Decade Of The Brain Essay

Brain stem is considered to be one of the most primitive parts of the brain that is crucial to human survival. As thoroughly explicated by most scholars and anatomist throughout the centuries, it regulates the most fundamental physiological activities of the human body which are essential for maintaining and sustaining life. This is how each function is utilized in medical practice to define death through different research and experiments.

“The Human Brain”, by myPerspectives, is an informative article that claims that the brain is a complex organ that is truly impressive. The brain is a key part of the central nervous system, that controls the entire body’s activities, to simple things such as breathing. These actions are fired through neurons, that quickly travel through the spinal cord. Surprisingly, the brain transmits these messages at an unimaginable rate, at 150 miles per hour, through 85 billion cells, called neurons. These neurons can form up to 10,000 synapses, or connections to each other. By itself, the brain can create billions of synapses, which change the structure of the brain every time new information is learned. However, there is still much that scientists

I started my education in Erie, Pennslyviana.I attend McDowell High. I would say that we were one of the richer schools were I live. I am going to talk about my first assignment Brainology. I thought it was very interesting and it thought me a lot about how some people have different mindsets.

I read the article, “Secrets of the Brain”, found in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic written by Carl Zimmer. I chose this subject because I have been fascinated with the brain and how it works. The research of the brain has been ongoing for many centuries now. The history in this article is interesting. It explained how scientists used to understand the brain and its inner workings. For example, “in the ancient world physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. Aristotle looked on it as a refrigerator, cooling of the fiery heart. From his time through the Renaissance, anatomists declared with great authority that our perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and actions were all the result of “animal spirits”—mysterious, unknowable vapors that swirled through cavities in our head and traveled through our bodies.” (Zimmer, p. 38)

Biological psychology, of biopsychology, is the application of the principles of biology to the study of mental processes in terms of bodily mechanisms. The view that psychological processes have biological (or physiological) correlates, is the basic assumption of the whole field of biological psychology. Biological psychology is a hopeful domain, one that has much to offer in terms of improving the quality of life of the healthy as well as those suffering from disorders. It also contributed important therapeutic data on a variety of conditions, including: Parkinson 's Disease, Alzheimer 's Disease, Clinical depression, Schizophrenia and a lot others. Humans have very complex nervous system, they use neurons and neurotransmitters to make the highest active communication network throughout the body. “most of the body’s neurons are found in the central nervous system(CNS), which consists of the brain and spinal cord” (psychology 5th edition). “Neuroscience emphasizes that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. (Van Horn, 2014; Zhao & others, 2014). Therefore, for biological psychologist all that is psychological is first physiological. All thoughts, feeling & behavior ultimately have a biological cause.” We are benefited from biological approach for diagnosing and treating human brains Ex. Schizophrenia. Scientists are also able to create medications for different types of illnesses. Besides having psychologists

Most people usually think of the brain or heart being the most important part of our body. While they are indeed important, they would be entirely useless if certain substances called neurotransmitters didn’t exist. Neurotransmitters are substances in our body that carry signals from one nerve cell to another. Without these neurotransmitters in our body, we wouldn’t receive crucial signals such as telling our heart to beat. Six of the most common neurotransmitters in our body are dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

The third neurotransmitter family is composed of peptides, compounds that contain at least two and sometimes as many as 100 amino acids. Peptide neurotransmitters are poorly understood: Evidence that they are, in fact, transmitters tends to be incomplete, and restricted to their location within nerve terminals, and the physiologic effects produced when they are applied to neurons. Probably the best understood peptide

The PBS special "The Secret Life of the Brain" took us through all different aspects of the brain and its formation through life. These five movies taught us that the brain is plastic and is always changing, cutting unused neurons and filling with different ideas and thoughts that you learn from your environment. The five videos go through the five stages of life; baby, child, teenager, adult and finally the aging brain.

The leading theory explaining the biology of depression is the monoamine hypothesis of depression. (Stahl, 3) This theory suggests that depression is caused by a deficiency in one or another of the three neurotransmitters: serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. The theory was formulated after the accidental discovery of the original drugs for depression and psychosis, much in the same way Fleming discovered penicilin.

Psychologists constantly offer new testable hypothesis to expand our knowledge on human behavior. This paper will include an analysis of a podcast and a research article. From this analysis, a hypothesis on birth order will be offered toward the end of this paper.

(3) While successful drug therapies which act on neurotransmitters in the brain imply that depression is a neurobiological condition (4), the fact that such medications do not help about 20 percent of depression-sufferers seems to show that not all depression is due to such imbalances. Rather, depression is not caused by one single factor; it is most often caused by many different things. Genetics, biochemical factors, medicines and alcohol, developmental and other external factors, and relationships, marriage and children all have effect on the development of clinical depression. (5) The strongest hypotheses on the pathways to depression are in decreases in the activity of specific neurotransmitters, or the overactivity of certain hormonal systems. (3)

These neurons can only be received onto certain sites, known as a receptor. Neurotransmitters can fit a number of different receptors, but receptor sites can only receive specific types of neurotransmitters (Biological Causes of Depression). At the receptor site of a neuron, the chemical message of the neurotransmitter may either change into electrical impulses and continue on its way through the next neuron, or may stay where it is (Biological Causes of Depression). Within this process, enzymes can help break down other neurotransmitters into smaller ones. If this systems fails to cooperate with each other, then the production of neurotransmitters, that are there to maintain a balance, can affect the mood of the person. Thus, resulting in behavioral differences from the common characteristics of the

Many psychiatric and psychoactive drugs that are available on the market, pharmaceutically or illegally, closely resemble neurotransmitters and are actually able to mimic it to the extent that it fools the receptors. Basically, these drugs hijack the neurotransmitters. Once these drugs are ingested, it enters into the brain, gets into the synapse and binds itself to the receptor. This then causes the inappropriate release of neurotransmitters and alter the breakdown and recycling of neurotransmitters or can be used to destroy particular neurotransmitters completely (Sapolsky, 2005, p. 14).

“You can do this Ashley” I thought while waiting behind a dark red theater curtain I could feel the velvet texture it had as I was grasping onto it, holding it tight thinking it would magically make the butterflies disappear.

Agonist drugs work by increasing the activity of a neurotransmitter and antagonist drugs inhibit or decrease the action of the neurotransmitters (Belic et al).