Monday, February 28, 2011

Mental Abilities

1.       Explain in detail what "savant syndrome" means.
·         Savant Syndrome is a rare, but spectacular, condition in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have astonishing islands of ability, brilliance or talent that stand in stark, markedly incongruous contrast to overall limitations. The condition can be congenital (genetic or inborn), or can be acquired later in childhood, or even in adults. The savant skills co-exist with, or are superimposed upon, various developmental disabilities including autistic disorder, or other conditions such as mental retardation or brain injury or disease that occurs before (pre-natal) during (peri-natal) or after birth (post-natal), or even later in childhood or adult life. The extraordinary skills are always linked with prodigious memory of a special type — exceedingly deep but very, very narrow.



2.       What does genius mean?  Explain the difference between genius and savant.
·         Extraordinary intellectual and creative power.
·         A person of extraordinary intellect and talent
·         A person who has an exceptionally high intelligence quotient, typically above 140.
·         A strong natural talent, aptitude, or inclination: has a genius for choosing the right words.
·         One who has such a talent or inclination: a genius at diplomacy.
·         Genius is that you have the ability to all the things and savant you are really good at something but you can have another difficulty for example you may be mentally retarded.



3.       What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?
·         A stroke is a sudden loss of brain function. It is caused by the interruption of flow of blood to the brain (ischemic stroke) or the rupture of blood vessels in the brain (hemorrhagic stroke). The interruption of blood flow or the rupture of blood vessels causes brain cells (neurons) in the affected area to die. The effects of a stroke depend on where the brain was injured, as well as how much damage occurred. A stroke can impact any number of areas including your ability to move, see, remember, speak, reason and read and write.
·         Effects of Right Hemisphere Strokes
·         The right hemisphere of the brain controls the movement of the left side of the body so stroke in the right hemisphere often causes paralysis in the left side of the body. This is known as left hemiplegia.

·         Survivors of right-hemisphere strokes may also have problems with their spatial and perceptual abilities. This may cause them to misjudge distances (leading to a fall) or be unable to guide their hands to pick up an object, button a shirt or tie their shoes. They may even be unable to tell right side up from upside-down when trying to read.

·         Along with these physical effects, survivors of right-hemisphere strokes often have judgment difficulties that show up in their behaviour. They often act impulsively, unaware of their impairments and certain of their ability to perform the same tasks as before the stroke. This can be extremely dangerous. It may lead them to try to walk without aid or to try to drive a car.

·         Survivors of right-hemisphere strokes may also experience left-sided neglect. This is a result of visual difficulties that cause them to "forget" or "ignore" objects or people on their left side.
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·         Some survivors of right-hemisphere strokes will experience problems with short-term memory. Although they may be able to recall a visit to the seashore that took place 30 years ago, they may be unable to remember what they ate for breakfast that morning.

·         Effects of Left Hemisphere Strokes
·         The left hemisphere of the brain controls the movement of the right side of the body. It also controls speech and language abilities for most people. A left-hemisphere stroke often causes paralysis of the right side of the body. This is known as right hemiplegia.
·        
·         Someone who has had a left-hemisphere stroke may also develop aphasia. Aphasia is a catch all term used to describe a wide range of speech and language problems. These problems can be highly specific, affecting only one part of the patient's ability to communicate, such as the ability to move their speech-related muscles to talk properly. The same patient may be completely unimpaired when it comes to writing, reading or understanding speech.
·        
·         In contrast to survivors of right-hemisphere stroke, patients who have had a left-hemisphere stroke often develop a slow and cautious behaviour. They may need frequent instruction and feedback to finish tasks.
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·         Patients with left-hemisphere stroke may develop memory problems similar to those of right-hemisphere stroke survivors. These problems can include shortened retention spans, difficulty in learning new information and problems in conceptualising and generalising.

·         Effects of Cerebellum Strokes
·         The cerebellum controls many of our reflexes and much of our balance and coordination. A stroke that takes place in the cerebellum can cause abnormal reflexes of the head and torso, coordination and balance problems, dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
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·         Effects of Brain Stem Strokes
·         Strokes that occur in the brain stem are especially devastating. The brain stem is the area of the brain that controls all of our involuntary functions, such as breathing rate, blood pressure and heart beat. The brain stem also controls abilities such as eye movements, hearing, speech and swallowing. Since impulses generated in the brain's hemispheres must travel through the brain stem on their way to the arms and legs, patients with a brain stem stroke may also develop paralysis in one or both sides of the body.



4.       What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?
·         Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive medical test that helps physicians diagnose and treat medical conditions.
·         MRI uses a powerful magnetic field, radio frequency pulses and a computer to produce detailed pictures of organs, soft tissues, bone and virtually all other internal body structures. The images can then be examined on a computer monitor, transmitted electronically, printed or copied to a CD. MRI does not use ionizing radiation (x-rays).
·         It help us understand the brain because it tells us exactly which parts are moving and what they are doing whil you are moving or thinking, it can tell us if you have something wrong with your brain, you can find anything you want in your brain.




