Gönderen: 30 kasim 2019 Saat 00:16 | Kayıtlı IP

Once again, thanks to the National Science Foundation, Medtronic, Pfizer, Park Foundation, and the Dana Foundations for funding an intellectual dvd for the public to be informed on the brain, I have enjoyed watching yet another DVD of the Secret life of the brain this time on adolescence.

In adolescence, the brain is in the process of developing.  The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that undergoes a major maturation.  With a part of the brain that does reasoning, judgement, and self-discipline in the process of still developing, it's not surprising that the teenage years can be a time of turmoil and confusion.

Sometimes the teenage brain fails in ways that challenge even the advanced understanding of its works.  Courtney Hook was a normal adolescent with one personality, but he felt symptoms of schizophrenia   ( Here is a definition under dictionary.com  that I found:

schiz·o·phre·ni·a    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  n. Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances. Schizophrenia is associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and defects of the frontal lobe and is caused by genetic, other biological, and psychosocial factors. A situation or condition that results from the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic qualities, identities, or activities: the national schizophrenia that results from carrying out an unpopular war)

 that he studied in his psychology class by seeing as he described it black holes like tunnels with a small light at the end of them.  He would tell his mom that she looked old and that she had black holes going through her eye lids.  He said that he felt like he was going crazy.  Steven Hyman of the National Institute of Mental Health said that it's hard to imagine a disease that's more cruel than schizophrenia, because it starts out in late adolescents and early twenties, just when an adolescent is finishing up high school and might be planning on going to college and trying to start the adult life.

How does a brain fail to function properly?  There's certainty that scientists notice that the prefrontal cortex has to do with the malfunctions.  One scientist notified that the prefrontal functions as a conductor of a symphony and makes beautiful music, but if it is not working well, than it sounds like noise.  

Courtney says that he had a hard time focusing on one thing.  So, researchers did many tests to improve his memory and thought process.  Scientists have noticed with the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging showing images of the brain in detail) that schizophrenic brains have ventricles slightly bigger than normal brain ventricles.  Ventricles are reservoirs filled with Cerebral Spinal Fluid also known as CSF that is responsible to cushion the brain's delicate tissue.  As the ventricles get bigger, parts of the brain will get affected, especially the prefrontal cortex (because the skull is hard, the brain tissue has no where to go when the center of the brain is pushing everything towards the skull). 

Researchers have studied and watched home videos of schizophrenic children to see if they have noticeable behaviors.  They detected by observing their motor development and there might be correlation to the cause, but since it's still in the experimental process, there is no evidence that this is just one correlation that should be studied only.  One psychologist explained that she would notice behaviors such as crawling was different.  The schiz baby crawled with one arm doing all the work, another child's hands were not moving simultaneously when running, and lastly another baby was trying to catch a swinging ball with only one hand.

Thus, going back to Courtney, one of the tests done on Courtney was showing slides that affect the emotions (that most people find it as pleasant photos) and viewing his emotional part of the brain by the latest advanced imaging systems.  They noticed that most people's brain would appear to change color in the emotional part of the brain, but Courtney's brain lacked some of those areas of color change which tells us that he was not affected by those slides emotionally.  The people with schizophrenia, not only are debilitated with emotions(no joy, no sorrow, just empty and black), but also intelectually are damaged.  Because they feel they lost everything, themselves, most schizophrenics commit suicide.  He wrote once in one of his suicide note "why take death seriously if the quality of life is poor?"

They have presented other youth with schizophrenia, they would see hallucinations, which are frightening visions and voices that do not exist.  At University of North Carolina, scientists have found, the part of the brain for thinking processes of sounds that come from the temporal lobes (hearing part), and intrepreted the sounds received.  When psychosis is present or when the brain malfunctions, the problems with the chemical dopamine (one of the neurotransmitters that are molecules that send messages from cell to cell across a tiny gap, the synapse) that's normally active in the brain.

In the normal brain, dopamine acts on stimulating receptors on the neuron which is its target, setting off a cascade of electrical and chemical reactions.  In the psychotic brain, the levels of dopamine is too much which overstimulates the receptors, messing up with the clear and accurate signals of the brain's ability.  Antipsychotic medications relieve psychosis by reducing the impact of dopamine produced (they block the receptors).  By reducing dopamine, hallucinations lessen and even may disappear for some.  After Courtney took medications, he started to appreciate life and enjoyed life.  Every year 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with schizophrenia.  We should support foundations funding this sort of research.

There are other problems in the teenage brain as it is in the process of development.  Their judgement and reasoning are still not developed in their prefrontal cortex.  Twelve and a half million American teenagers suffer from serious drug abuse problems and addiction (these statistics are according to the DVD, it is probably increased today).  Jesse Galeter was abusive with alcohol starting at 11 and followed by marijuana than cocaine.  Cocaine was so addictive that she had to have it to function ant it wasn't fun anymore, she needed it to survive as she thought.  She knew that this wasn't right, and later started therapy. 

