Secrets of the Mind Essay example

Visual agnosia refers to the “…inability to recognize objects that results neither from general intellectual loss nor from a loss of basic sensory abilities,” (Anderson, 2009, p. 32). There are generally two types of visual agnosia: apperceptive agnosia and associative agnosia. Apperceptive agnosia is the inability to recognize or draw simple shapes as they are shown or represented. Associative agnosia is the ability to recognize and copy drawings of simple and complex shapes. However, person with associative agnosia are unable to recognize the complex objects (Anderson, 2009).

Throughout history, a human being was always reliant on the primary sensory areas. An ability to communicate and contract languages is considered to be a unique ability of human nation as no other species show an equal amount of complexity in terms of the structure and sound combination. On the other hand, primary visual cortex provides a skill set in order to identify the objects presented in the world, the distance towards them as well as to design a set of actions in order to incorporate some items such as a stone or a pen. The understanding of these systems is crucial, especially for those who suffer from strokes and tumors and as a result lost the ability to visually recognize objects or hear other people. This work will focus of the structure

The brain is considered the most complex organ in the body. It is responsible for controlling motor function, the body’s ability to balance and the ability to translate information sent to the brain by sensory organs. The mind is described as the faculty of consciousness and thought. It’s where our feeling and emotions originate from and defines who we are as a person. The brain is composed of the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing visual information. In blind individuals the feature that makes up visions still exists in the visual cortex. These features are now used to process information received from the other senses. However, blind individuals are able to view the images because what’s in their mind.

Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of perception both suggest that eye-retina is important for perception. The both believe that without eye-retina, a person will not be able to see. This is a common view of both of the theories of perception. The idea is supported by the case of SB. SB was a man who had been blind from birth due to cataracts. When he was 52, he had an operation which restored his sight and hence he could see. Thus, this case has shown the importance of eye-retina for things to be perceived. And therefore, supports both of theories of perception which eye-retina is essential for perception.

The progress of neuroscience has been significant in the past 500 years. and with the advance of technology, there is yet a multitude of chapters left to write in the history books of neuroscience. The book The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: written by Sam Kean was an engrossing and captivating read. It gives the reader a better appreciation for the growing pains of neuroscience and provides an educational, albeit entertaining overview of the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nervous system. From the early life and discoveries of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and his fascination with Golgi’s method la razione nera, which allowed Cajal to deduct after observing

In the book Tangerine many characters can see things and can't see things. For example, "Think again Mr. Costello. Your koi are a gourmet meal for the ospreys out on Route 89." This shows that Paul sees more things then his mom, dad, Mr. Costello, and most of his neighbors. His Dad however focuses on the "Erik Fisher Football Dream and the file named "Erik---------Scholarship Offers." This shows that Dad doesn't really pay attention to his younger son Paul. Throughout the book Paul sees practically sees what his parents don't see this shows that because of this issue there will be problems in the long

The autobiography, Over My Head, by Claudia Osborn, gave a glimpse into the life of a former Doctor. The book started by giving insight into Claudia’s life including her challenging career, whom she spent her days with and how she used her free time. Based on the title of the book I was expecting her to suffer from a traumatic brain injury, but I had not anticipated her reaction to it. Although I was aware of some disorientation after the incident, and even some memory loss, I was unaware of her disorientation to the life she once knew. Initially, when Claudia did not realize she had any memory deficits, I was convinced it was due to denial. She was a doctor, I would have thought she would understand her injury and recognize that her injury was as severe as it truly was. Later on in the book, I realized that she was not completely in denial, but truly thought there was nothing truly wrong with her. This could possibly be due to her perspective that nothing bad would happen to her. Every one sees something bad happen whether it is a car accident, cancer, or a traumatic brain injury and they think, “ It won’t happen to me.” In Claudia’s case, it is an extremely frightening and frustrating situation.

Her loss of memory was quite peculiar. She remembered aspects of the world, but faces became a blur and names faded out. It was like a journal, but ever few pages were ripped out making it incomprehensible.

Phantom limb pain is the most fascinating phenomenon I have read about in the health field so far. The concept is crazy to imagine on your own body. The first time I have ever heard of phantom limb pain was in the first session of this Honors class, and I remember sitting in my chair shocked that this could possibly be a real experience for some.

When a person loses a limb, it is never a clean cut; whether it be the remnants of gore from the cut, the trauma of the loss, or the non-physical remnant of the limb itself, known as Phantom Limb Syndrome. Despite effecting 80% of all amputees, the sensation itself continues to mystify neuroscientists and is not yet fully understood. The most popularized type of phantom are the painful ones, seeing as it affects 50-80% of amputees regardless of whether their amputation was traumatic or done in a hospital for their health, but phantom limbs are not all painful and can come in many shapes, sizes, and types of sensations. (873)

I have elected to pursue research in the field of neuroscience because I relish the approach of logical thinking to satisfy the curiosity of knowing things about me and the world around me. Neuroscience is a fascinating area with a limitless possibility of understanding and uncovering to resolve so many unanswered and unimagined questions. Although, in recent years, a large number of breakthroughs research have been done in the area of neuroscience, still, there is a lot more to discover and untangle in this area. Such an enormous amount of research work in this area has led open to the advancement in the diagnosis and therapeutic approaches to several neurological disorders and cancer such as glioma. Therefore, I decided

Sacks discussed the ideas behind the phantom limb and how they affected many peoples live. The most interesting story was about a sailor that accidentally cut off his index finger. For forty years he thought he would poke himself in the eye whenever he moved his hand to his face. One day he lost the feeling in his entire hand including his phantom finger and his problem was cured (Sacks 66-67). Up to 70 percent of amputees confirmed that they still feel or still thought a missing limb was there. They often feel that they can reach out and grab something. Some won't sleep in a certain way because they feel the missing limb between them and the mattress. The sensations felt stem from the activity of the sensory axons

Describe what evolutionary psychologists mean when they employ the term ‘theory of mind’. Use examples and research studies from Book 1, Chapter 2 to show why this theory is important in evolutionary psychology.

An extensive matrix of neurons in the brain gives us the sense of our own bodies and body parts. Pain results when this matrix produces an abnormal pattern of activity, as a result of memories, emotions, expectations or signals from various brain centres and not just from signals from peripheral nerves. Because of the lack of sensory stimulation or a person’s efforts to move a nonexistent limb, abnormal patterns may arise, resulting in phantom pain.

Agnosia is defined as the inability to recognize objects through the processing of sensory information, which means there is no deficit in semantic memory or problems with naming objects. An individual suffering from agnosia still possesses all the relevant semantic information tied to a precept, but they cannot recognize the precept when it is presented to them and therefore trigger the recall of said information. There are many types of agnosia, but this essay will focus on visual object agnosia and prosopagnosia. The former is the inability to recognise objects: patients suffering from visual object agnosia do not have impaired vision, and in some cases can even copy the object they are seeing (patient H.J.A., Humphreys & Riddoch, 1987) or draw it from memory (patient D.F., Milner & Goodale, 1992), but are unable to recognize it when they see it. In the latter, prosopagnosia, patients cannot recognise faces of familiar individuals, and have to rely on other characteristics such as their voice or clothing to recognize them. Patients suffering from prosopagnosia can either acquire it through a lesion in relevant brain areas (acquired prosopagnosia) or for less understood reasons have it from birth, in which case it is termed developmental prosopagnosia. The study of patients with agnosia is integral to the field of visual recognition, as the specifics of their deficits can provide great insight into the ways our brain processes information; for example, the location of