New drawing lol

http://tropicorn.deviantart.com/art/Oz-of-the-Flames-107481438

cool drawing :D made by me

Human genome, twin study, genetic testing

Genome project was completed in 2003, contributions came from Japan, France, Germany, China, and others. Project goals were to identify all 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA,
determine sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA, store this information in databases, improve tools for data analysis. Imagine how many diseases can be cured from this, never before. A normal gene may be inserted into a nonspecific location within the genome to replace a nonfunctional gene. This approach is most common.

Twins:

By studying twins and siblings and their families, we can estimate how genes and environment interact to influence character, strengths, vulnerabilities and values. Beginning in 2000, the MTFS enrolled an additional 500 pairs of twins and their parents into the MCTFR.

Does parenting really matter?

parents expect you to do certain things or behaviors that please them. They want you to make the right decisions as in not smoking, so even if kids want to smoke, they can't because they have to listen to their parents.

Google reader news (in progress)

Race, Ethnicity Likely Affects Emotional Well-Being Of Cancer Patients, Study Finds

from Psychology / Psychiatry News From Medical News Today
Black cancer patients report having poorer physical and social well-being than their white counterparts but better emotional well-being, according to a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Reuters Health reports. Previous studies have indicated that blacks have poorer physical health than whites.



Sleeping In School

from Psychology / Psychiatry News From Medical News Today
Up to 10% of children starting school suffer from sleep disturbances and these may lead to poor performance or behavioral difficulties. In the current edition of Deutsches Arzteblatt International, the child and adolescent psychiatrist Gerd Lehmkuhl and his colleagues present the results of a study from Cologne, Germany. The authors have as yet interviewed 1388 children starting school and their parents from all parts of Cologne.





Nearly 5 Percent Of The US Population Suffers From Persistent Depression Or Anxiety

from Psychology / Psychiatry News From Medical News Today
Though effective treatments are available for individuals suffering from chronic depression and anxiety, very little is known about how often these treatments are used or how prevalent these conditions are among the nation's general population.

How will Brain Science be used in the future?

We can use brain science to perform neurosurgeries on patients by finding out which brain structure is which. For example, the amygdala is associated with mood/anger so an extremely angry person can have their amygdala removed (idk if this is even possible.) The hippocampus is used for memory, Broca's area for forming speech, Wernicke's area for understanding speech. Angular gyrus for converting images into audio, like if we see a trumpet we'd associate it with music. Also, association areas make us smarter than most animals. Neurons can be computed into a microchip to fly an autopilot airplane. Drug patients can be understood why they act drunk/depressed/hyper because some alcohol/meth can mimic dopamine and seratonin pathways. Also, split brain patients can use their left hand to draw what they see on the right. The left brain's plasticity will fill in the functions of what the right brain would do.

Google Reader suscriptions

TroopTube: A YouTube for the Military

After banning YouTube, the military launches its own network.

Pay-by-Phone Parking System Launched

Paying for parking by cell means no more fumbling for change.

1,200-year-old Church Uncovered in Syria

Archaeologists unearth ruins of ancient church, largest found in Mideast country.

Why a Speeding Shark is Like a Golf Ball

Sharks have mini scales like sandpaper to reduce drags as they move along the water, like how a golf ball has dimples to help speed up the ball.

Mysterious Light Show Seen at Saturn
from Global Warming, Global Warming News, Effects Of Global Warming at ...
Cassini spacecraft photographs new aurora at Saturn's pole.



WATCHING DEATH!

Scientists think death is the end of personal consciousness. Religious people think that their spirits and souls live on. Near-death-experience people claim that they "travel down a long tunnel of light, looking down their body." These are caused by disorganized brain signals while on the verge of dying. The most important experiment that’s never been done is to take fMRI or PET scans of people as they die.