Scientists have studied the brain's area of desire, apetite and etc. , the area that senses "the high" given by cocaine.  As mentioned earlier, the natural chemical or the neurotransmitter of the brain dopamine is produced normally and when there is a substance abuse like cocaine, cocaine goes to the area of the synapse where dopamine is normally sensed and vacuumed back for messages, molecules of the cocaine goes to the little vacuums and blocks the dopamine trying to enter and gives a sensation of desire high which takes them away from the world.  Thus it becomes addictive, because they want this desire again. 

As the addiction increases, the receptors for dopamine diminish in time, so they die.  If there are less receptors for receiving and detecting dopamine, it affects the rest of the body's desires like pleasures, apetite for food, or enjoying life and etc.  

Scientists have tested adolescence tolerance of alcohol by placing electrodes on their skull and measuring their brain waves reactions to alcohol.  On one young adolescent, Elika, she would feel drunk with a couple of drinks and would have slurred speech when spoken to, but on another adolescent, Justin, he tolerated alcohol well and had not slurred speech and felt no effects of the alcohol as the amount Elika drank. This test was to determine why some teenagers with the same blood level, may become alcoholic and others not.  When Elika feels drunk, she would probably stop drinking, but since Justin would not feel drunk, he will probably drink more.  Thus, more likely, he will become an alcoholic not knowing the damage that it is doing to his body.  Drinking more makes it more addictive.  If you have a family history of alcoholism, that is if you are carrying genes of alcoholism and a low response to alcoholism, like Justin, this is a double whammy, your risk is very large to be an alcoholic. 

Scientists have examined the brains of cocaine addicts under PET SCAN.  They noticed that the adolescents when exposed to films with nature, their brain activity wasn't affected, but when showing a clip of a man about to inhale cocaine, the teenager's brain showed intense brain activity.  The area of desire was changing in color to Red, or "hot spots" and growing in size while watching the video.  The teenager using cocaine after being shot in the legs living in a bad neighborhood, was paralyzed waist down, and had trembles in his legs thus he was taking a muscle relaxant called Baclophen.  He noticed and was surprised, although he had this tragedy in his life of being shot, that his addictions lessened to cocaine as he was taking Baclophen.  Scientists noticed after showing the videos with nature and a man sniffing cocaine, the teenager's brain was the same after taking Baclophen, there were no "Hot Spots" present in the brain.  This tells us that, Baclophen was a solution for this teenager, but can people with no muscle spasm symptoms take Baclophen to get rid of their addiction for cocaine?  Or is there another drug that can do the same affect as baclophen, but not to concentrate on muscle ,but the neurons in the brain?  Just like the schizophrenia antipsychotic drugs, but instead of blocking receptors, helping the normal flow of neurotransmitters, this I haven't found in any site of research.  If anyone can find more information, let me know please. I'm beginning to have an interest in the psychotic behavior of adolescents, and it's intriguing to learn more about the new findings, especially in the realms of the neuroscience and specifically the neurotransmitters and their function is fascinating.  When they are more active and less in our years of development is also very interesting.  I would like to know more about dopamine, serotonin, melatonin, Ach and etc.  I would also like to know what consists of psychotherapy in adolesence for certain problems?  

Being an adolescent is the most demanding time of life, because you learn how to function as a human in a society, you're learning to build friendships, and you're also trying to make plans for life.  Since, the prefrontal cortex is still developing and is important in an adolescent's life, to make judgement and reason and the connections to the areas of the brain for pleasure/desire, hearing, memory and etc., it's very important that it is developing right without any interruptions like addictions with cocaine or a disease such as schizophrenia. 

This was yet another fascinating DVD, but I think this area lyes my most interest which is neuroscience of the brain, especially in the teenage years, because the brain is still developing in the prefrontal cortex.  How does the brain get affected by nature and nurture, genes passed on by alcoholism from family history ,for example, and alcohol which affects the brain's activities and abilities.  Another question I have before I bore anyone to death is that just like the schizophrenic patients, when we have nightmares and see visions that may affect us, aren't we considered hallucinators too?  Do drugs like pain meds increase hallucination effects? 

A personal note: The reason why I ask this, is because last year around this time, I had ankle surgery, and was taking pain meds and I noticed, I would hallucinate frequently at nights and would wake up frightened, because I was so affected by the beings I'd see and they would talk to me.  I was taking it seriously, what they said to me in my dreams (or was it a dream?) and later my husband told me, "it's the drugs you are taking," he said "you were never like this before."  It does make sense ,because I don't see them as much anymore.  Although, sometimes, I do see some beings ever since I was a kid(especially at nights), this occurs normally when I am tired and have been sleep deprived.  As soon I say a prayer, they go away. 

