The McGill website states “If each hemisphere were unfolded, it would be the size of an extra-large pizza! For this reason, the brain must fold over on itself many times to fit into the skull (McGill “The Brain”). When a website used for academics, compares my brain to pizza I I’m Interested! Can a giant network of neurons make us who we are? The brain is one of the most complex organ of the human body. Many people over time have explored and tried to examine and explain the functions of the brain. Many people have an idea, but most still do not understand.
We have read about some of the scientists and experiments they have done including Pierre Florenens, Eduard Hitzig, and VS Ramachandran. As someone who thought they understood the human brain to be an organ in the human body, it is much more than that. I know that we cannot fully understand the human brain or human experience without knowing how the brain works It all seems to fit together like a hand in glove. I believe from this class I have taken that there is no separation of all of who we are.
That could include feelings, mind or relationships we carry in our lives. I will explore some of these topics I have learned over the semester in Brain and Behavior, There comes a time in all our lives that we have to make a decision. We have to decide based on mood, beliefs, and who we are as people. Robert Frost in the poem “The Road Not Traveled” illustrates the point of how the social normalcy of life he does not follow. He lets his poetry be interpreted in how it works for you. It is the basic quality of why he is an inspiration to many.
Could you imagine being a great poet and losing your mind and words to no longer express your inter most thoughts and beliefs? The same could be said for any normal person such as the great mystery of Phineas Gage. He was a normal man one day and the next day woke up to a man who was no longer Gage (Kean). It made me question how something like this can happen to a normal man. Behavior is a learned trait so it brings the question how can an injury have an adverse effect on someone who use to know who they were at one point. If Gage were to have surgery today would he go back to his normal self?
It would be concluded to be scientifically impossible based on evidence that this would work (Kean) This laid the foundation for my understanding of how emotions are controlled by areas of the brain and the neuroplasticity’s our brain has. I learned from Phineas that the front cortex of his brain made him irritable and change his personality. The brain region of the frontal cortex controls the emotional input of the brain (Mc Gill). The prefrontal cortex of the brain does not interrupt the functions of our sensory, memory or emotional system. The damage that he experienced damaged his ability to be able to be the person he used to be (Kent).
We live in the 21st century where the choices I make can affect the rest of my life. I have made choices that people like Gage didn’t have. The strange case has made me look into how our brain, behavior, and sense of self is all connected. The flight or fight response to me has always been how you were raised. You stand up for what you believe in or you run. I never would think it through a neuro process. Thave realized it is based on your innate biology. It is hard wired into our DNA to act certain way. We do not consciously choose to feel threatened or feel fear.
It is our bodies in the present conscious, based on something happening unconsciously. What really is going on in our head is a state of responses in or hypothalamus setting off a series of events. It is not a choice we can make for ourselves when our bodies go into survival mode. Our bodies go through a change of functions. Our body’s entire focus becomes going against the threat that is presented to us. The fight of fight response doesn’t have a mind and it is not our own minds making this decision. Our body and brain might seem like they are working together but we do not choose what is happening.
The power of thought and perception can be seen in all people. If my body doesn’t choose to be a flight or fight response, where chemicals are released, then I know now that the neurotransmitters in brain can be off balance leading to my depression. I can say now after many years of being clinical diagnosed as manic depressive it is not my fault. The choices | make are but it can scientifically explained with the latest technologies of brain scans show that people who suffer from depression have a smaller hippocampus, which in turn can mean fewer serotonin receptors. Some would look at being on medication for depression as a “quick fix”.
The medicines are able to work directly with the neurotransmitters in the brain. It seems like it is hard to localize the reaction certain drugs can have with neurotransmitters. After watching the video on Prozac and how it effects the brain I wondered if someone could really be measured for how much Serotonin is in the body. I think you would be able to test for serotonin in the body but not the level in the brain. I had physical symptoms, cloudy judgement, loss of appetite, but that could have been linked to a myriad of other ailments. I took my dose as prescribed and within two days I had a weird feeling.
I smiled, I was hungry, and actually wanted to get out of bed. Was it the actual medicine or my mind wanting to believe it was the medicine? I have been taking this medicine for over a year and some days feel worse than others. Overall I would say it has been beneficial to take them but why would it work for me in a few days and some other people might have to go on several to finally feel something? As Voltaire put it, “that which touches the heart is engraved in the memory (McGill)”makes me process how the emotional memory affects the brains ability to memorize and sometimes forget about something.
It can link the facts of amnesia from people who suffer due to a traumatic psychological incident like rape or childhood abuse. Our sense are linked to be able to memorize. This is such a phenomena to me. I have been able to remember things from my child. My brain is very contextual and being more of sound and mind at this stage in my life lets me know known that the future research into Alzheimer’s disease progressing. The video “Understanding Attacking Alzheimer’s” was very informative. The synapses that transfer information from one neuron to the next go cold and stop transmitting.
They are trying to use the body’s immune system to fight. The bodies’ white blood cells keep information in the body under control. The question they raise is can we use our immune system to clean out the beta amyloid that is linked to Alzheimer’s disease out of the brain? They want to use a nasal vaccine because it would be more beneficial. I have a long family history of Alzheimer Disease. I did not know this was labeled a Neurological type of amnesia. I always viewed it as degeneration of the brain that could happen at any time. There has been more study and funding into research for Alzheimer’s disease.
All the cognitive functions, and likelihood of being miss diagnosed are high. That is why I am more for the technology innovation and bioscience to help find a cure, put new drugs are the market, or to advance studies to test on animals. It might be against PETA or someone like myself considers their dog their child. The world needs answers to the science of the brain. There is a public health concern for this fast degenerative disease that strikes 1 person every 66 seconds. It has to be stopped and if sacrificing some rats it what it takes then in the name of science!
More people are becoming aware of the mind, body and soul connections. There is this hidden communication going on between my mind and body. It is the myriad of nerve impulses in my brain ad chemical reaction in my body. My brain is a powerful tool that can uncover and translate my thoughts, feelings into impulses and send them to all areas of my body. This reaction or feeling I have is going on in my head right now. The immediate response to my fingers tapping this keyboard is my own body’s responses to the thoughts and emotions I have in my brain.
I was never a woman of science, but today I am. I need to look beyond the idea of my mind, body and soul connection. I know realize it does exist and not every thought or feeling I have is random. The human brain can be retrained to do what you want it to do unconsciously or consciously. I may be older but as I have aged I am able to apply the concepts on this class to see the bigger picture. I know all of this is connected is some way, because even if you take different road like Robert Frost it “can mean all the difference” to your mind and body connection.