Brain Anatomy, Development, and Plasticity

Strokes are very interesting, I’ve never thought of them being a big problem until recently, where everyone I know even if by connection has had, or knows someone that has a had a stroke. There are two types of strokes the most common one being Ischemia, which is caused by a blood clot or any other form of barrier in an artery. The second and less common form is Hemorrhage, which is caused by a ruptured artery, much different than the Ischemia, and how it is handled. There are warning signs to recognize if someone has had a stroke, those signs are not hard to check according to this article.

The most interesting part I found about strokes is that much of the brains mechanisms can be saved via cautionary management. E.g. if someone has had a stroke you want to keep their core temperature low, it seems that cooling of the body keeps it from rapidly declining in harmful processes. Another thing that can be used is marijuana, but it’s shown to be more effective if taken before the stroke. Marijuana decreases the release of glutamate in the brain, and an overflow of glutamate causes cell loss, marijuana also releases anti-inflammatory chemicals that might help with swelling from everything going on, but like any other drug it has to be taken within a few hours of the stroke the sooner the better. There are other traditional medicines that can help with strokes, e.g. tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), this medication dissolves blood clots, so it would work with an Ischemia stroke while it might make Hemorrhaging worse, but not extensively. Another big help for recovering from a stroke is to start exercising what was damaged as soon a possible; it is kind of like rehabilitation for the brain. I hope you all find this as interesting and helpful as I did. Here is a video on how a stroke damages the brain.

Synapsis, Drugs, and Addiction

Should alcohol be a legal drug? If alcohol is the most common abused drug then why is it legal, when it causes many problems, like car accidents, the driver killing him/herself and/or passengers and/or other drivers on the road. There are two types of alcoholics’ type I (or type A) and type II (or type B), type II being the most dangerous one in my point of view. Type I gradually develops over time, usually after the age of 25, and those who develop it, may or may not have relatives that are alcoholics. Type II develops more rapidly, and its usually before the age of 25, most of them have relatives that are alcoholic and it usually occurs in males more so. Alcohol was abolished in the past, but of course it was brought back. I believe alcohol is one of the worst drugs because it is legal, so it becomes a product easier to abuse, specially now that they have flavored drinks like lemonades, or cherry limeades, or watermelon, these are all things that make it all the more attracting to kids and younger crowds. Alcohol doesn’t only cause senses impairments, and brain damage on high doses, but if happen to overdose on it you could die from alcohol poisoning as this article points out. My personal view is that alcohol should be banned, or there should be more restrictions to acquiring it, that way there are less cases of car accidents or deaths from overdose in our society. Here is a video on how to recognize addiction.

Nerve Cells and Nerve Impulses

My topic of interest of this week was Glia (neuroglia) the reason being that they have so many functions. A while back Glia was thought to hold neurons together hence the name, which is derived from the work glue in Greek. This article helped me understand a little bit more of what glia cells do and other functions like Satellite cells which are not mentioned in the book Biological Psychology 11^th edition by Kalat. Astrocytes are star  -shaped glia that help axons (the cord that send messages in neurons) synchronize, which enables neurons to send messages in waves, they also help by removing waste that is created when neurons die, astrocytes also control how much blood flow each brain area receives giving it more nutrients to help you think better. There are also Microglia, which also help remove fungi, viruses and other microorganisms, behaving like the immune system. Other Glia focus in forming Myelin sheaths (a substance made up of fats and proteins that surround and insulate areas of the axon in neurons to help transmit messages faster) these Glia are the Schwann cells found in the periphery of the body, and Oligodendrocytes found in the spinal cord and brain. What I find very interesting is how Radial glia help during the embryotic development period by guiding the migration of neurons and their dendrites and axons to where they belong, then when the development period is over most become into astrocytes or oligodendrocytes or neurons. So I leave you guys with this very interesting video on Glia cells that might help on areas I didn’t cover.

Introduction to Physiological Psychology

My Favorite topic of this week was the ethical rights on using animals for research. The reason why I chose this is that I am a very earth loving and compassionate person, which is why I am a vegetarian mostly because I see animals as equals, not as a species below us. According to the text there are three kind of groups the ones ok with animal testing, abolitionist which will go through what ever means necessary to stop animal testing, by harassing researchers and or their families and vandalizing research facilities, and then you have the minimalist which are ok with animal testing but push to use less animals than what are actually used. I would like to say that I stand as a minimalist, because as much as I hate animals being tested on for something that benefits us and not them, I do realize that they play a very important role on our medical field. Testing on animals has its advantages and disadvantages to my point. For example, as similar as a part of an animal or the whole anatomy of the animal can be to ours, it is still not a human; hence there is a chance that we could react differently to the treatment. While on the other hand animals have a much shorter life span than we do, so when testing treatments or whatever it is on them, we can see things happening at a much faster rate, which has helped medical field progress so quickly. If I could I would say to invest on other forms of testing things, rather than using animals, by using human cell cultures, or computer simulations, like it was mentioned on the video. Here is an interesting video on animal testing.