Could my husband's explanation and my research on neurological development explain what I have been experiencing (a correlation and cause affect) or is it something that I have connections to another dimension that I should try to connect with a dream analyst will not be able to comprehend?

Here is the website for pbs, you can watch clips of the dvd that I saw.  Maybe, it might get some of you to check it out from the library nearest you.    

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode3/index.html 

Gönderen: 30 kasim 2019 Saat 00:16 | Kayıtlı IP

Let's look at the most intriguing topic in summary and simplification.  There are so many mysteries about our brain and its functions.  Without our brain, we are nothing.  It is the master gland.  Assumption alone is not sufficient enough for its functions, it is best to listen to the experts who have given their lives in research.  Of course, they are human in the end and are still in their experimental stage, but we should moreso ask critical questions to enhance their/ our research and also focus on the topics and ask furhter thought provoking questions. 

The interesting topics were on specifically mentioning the adolescent age group.  This age group aside, let's look at the marvels of our brain.  We have mentioned, about schiz patients, about dopamine, and the baclophen drug that one patient happened to take as a muscle relaxant for his severely injured legs with tremors.  The scientists in doing this research found out under the different types of SCANs that the adoloscent's brain was normal and had no hot spots when taking baclophen.  These are the questions we should be asking ourselves.  If baclophen is used as a muscle relaxant, is it ok to prescribe this drug for cocaine addicts?

If anyone wants to see the basic neurotranmitter (chemicals that travel in nerve cells or neurons) flow, look at the secret life of the brain clips of the dvd on pbs.org

Gönderen: 30 kasim 2019 Saat 00:16 | Kayıtlı IP

Further Explanationi of neurological impulse.  The "chemical transmission of nervous impulse was conclusively proved".

The experiment consisted of stimulating the vagus nerve of a frog heart in a saline filled container connected to a second container in a way that could allow fluid to flow into the second container which also containing a frog heart. The electrically stimulated heart slowed its pulse and after a brief delay, so did the heart that shared the same fluid but did not receive the electrical stimulus.

Explanation: This is so fascinating to learn this bit of knowledge about a heart of one frog can affect the stimulation of another frog's heart when both are placed in liquid saline.  We should note that our neurons that are working constantly right now, for example, when you are reading this writing, the myelinated(which is an insulation fat tissue that speeds up neurological impulses of neurotransmitters===> picture this; It's kind of like the electrical cord for your radio that insulates the wires inside to speed up the process of transmission so we are able to listen to music, if it didn't have insulation, than the electricity that is going through the wire will shock you if you touch it, and the electricity thus spreads out instead of going the direction of the wire, which is not good) neurons in your occipital region (the back of your head) are active ,because your optic neurons are residing in this area.  When you see a picture or anything that you are looking at, before you understand or know what it is, your brain needs to translate the image/whatever you are looking at to you.  That's another fascinating topic.

OK, what are neurotransmitters again?

So, what is this all saying?  In order for us to understand the functions of neurotransmitters, we should know what they communicate with and what changes they make, where do they go after there effect is complete, there are so many questions we should ask ourselves after reading the previous paragraphs.  Why should this be so important in knowing this piece of knowledge?  This is the core of understanding the Kuran and other religions.  First, we should know the details of our thinking.  How Allah has created us?  Or whomever is your supreme being.  We should note that, Yes, God (I say God, because Allah is called God, another name, but a different language, so no misunderstanding on those who dwell on names too much and not the specific intention) knows all, and we shouldn't just accept everything blindly like sheep, we should question everything and thus find the truth that way.  All these wonderful scientists have given their lives for years of research, we should notice their findings and appreciate the knowledge gained  in time and to be gained in the future. 

Let us review:  We talked about neurotransmitters within neurons and also talked about receptor sites.  What are receptor sites?  These receptor sites are so important.  It is good to know a little about there function.  First of all, they notice by the chemical structure of each neurotransmitter to even accept it at its site.  Second,  the neurotransmitters fit like a puzzle to the receptor sites.  If there was substance abuse such as cocaine, for example, the molecules of cocaine interrupt in the reuptake of some of the neurotransmitters, thus people get this "high" feeling.  What does this reuptake mean?  Well, there are receptor sites, after the stimulation that the neurotransmitters have caused to occur, affect the next neuron by fitting to the receptor sites like a puzzle, some go back to the neuron that they were previously produced from.  Thus, with this reuptake process, the receptor sites or the vacuums in this case,  that are located on the neuron that originally produced the neurotransmitters suck them back up so they can be used again.  But, with cocaine use or any other substance abuse, the cocaine molecules interrupt this process of reuptake, thus the cocaine molecules block, the receptor sites for reuptake, and the neurotransmitters splatter around, like a coffee spill, and this spill gives this sensation of high or feel good that some might call it.  It is so unfortunate that this feel good translates later to pseudoreality.