VORB video & reading

Mouse Party

It surprised me to see a bunch of mice injected with all sorts of drugs to keep them high (hence mouse party, haha.) I selected the mouse with cocaine in it and put it in a centrifuge machine thing. The machine shows the dopamine inside the mouse's brain. Dopamine is responsible for movement, emotion, and attention. With cocaine inside the mouse's body, it blocks the dopamine transporters from receiving dopamine to the neuron. Lacking of dopamine, a person can get Parkinson's disease this way. The mouse's brain is also similar to a human's brain, so if a person consumes cocaine they will not get enough dopamine inside the brain to their body. Also, a person with cocaine cannot control their movements, so they will not stay still.

Heroine mouse: Body's natural opiate blocks the inhibitory receptor so that dopamine can get out freely. This acts as a natural mood-enhancer like sudden overwhelm of happiness or natural painkiller. Heroin users can feel "good" when the heroin mimics natural opiates, making dopamine to flow out and makes a person feel better when in their down times or has an injury. Although frequent use of heroin will lead to depression if not enough dopamines can get out anymore without the heroin's aid.

Meth mouse: Meth mimics dopamine, can get in the neurons. Meth will force dopamines to get out of their vesicles. Excess dopamine are trapped in the synapses. Therefore, those dopamines will overstimulate the cell, making the person feel intense pleasure.

Your iBrain: How Technology Changes the Way We Think

The brain is adapted to change within the environment. An older person might think of newspaper and jazz or R&B music, while a hip and younger person might think of techno, rap and computer. Therefore, the brain only processes what the person has been exposed to the most (mere exposure can work here too.) Also, younger generations have better experience with computers than older generations because they grow up exposed to these sorts of information that older people don't have back then. For example, taking notes can never be easier with advanced electronic notepads. Whereas taking notes the old fashion way on paper might deem useful decades ago, but not anymore. However, a lady with an old, ragged notebook might have a better chance of keeping it longer than a man with his Blackberry phone which one day he will eventually drop and ruin it. Also, the brain has this plasticity that allows it to change information at will to adapt to different environments. For example, a boy who lives on a farm will eventually adapt to the city life, but it takes time.

Videos & Outside readings

http://www.blogger.com/www.learner.org/resources/series150.html The Mind

What I found: The brain's natural Morphine, or pain reliever, is Endorphins. Those soldiers during the Vietnam War used heroin because they were under a lot of stress during battle. This relieved them of emotional pain as well as physical pain when they got injuries and there were no hospitals near by. Sometimes when you get cuts and bruises you don't notice them instantly because endorphins is also released out at the same time to ease the pain. A while later you will notice the pain after the endorphins calm down. I also get cuts and bruises that I don't notice until later a sharp pain kicks in. One example of this is when I cut my knee on a glass table I didn't feel the pain. A moment later I noticed the blood trickling down, that's when I began to cry/scream/bawl (I was 9.) Maybe the image of blood made me think of pain or the pain itself, I'm not sure. Morphine can replace endorphins and vice versa. Therefore, people who use heroin will stop their process of making endorphins in the brain, so if they stop using heroin they will feel pain.

Understanding the Brain Through Epilepsy

The boy's brain neurons switch on and off uncontrollably, resulting in seizures, or spasms of muscles. Patients with seizures often forget what they recently did when asked. I saw the doctors performing a brain surgery (which is pretty gross...). They can remove a part of the brain that causes Ashley's seizures, cool :).

