Individuality: A Bad Case Of Stripes

The CNS is further supported by a series of blood vessels that travel through and around the brain bringing oxygen and nutrients that are required for cell health. The CNS is further segmented by lobes such as the frontal lobe which the main role is executive function, long term memory and primary motor function. The temporal lobe which is responsible for language and sensory functioning, and the parietal lobe are responsible for somatosensory functions, and occipital lobe which is the visual association area (Hendelman, 2006). Each of these lobes controls cognitive functions, memory, motor, sight, smell, emotions and bodily functions, and are interconnected by the corpus callosum. Further structures include the basal ganglia, the brainstem, the cerebellum, the diencephalon, the thalamus and the hypothalamus, which are all divided and supported via the ventricles and sulcus which is where the cerebral spinal fluid [CSF] fills and acts as a cushion and nutrient for the brain (Hendelman, 2006). In a healthy functioning person all of these complex structures interconnect to control and regulate not only bodily functions, temperatures, nutrients, and processes, but also complex cognitive and psychological processes. A healthy brain additionally has smaller amounts of accumulated beta-amyloid plaques which can form extracellular aggregations of fibrils, as well as less of hyper-phosphorylation of tau protein which helps to create intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. A healthy brain additionally has balanced neurotransmitters and blood devoid of cholesterol and with balanced blood sugars (Bryant & Knights ,

The prefrontal cortex, which is the anterior part of the frontal lobes, controls understanding consequences, impulse control, abstract thinking, long range planning, and mental flexibility (Ortiz 93-94). Researchers at UCLA, Harvard Medical School, and the National Institute of Health have been working together to understand brain development. Their research has shown that at a young age the brain overproduces gray matter, which is the overall thinking part of the brain. After this comes the pruning process in which gray matter is removed. Paul Thompson from UCLA describes this time as a "massive loss of brain tissue" (as quoted in Ortiz 94). The average amount of tissue lost per year is one to two percent (Ortiz 94). While this pruning process is taking place the myelination is occurring simultaneously. Myelination is when white matter, what insulates the brain, makes brain process more efficient. This process is also thought to shape brains neural connections for adulthood (Ortiz 95). With age, the brain becomes denser and more organized which makes it better at processing and understanding information. Changes in the brain also can happen late into the twenty's (Beckman 3). A member of the UCLA research team reported that "[The] frontal lobe undergoes the most change during adolescence-by far. It is also the last part of the brain development" (as quoted in Ortiz 94). For most, full brain development is reached during the ages

According to (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013), the brain begins to mature even before birth and it continues to mature throughout life. According to (Jetha & Segalowitz, 2012) all the brain functions do not mature at the same rate. A child with highly advanced verbal skills may develop gross and fine motor control more slowly and have trouble learning to write clearly (Jetha & Segalowitz, 2012). Learning differences are also related to genetics, temperament and environment (Thierry, 2008). As child born it has a function govern like their heartbeats, eating and sleeping.

Children from ages 3 years to 5 years old were studied under brain scans called “Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Researchers provided a story while examining the brain activity of the children. The studies showed the left area of the brain to gain activity. This part of the brain is where the memory as well as word meaning and concept are controlled. One of the authors quoted, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Program Director of the Reading Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospitals on the study led by Dr. John S Hutton, suggests the brain activity in the left region was higher among

In his poem, “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow uses symbolism, foreshadowing, and personification, to demonstrate the Romantic ideal of the fatalism of life, and therefore the importance of placing individualism, and thus solitary survival within nature, over superficial safety. As the traveler begins his journey, the “twilight darkens”(Longfellow 2) foreshadowing the ultimate loss of the traveler's life. For in this case darkness is used to symbolize the end of life, as is the time of day for twilight is just before midnight, which symbolizes death. This symbolism of life is further reinforced by the cyclic nature of the tide which ceaselessly “rises…{and}falls”(3). As the traveler’s journey ultimately comes to

According to scientists, the brain develops from the back to the front. The frontal lobe, which is mainly responsible for executive processes (judgement, weighing outcomes and decision making) is not fully mature. The

Adolescence is the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, characterized by a series of mental and physical changes. Although most visible are the physical changes, the brain also undergoes important transformations during this time. Brain growth occurs in two stages during adolescence: between ages 13 and 15 - characterized by a thickening of the cerebral cortex, a more effective neuronal pathway, and major changes in the prefrontal cortex- whilst the second stage starts at age 17 and continues into early adulthood. During the second period the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex develop predominantly (Boyd, 2015).