5.       What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?
·         The corpus callosum is a huge bundle of nerve fibers found in mammalian brains. It connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and is responsible for most of the communication between the two. It is composed of white matter, that is, myelinated nerve cells, or axons, whose primary function is to connect grey areas together with neural impulses. The corpus callosum is the largest white matter structure in the brain, found in its interior. Grey matter occupies the periphery
·         Corpus Callosum what does in the brain :Dividing the two hemispheres is the corpus callosum, a white matter that forms a line between the hemispheres. Despite dividing them, the corpus callosum allows the two areas to communicate with each other.

·         The left portion of the cortex involves processes that are responsible for reasoning and language abilities while the right side functions for creativity and spatial perceptions.






6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?
·         Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases are discovered in developing countries.Epilepsy is more likely to occur in young children, or people over the age of 65 years; however, it can occur at any time. As a consequence of brain surgery, epileptic seizures may occur in recovering patients.
·         Simple partial seizures
·         Simple partial seizures are those attacks which show evidence of a localised onset, during which consciousness (responsiveness) is preserved. The discharge is usually confined to a single hemisphere and the symptoms are specific to the affected brain region. Depending upon which region of the cortex is affected the symptoms may be motor, sensory, autonomic (sweating, gastric discomfort, vomiting), or psychic (anxiety, deja vu).
·         Complex partial seizures
·         Complex partial seizures are those attacks which show evidence of a localised onset, but during which consciousness (responsiveness) is altered. The seizure is often associated with automatism, eg repetitive hand movements, smacking, chewing etc. There is often a postseizure confusion period. This seizure type is often confused with the absence seizure type (see below).
·         Secondary generalised partial seizures
·         These seizures are those attacks in which a partial seizure  spreads to both hemispheres. The patient is unconscious and presents motor involvement with cramps.
             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy

7. What is autism?
·         Autism is a developmental disability that comes from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain. It is characterized by the abnormal development of communication skills, social skills, and reasoning. Males are affected four times as often as females. Children may appear normal until around the age of 30 months.




8. What is Asperger's Syndrome?
·         Asperger syndrome is a form of autism, which is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people. Autism is often described as a 'spectrum disorder' because the condition affects people in many different ways and to varying degrees. (For more information about autism, please read our leaflet What is autism?)
·         Asperger syndrome is mostly a 'hidden disability'. This means that you can't tell that someone has the condition from their outward appearance. People with the condition have difficulties in three main areas


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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Accidental Genius


People say that accident are bad but in some cases an accident can become a great one. Some accidents can change you life in a good way or in a bad way. In the video that I saw with George has this amazing ability that he is able to tell any day of the week of any year even 2000 years ago, he just needs to make the calculations. We also watched about this girl Kim she memorizes nine books at a time and we human we can memorize neither one book she has this incredible ability. She reads 200 page in one hour can you imagine how easy it would be for us studying im that speed. What this  people have is called brain injury it is said that it is victims of autism that makes them genius but in a accident because they are really intelligent. Savant people are amazing they have like special power!!! They are the super heroes now in day. 


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Make Me Genius


My question is can someone normal becaome a genius? The answer is YES anyone can be a genius. One video that we saw was about this women called Susan she became genius in chess because her father trained her since she was a little girl to be a pro in chess. She had to devote her life in chess because they saidf that men were the only capable of because like all people think that boys are always better than girls but NO they thought that girls couldn’t manage their left brain. . As she grew older, her brain became very photographic. Susan was able to handle and play 5 chess games in her brain and she may even play chess by phone and without seeing the chess board. She could beat chess champions who were men without having the chess board in front of her. Its amazing how genius –susan is now in day because she practiced since she was little so as we can see we all can be genius in one thing if we dedicate time to that speacil thing and start developing it. Anyone can be a genius you don’t have to grow with it you cn produce it on your own;) 
ttp://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.actioncoach.com/siteFiles/photos/articles/A_Marketing_Genius.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.actioncoach.com/How-To-Change-Your-Mindset-And-Become-A-Marketing-Genius!%3Fpressid%3D374&usg=__eon9QqODIxAF7AKlDO69bHSYxQo=&h=247&w=469&sz=25&hl=en&start=64&zoom=1&tbnid=vGZKUHrHIFutqM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=207&ei=xxdrTe3KKJK2tgf5073mAg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmake%2Bme%2Bgenius%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1222%26bih%3D668%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C2094&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=805&vpy=208&dur=1&hovh=163&hovw=310&tx=132&ty=58&oei=wRdrTZbVOsWBlAe0tqCCAg&page=5&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:64&biw=1222&bih=668

Gifted Children


I’ve been wondering why not all of us are genius only some have that power that when they re born they have the powerful gift to be a genius! We saw a video on in class about this boy called mark he is an example of some people that are gifted because their brain is stimulated in a early age. He is a very intelligent boy that his brain had the capacity that he knows 40 different class and he is not even in high school or nothing like that he is a little kid. Mark has the chance to play beside his favorite music teacher. If Mark keeps practicing what he likes the brain will become so powerful that he could be another Mozart or something like that because imagine what he could do in early age what would happen when he is old WOW… But as I always say in every good thing there’s a bad thing and this bad because the brain may be controlled more in one part than in the other so he brain will work more in the part of listening and that stuff and the other will work but they will be there like if they don’t exist. Gifted children are impressive but it doesn’t mean they are perfect.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Human vrs Nature