Brain to Muscle Link in the Monkey http://www.blogger.com/scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2008/10/brain_to_muscle_link_in_the_mo.php

Even without access to the wrist, the monkey still responds to the game that involves his wrist by using brain neurons. One neuron can connect to other specific parts and muscles of the monkey's body to make them work. Therefore, the monkey can use that one neuron to move his wrist without actually using his wrist. Other neurons overtime can copy that action and move his wrist also, not just that one neuron. This could be useful for making synthetic limbs when one person damages a neuron, the doctor can replace that neuron with another neuron that does the same job.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-mirror-neuron-revolut (idk how to hyperlink)

The Mirror Neuron Revolution: Explaining What Makes Humans Social

Mirror neurons are located in the premotor cortex and inferior parietal cortex in the brain. They both activate when an action takes place. Mirror neurons can mimic action of another person or recognizing our own. For example, someone smiles at you, you smile back. People with autism process other people's emotions much slower. Therefore, they have a hard time to be sociable. Social people are the ones who respond to another's feelings and emotions (otherwise they're antisocial.) Mirror neurons are also important in language because we mimic our mother's sound and voice and try to repeat back the words we hear. This is why children need to stay in school so that they can learn positive things from their elders. Also, Lehrer shows that we can mimic other people's actions through movies and music, so bad movies and bad music can influence gang activities and violence in youth.

Chapt 18

What I can do with this chapter is that I can show altruism through donating quarters for leukemia and not expecting anything in return (maybe a cure.) I can use aggression when needed to confront a conflict. I can also use cognitive disonance to decide which college is right for me, like tuition cost and location by that I have to conform my ideas in order to reach a right decision. I can also see prejudice in today's presidential election where they would prefer a Caucasian man over an African American man, or vice versa that the people prefer Obama just because he's black, not looking into both people's talents. America's superiority (just-world phenomenon) declines once they turn to other countries to help for economic crisis.

Aggression, Attraction, Conflict, Altruism

Agression: Sometimes when I did something I was told to do and people said I didn't do it so I put up an argument against them. For example, when I took out the laundry from the dryer, my mom thought it was still down the basement so I got angry and showed here that I already took the laundry out. Also, I can't stand loud people talking over my shoulders when I'm waiting in a line (like at Seabreeze). I wanted to turn around and say "shut up" but that would make all other people stare at me and I'm usually a nice person. This led to my frustration-agression principle, since I couldn't walk away nor yell things back at people. Also, ingroup bias is present in this case, because those loud people wouldn't let other people in their conversation but they just talk among themselves.

Conflict: I usually have conflicts with my older sister. Sometimes she wants me to take AP classes either to torture me or to help me going to a good college... Whenever I'm watching a TV show I like, she comes up and changes the channel. This is called a social trap since she wants to watch something against my liking for her own benefit. My sister complains when I spent like 10$ on a shirt while she spends 300$ on a new lap top and that's ok since it's for school work and hw :D. This just-world phenomenon leads to me believing that there's only some justice in the world.

New drawings I made

Just thought I'd share with people on here.

http://tropicorn.deviantart.com/art/Mermaid-Seashell-100010226

Violating Social Norm

Ok so I tried sitting with a group of students whom I don't know and started eating lunch. They said hi and I said hi back. Pretty much they all talk to each other about things they all know and I dont :p. Although we didn't talk much, it was somewhat fun trying to blend in. After that, I may never see them again.

Video, Outside Readings, Experiments

I did the face-making experiment and found out that most of the faces have some similarities among them. Therefore, when filing a police report, people can't describe the faces clearly and often leads to misinformation. Also, people are like 99.8% the same so there's no point for prejudicing our own species/races if we all are the same in some ways.

Video games link to violence? Gameplays are social activities for boys while girls socialize in real life. Although girls play less video games than boys on a weekly basis, a girl is more prone to physical fights than boys when exposed to M-rated games. This leads to anger and aggression in youth. Limit play time to 1-2 hrs a day.

Cults are groups that recruit weak-minded, depressed, or traumatized people to do strange actions for them. There are political cults, therapy cults, and business cults. Cults tend to realize things that are not real, and convince people to do so. Also, cults want people to get rid of their normal thinking. Example is the book 1984 by George Orwell whereas the leader took control over the citizens and make them think that they have freedom but they don't, and 2+2 =5. Therefore, we have to be careful when exposing to a cult and one asks us to join.

