revised. However, both these studies along with numerous others were conducted using violent offenders as subjects rather than individuals with psychopathy. Although many psychopaths do exhibit violent tendencies, not all violent offenders are necessarily psychopaths. A study conducted by Raine is one of the few that did focus only on individuals exhibiting psychopathy. In his study Raine was able to show reduced prefrontal grey matter in his test subjects. Unfortunately though, he was unable to differentiate between grey matter in different regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is however clear that there is one region of the frontal cortex that could be

The limbic system was first recognized due to Franz Josef Gall (LeDoux, J., 1996). Franz Joseph Gall developed the idea of “phrenology” that focused on the study of the different variations of bumps on the human skull to be related to differences in behavioral and emotional functioning. The limbic system’s main function in the brain is to control emotional behaviors and certain forms of memories that are infused with emotion (amygdala). The amygdala is a part of the brain that forms the tail end of the basal ganglia within the rostral temporal lobe and is located near the hippocampus (Lambert, K.G. & Kinsley, C .H., 2005). The amygdala, as defined by the text, is an almond-shaped structure that functions as a part of the limbic system involved in regulation of emotion and sexual urges (Lambert, K.G. & Kinsley, C .H., 2005). In addition, the amygdala is comprised of a dozen or more sub regions that are not all involved in fear conditioning (LeDoux, J., 1996).

But two primary immediate causes are both genetic and environmental. “Research in 2009 found that variations in an area of chromosome 5 appear to play a vital role in some cases of autism” (“Autism”1).This betokens that 5 concrete chromosomes are evidently found to involve certain components of the cerebrum that cause ASD. “Many of the genes associated with ASD are involved in the development of the brain. The proteins produced from these genes affect multiple aspects of brain development, including production, growth, and organization of nerve cells (neurons).” (“Autism”1).The designations and symptoms of autism that are viewed from these stunt in magnification of the genes are behavioral issues which reflect on environmental

Each individual piece has its own job, that not only controls our emotional being but also mental functions like learning and formation of memories. The amygdala controls the emotion center of the brain. The hypothalamus and thalamus are related with changes in emotional reactivity. The hippocampus plays the essential role of forming new memories about past experiences. The basal ganglia is a group of nuclei lying deep in the subcortical white matter of the frontal lobes that arrange motor behavior and coordinate rule-based, habit learning. The cingulate gyrus coordinates sights and smells with pleasant memories, regulates aggressive behavior, and induces emotional reactions to

A study by Kiehl (2015), shows that psychopaths have a significantly low amount of grey matter within their frontal lobe. The grey matter is key for housing more neurons in the brain. A decline in the number of neurons makes the lobe of the brain less efficient and prevents the brain from working properly. This grey matter deficiency is predetermined by a genetic anomaly, when the sperm and egg meet. The DNA does not properly synapse when the cells meet, which causes the improper coding. The improper coding leads to the incorrect formation of grey matter in the brain. Kiehl was able to link the grey matter deficiency with the presence of another common gene in psychopaths, the warrior