This part of your brain isn’t “fully developed until you are around 25 years old. Your Frontal Cortex affects things such as “attention, complex planning, decision making, impulse control, logical and organized thinking, risk management, ands short term memory (Mental Health Daily).” If the part of our brain that is responsible for taking care of those

Between the age of two and six years, the brain experiences a rapid growth. By the age of six, the brain is 90% developed as compared to that of the adult. However, the child lacks experience and knowledge. The brain becomes a trainee of what happens around them and imitates what is

*. Researchers have found that in children from 3 to 6 years of age, the most rapid growth takes place in the frontal lobe areas.

What is the differentiation between equality and sameness? How does one’s identity effect these two notions? In Bradbury’s and Vonnegut’s fictitious stories, “The Pedestrian”, “Fahrenheit 451”, and “Harrison Bergeron”, these concepts and their relationship is depicted to the reader in the form of dystopias. These dystopias may not exist, but these science fictional societies certainly could be made to exist. These stories contain elements that anyone can relate to, and like all science fiction, accommodate real life factors such as technology, life, and government. Bradbury’s and Vonnegut’s stories convey the message that humanity needs to acknowledge its own need for individuality and be aware of

It impacts the maturation of specific brain areas at particular ages, the physiological and neuro-endocrinological responses as well as impacting the ability to coordinate cognitions, behaviours and emotional regulation. Therefore, the effect of trauma is different in different developmental stages. Ornitz (1996) has listed critical periods of major structural changes in brain development in accordance with Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. This includes the periods between early childhood (1.5-4 years), late childhood (6-10 years), puberty and mid-adolescence. This ensures that there are widespread implications of trauma in childhood especially in terms of the age at which exposure to trauma occurs as well as the areas of the brain affected. For example, the volume of the brain shows a rapid increase in first two years (Matsuzawa et al., 2001), a time when the development of attachment also takes place. Moreover, this growth is more experience- dependent (Schore, 2001). Children below the age of two also show a greater right brain than left brain

EF starts to develop as early as one’s first year of life, with substantial development occurring during the preschool age (Kegel & Bus, 2014; Weiland, Barata, & Yoshikawa, 2014). Specifically, working memory shows an increase in growth during the preschool year (Kegel & Bus, 2014). According to Miyake et al. (2000) numerous studies are available that show when age-appropriate tasks are available, preschool children show an increase in their EF competencies. Children between the ages of 6 years and 8 years show great improvement in non-verbal EFs (e.g., planning, organization, and inhibition). For those tasks requiring

Beginning in early childhood, children engage with the world by drawing upon a specific set of cognitive resources to achieve their goals; these resources are known as executive functions. Executive functions stem from the development of the prefrontal cortex which allows to complete psychological activities that include attention and inhibitory control, flexible thinking and planning, as well as working memory (Blankson et al., 2017; Hoskyn, Iarocci, & Young, 2017).

The second domain that describes children in middle childhood is cognitive development. Unlike physical characteristics, cognitive development emphasizes on mental development of children. Cognitive development consists of information processing and language (Santrock, 2008). In the aspect of information processing, developments of memory, thinking and metacognition are experienced by children in middle childhood (Santrock, 2008). According to Papalia et al. (2009), the efficiency of working memory of children during this stage improves substantially. This means that they are able to make calculation, organize information into groups, and repeat and reverse at 5 or more numbers that they heard. Besides, children in middle childhood are able to think critically, deeply, and think in different dimension of the task during middle and late childhood (Eccles, 1999). According to the concrete operational stage in Jean Piaget’s theory, operational thinking of children in middle childhood includes four aspects which are logic, decentration,