Cognitive Control: The ability to create subjective realities for oneself, or as directed by a leader.

Pygmalion Effect: Positive change of a person's performance or perception of a situation, based on expectation and encouragement by others.

Thought-Stopping: A behavior modification technique in which independent thinking is discouraged or disallowed

Stanford Prison

b. What are the effects of living in an environment with no clocks, no view of the outside world, and minimal sensory stimulation?

People would go crazy or isolated. They would have mindshock, and feel that 1 day is as long as 1 year. They would stare and sit at one spot all the time.

d. At first push-ups were not a very aversive form of punishment, but they became more so as the study wore on. Why the change?

At first, the body is kinda used to do push up, but as time goes on the body's muscles become weaker in prison so push ups will be harder to do. The guards or other prisoners step on the prisoner's back while he's doing push up. Also, the push up count is increased to several hours later on. Push up is also used in Nazi camps as punishment.

Nature vs Nurture

People can become evil by their surrounding environment. For example, putting a good person in a bad town that promotes smoking and drugs will tempt that person to do them as well. People who turn evil are the ones who have no choice of where to go but to become one of their influence. In Zimbardo's story, the guards turn evil because they work long hours without break. They need something "fun" to do, that's why they harrassed the prisoners. Also, they're low ranked so they have a superior feeling in an isolated environment where no one tells them what to do. I think that this is an outrage, people don't have the right to judge themselves so rightly and start harrassing other people because they are different.

Lucifer effect: good God became evil as he descends to Hell as Satan.

Influence

I'd say Harry Potter movies would be the influence on me. I've been watching Harry Potter since 5th grade, and it progresses as I grow older. I feel like I'm living in a different part of the world whenever I'm watching it (study in a castle, quidditch, magic, and Latin related stuff.) The plot is pretty interesting overall. This movie influenced me by giving me a sense of accomplishment that you can do something beyond your abilities to do it. Therefore, I often try to better myself in real life at things I normally do. Also, Harry Potter's parents aren't there with him which makes me feel sympathetic that my dad is not living with me in America. Still, I'm not alone since I have other people in my family and some friends. Also, watching Harry Potter might influence me to go to London :P.

Memory usage

I could use my memory to recall an event that happened in recent past and share it with someone. I could use recognition and sensory memory to encode new information like learning in school. Rehearsal technique can also be useful to study before a test, since several repetitions will help me encode and recall information faster. Studying takes more effort in processing than eat food. I can use "chunking" to separate information so I can encode it better. Hippocampus: stores memories and emotion. Implicit memory: unconscious memory. Explicit memory: conscious memory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-L6rEm0rnY

Memory Video

Life Without Memory: Clive Wearing, Part 1+2

Damage to his frontal lobe, loss of memory. Clive doesn't remember his past but can remember his family. Brief encoding of information, Clive forgets as soon as he receives it. Clive has to look at his watch all the time because he can't recall which time interval it is. He doesn't remember which person he sees through the day, but he still retain his ability to sing and play piano. Clive has to keep notes of what he did to remind him.

Living with Amnesia

The Hippocampus controls emotion, learning, and memory. People know their existence by having a memory. When Mike's hippocampus is damaged, he loses his memory, known as amnesia. Memory loss can also result in depression, because emotion is also disturbed. Mike can remember long term memory like working with his hands, but can't remember short term ones like what people tell him recently. He also remembers his daily routines. Long term potentiation: electrical stimulations trigger memories to occur.

Memory test

26732

They asked me to remember which flower is in which position that "hides the bee" in each different set of 2 flowers. The point of this research is to test out my memory to see if I still remember which flower belongs to which group. I had it right most of the time. Conclusion is if the same images occur over time, people will have a better chance of grasping them and get them right than just one time.

Be a Juror

code: 26731

I was asked to see whether the defendant is guilty or not. I said guilty. People can sometimes be misled by misinformation and be framed for something they didn't do.

