Ventral tegmental area

Savannah Schulte Psychology 1010 Professor Slatcher 4 December 2014 Extra Credit Research Paper Recently while reading Rolling Stone and looking for an article for this paper, and came across an article called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” In summary, a freshman at the University of Virginia was at a frat party and her date was a member of that certain frat. She chose against drinking which is uncommon in most rape cases that occur on campuses. He later asks

It will take over every thought, control one’s very being until they truly believe they are hopeless, broken, and undeserving of even the most basic comforts. It will drain the very soul until there is no spirit left in a person. Everyone will experience it at least once in their lifetime, whether it’s from a close family death or a disfiguration of the mind. It does not discriminate race, gender, religion or profession; it is depression. The symptoms of depression often seen in people are self

The human brain is a very complex system, much like a city it strives for order and efficiency. However a patient with Bipolar Disorder has a very chaotic type of brain function; causing changes in mood and sometimes suicidal thoughts Bipolar Disorder is a common psychiatric mood disorder that is defined by recurrent episodes of abnormally elevated mood and depression, changes in energy and, the ability to carry out day to day tasks. (Joel, Jakosson and colleges) “Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a

Behavioral conditioning is used in many studies to train lab animals to perform certain tasks, but studying the concept of behavioral conditioning in itself could be beneficial as well. Behavioral conditioning is known to have associations with dopamine in the brain's reward center, but the exact process is completely figured out. Studying dopamine and DA neuron activity in the brain can provide further clues as to how this process occurs, and allow for the implementation of these results in the

Exploring Schizophrenia Schizophrenia which affects approximately 1 percent of the population, usually begins before age 25 and persists throughout life. The illness is a life long debilitating condition for about 40% of patients and is enormously costly in both social and economic terms. Despite the presence of delusions, hallucinations and cognitive impairment which characterize the illness, overall life expectancy is not altered (although there is a significantly increased risk-of suicide

I was one of those people that always had a competitive mind set, whether it came to being in class or outside of it. I had always wanted to be on top and would do anything to get to that spotlight. It was the beginning of seventh grade, this would the first year that I would be able to participate in a school sponsored sport and be a part of a team, which was something I looked forward to for quite a while. I had been running cross country since I was in third grade, but never competitively. Before

As people become older, they become more and more exposed to a variety of addictive drugs such as; cocaine (C17H21NO4), ecstasy (C11H15NO2), and marijuana (C21H30O2). These drugs were used for medical purposes back in the early 90s, but over the years they have been used more and more as party drugs. Marijuana is still used for medical purposes today, but some people just use it to get the “High” feeling. Additionally, marijuana is the female part of a cannabis plant containing the psychoactive substances

In the United States, over 80% of college students have at least one alcoholic drink over a two-week time period. Out of these college students, 40% are binge drinking on occasion. (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2009). Binge drinking among college students is due to the college environment and mostly effects freshmen in college. Now that young people are no longer living in their parents’ home and are not being supervised as much as they were before they now have the freedom to do whatever

Over the years, experiments have produced evidence to suggest that dopamine plays a role in the development of Schizophrenia (Howes, McCutcheon, & Stone, 2015). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is produced in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental regions of the brain. The belief that dopamine was involved in Schizophrenia arose after multiple studies performed with compounds produced an increase in extracellular concentrations of dopamine (Lieberman, Kane, & Alvir, 1987). The patients

receives information, it causes changes in the nerve cell. The chemical in marijuana that has a big impact on the brain is called THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). It is the main active chemical in marijuana. Scientists recently discovered that some areas in the brain have a lot of THC receptors, while other have very few or none. These clues are helping researchers figure out exactly how THC works in the brain. One region of the brain that contains a lot of THC receptors is the hippocampus