Human vrs Nature has a lot to deal with homosexuality.It is still not knpown if we are born that way or if we create it ass the years go speacialoty people in this colum are trying to figure it out. Many people have wonder the question so they have been doing a lot of expiremnts to see what the result and answer is. People want to know if we are born gay or straight or if we develop it by our own. In class we saw a video and by seeing it i did a lot of thinking and in my opinion that people develop it by who they are they wont become gay from a week to another it nedds to be develop by someway or something its not something that occurs because of bothing. I watched this case about two twins one was gay and the other was striaght twins have the samme gene and everthing so they exam them to see why one liked girl stuff and the other one boy things and its because just the way they are bceuase there mom said they were traeted the same way. Since they were littlee still they didnt no who they would become when they grwo up if gay or staright but the possibilieties is thata the twin that likes girl stuff has a high possibiliyy of being gay. As he grwos up he may have a hard time with the bullies on what they call them and how to interact with men but if they pass over thst they should be great in controlling it.But we only speack about gay gay gay and more gay but dont forget that theres also lesbiand¡s and bisexuals in these world a little girl can also turn out to be a lesbian by actring like a men or as we say a tomboy becuase we can see by the behavior of each one. If your gay or lesbian or straight or bi you should be traeted like all human being because all the people shoukld have the right to choose what they want to be everything is for a reason and everyone makes their own choices so dont descriminate other by not being as you are everyone id¡s diffrent in someway. So dont do to others what you dont like to be done to you.


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

pictures

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http://oralbiz.info/tre/BOBA.html



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Criminal mind

 Wow its amazing how criminal mind work. After seeing the video my mind change totally of how I though before. Many of the criminals became criminals because they see it since they are little so they are al l ready metalized and see things differently of how the rest of the humans see it, some of them get this habit berceuse they have lived in that kind of environment since they were born so they get use to live that way and they see it normal and other get it because they have been abused since they were little so they get that violence in their body he cause like they have been hurt before they tend to respond when they were hurt so theory become defensive. I also knew that if a person is mentally unstable and has an illness, where passed on from a parent or acquired later in life, tendon to be violent in some cases. In this video I learned that if the brain is damaged a person can be violent. Their feelings also change because when you are hurt or mad you don’t think before you act you just act in seconds and that can cause violence. When trying a criminal, they examine the persons brain to see if he has any of the symptoms to decide if they should go into a mental facility instead of prison, but many people don’t believe in this theory of criminals are true or they justify the actions the criminal has done. I think every person has a reason to why the react they way they do because everything happens for a reason. What people should do is examine the criminals to see what is wrong with them and send them to a mental hospital to get help because being like that is NOT normal.

Traumatic brain injury

Living with a traumatic brain injury is really challenging part of someone’s life. A little accident can become a big injury in a human brain. The brain is really sensitive part of the human body with anything it can be destroyed in seconds. An injury in the brain may affect the human body in every way! For example, a person that lives with a traumatic injury in the brain suffers of problems like seeing, hearing, smelling, thinking, moving and many more. Many accidents that indicate bumping with you head may become a really bad injury, some examples are crahing, tripping on something, sports ext. The brain is the main part of the human body and the most delicate one since it controls everything.  After watching this video it made me realize how people struggle with life because of a little accident they had mad then they became how  they are and the worst part  is challenging because people when they have this problem they don’t like to face them, so they just give up and they don’t move forward, but some people challenge and try doing their best to get there life back these video showed us how the people who had traumatic injury fight to get back to how they were and how they had routine to practice to getting back their mind to work, somewhere worse than others but they all had the same problem. This are try he people we should admire by just seeing them struggling through their life and at the same time they are trying to fix it however they can. So we should think about our actions before we make a huge mistake and damage our brain because of a bad decision choose your actions wisely the brain may be a powerful tool but it can be destroyed in seconds.

Mind reading with MRI

What could we do without technology? Modern technology is amazing these days, who would think in the past that we would be able to see our brain through a machine called MRI. MRI is a powerful machine that looks to your brain and it can tell you all the effect it has. It may do lots of things like read your mind, can you imagine being under a machine and know that that machine is reading your mind how incredible is that and it’s not over just yet apart from that it can also resemble the parts of the brain that are making you think or picture something that way, but as they say “in every good thing there’s a bad thing”. The MRI is a really modern technology that what it does is when your body enters to the machine it starts to grab information and the computer tells the person in which parts are working by flashing a light to the part that is working. Wow it’s amazing how technology works this days imagine in the future what this amazing machine will do, it will give a whole lot of information. This machine is useful in every way for human beings without it we humans could die. Another interesting part of this machine is that it tells you if you are lying or not it’s a detective also how funny are that!!