Alzheimer's Disease

People can't remember what happens to them recently but can recall an important event from the past. Nucleus Dorsalis: neurons sending signals throughout the brain. In Alzheimer's, this part decays, leaving the person with forgetfulness. The memories are blocked, people can't retrieve them when they have this disease. People get Alzheimer's at their 50's in average. Tests show that a normal brain will react faster to sound and visuals than a brain affected with Alzheimer's. Sometimes a person can be left with speech problems if not treated, but the social skills retain. People sometimes talk to inanimate objects or imaginary people.

Sleep: Brain Functions

The brain's still working while asleep. People and animals can die without sleep for a long time. Average person spends 7-8 hrs (1/3 of their life) sleeping. Brain sends electrical waves for person to enter sleep and dreams to happen. Brainwaves increase as the person progresses through sleep, but move very slowly. Sleep walking occurs during deep sleep. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) occurs when deep sleep waves go back to stage 1 waves, but the person is not awake yet. This is when a person moves his/her eyes while closing them like following a scene (in a dream). Most people move/toss while they're asleep, to loosen up muscles.

The Placebo Effect: Mind/Body Relationship

People overestimate that a product will work because the seller must be telling the truth saying that it will. In reality, people's brain forces them to think that a certain product will help them to relieve their pains/illnesses but physically they're still the same as they were (or worse) before taking in any product/drugs/vitamins/tonics. Sometimes people are too desperate in their current conditions that they will try anything to help. Often times, people don't want to be disappointed that the product won't work, so their brain is pushing them toward their goal faster because they're eager to see the results instead of actually knowing them (ex: buying a new pen you like won't help you score higher on the test, but it will give you confidence to believe that it is "lucky.") By believing so strongly in something, people can actually make it happen in their minds. I read The Crucible last year, and the point of the story is about a group of girls who believe that other towners are hurting them but in reality their brains are just playing tricks on them so they can get out of trouble. Placebo effect can be emotional or physical. The endorphine is a hormone released by the brain to relieve pain. Stress and injuries can increase endorphine.

3 articles

'7 sins of memory': transience- short time memory, forgetting quickly. Absent-mindedness- people can't always remember or recall all the things they do through the day (ex. meeting someone and forgetting their name later on.) Blocking- can't remember things properly or not at all but the person has an idea that it's there. Blocking occurs from minutes to days. Misattribution- people mix up in remembering things or events from one source to another (a thing or person they see in a dream/television that is carried out to reality when they talk). Suggestibility- false memory suggested by other people, changing a person's beliefs. Bias- can't see things/people the way they are but according to you or other people; thinking all the good actions are ours and the bad ones are from others' fault. Persistence means that we can't get rid of a particular memory because it's always on our mind. Persistence can mean an important memory or a bad one. People can get depress thinking about the past that should not have happened. Sometimes people live on by holding on what's in the past instead of embracing new things. "Super Memo," a program used to learn languages. People will remember better when they have several reminders for them.
Sometimes it helps to group things separately instead of trying to learn them at once, as Ebbinghaus showed.

Proactive interference: old info overlapping new info. Example: me learning new language sometimes I use words from my other language into context. When I start playing a new game then come back to the old one I forget its key configs, thinking they're the same as the old one's but they're not.

Retroactive interference: new info overlaps old info: after learning English, I kinda forgot some of my root language.

--- 7 Sins of Memories, 4 Things at once, Want to remember everything you've learned?

hi

I'm 17, I live in Webster. I like playing tennis on my free time. I also like playing video games and going to eat at buffets. One game I play is Ragnarok Online, you gotta try it out (if you want). I have a sister going to UR. I took driver's ed over the summer and filing stuff at Strong Hospital. I would like to major in Biochemistry and looking toward Suny ESF. My favorite color is blue or teal. I sometimes go to the bookstore to read mangas. I also watch animes like Death Note and Detective Conan.