...How do we develop in the womb? This section covered two important things: prenatal development, which includes three phases of physical growth, and the way substances affect prenatal development in all three domains. The three prenatal periods are the Germinal period, Embryonic period, and Fetal period. Human development occurs in three domains: physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive. Teratogens are substances that can cause birth defects. For example, use of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy can affect the mother and the developing human. Infections, such as German Measles and syphilis, can cause serious illness. Environmental factors also affect prenatal development. All of these substances that negatively affect prenatal development...
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...Process “How Our Bodies and Minds Change” Aging is a process that concerns us all. The increasing armamentarium provided by molecular biology and other techniques has allowed greater understanding of some of the processes involved. Numerous definitions of aging exist; an acceptable and commonly used definition is that aging is the total of all changes an organism undergoes from its conception to its death, including development, maturation and adulthood. There are many theories about how our bodies and minds change as we age, but no matter how much research or theories have been formed, one thing remains true is that our bodies and minds does, and will, change with age and one thing can be agree upon is that the end results in all these studies is that the body and minds does go through many changes during our life time. Since the life span varies between and within species and human longevity is partially hereditary, it is clear that genetic factors, the biology of the brain, and our culture effect the function of the brain and influence the aging process ( Johnson 1993, Schacter et al. 1993, Vijg et al. 1995). Twin studies show that genetic differences account for about a quarter of the variance in adult human lifespan. While a great deal of research has focused on diseases of aging, there are only a few informative studies on the molecular biology of the aging brain. Many molecular changes are due in part to a reduction in the size of the brain, as well as loss of brain plasticity...
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... 2 Introduction Alcoholism plays a huge part in our society; this paper will discuss the links that alcohol has on the brain as well as the biological, psychological and social development in alcoholics. Where they may fit in and to what groups. Cultural differences and the expectation those cultures may see the alcoholic and their choice to receive help. How the social worker knowing and understanding cultural differences will help to supply the alcoholic with the proper treatment. I will discuss how the environment with witch the alcoholic lives has a direct affect on them becoming alcoholics. How a general system theory can help the alcoholic to achieve sobriety and accepted back into the social order. A good example of this will be discussed through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Background When trying to understand how an alcoholic thinks we first discuss the affects it has on the human brain. The prefrontal cortex, considered the association cortex, is known to connect all the other neocortical regions of the brain. The affects of alcoholism cause brain damage, cortical atrophy, also known as dementia. Alcoholics suffer from impaired function of the cerebral tissue in the medial frontal region. (Frontal Lobe Changes in Alcoholism: A Review in Literature, 2001). Injuries to this part of the brain include:...
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...Motivation and the Brain Motivation and the Brain Scientists and psychologists alike have been exploring the relationship between addiction and the brain for decades. The motivations behind the core root causes of addiction and how it affects the brain have been speculated over and theorized about. Refraining from drugs can be very difficult for a person to do when they are an addict. Drugs have a way of taking over a person’s life and destroying all of their relationships around them. People start using drugs for different reasons. Some people start using drugs for fun, some use to mask the feelings they are feeling, and some use for pain. This paper is going to discuss the brain structure and functions, the impact of intrinsic factors, and the extrinsic factors, which will include hereditary and the environment. Brain Structure and Functions The brain is the most delicate organ of the body. Drugs release dopamine to the brain. “Dopamine is a monoamine neurotransmitter formed in the brain from the amino acid tyrosine. Dopamine is essential for the healthy functioning of the central nervous system; it has effects on emotion, perception and movement.”(Purse, 2009) This gives a person a feeling of pleasure. The brain makes less dopamine when people continue to use drugs. With this, when people stop using drugs the dopamine is low and your brain has a hard time with pleasure. The ways that drugs motivate the brain are two-fold, chemical and psychological. There...
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...What is dementia? Dementia is a common condition that affects about 800,000 people in the UK. Your risk of developing dementia increases as you get older, and the condition usually occurs in people over the age of 65. Dementia is a syndrome associated with an ongoing decline of the brain and its abilities. This includes problems with: * memory loss * thinking speed * mental agility * language * understanding * judgment People with dementia can lose interest in their usual activities, and have problems controlling their emotions. They may also find social situations challenging, lose interest in socializing, and aspects of their personality may change. A person with dementia may lose empathy (understanding and compassion), they may see or hear things that other people do not (hallucinations), or they may make false claims or statements. As dementia affects a person's mental abilities, they may find planning and organizing difficult. Being independent may also become a problem. A person with dementia will therefore usually need help from friends or relatives, including help with decision making. Most types of dementia can't be cured, but if it is detected early there are ways to slow it down and maintain mental function. Dementia is a collection of symptoms including memory loss, personality change, and impaired intellectual functions resulting from disease or trauma to the brain. These changes are not part of normal aging and are severe enough...
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...Neurological Processes Ugur Unal PSY/340 July 15th, 2016 Neurological Processes The brain is the most complex part of the body. This organ is the center of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior. For centuries, scientists and philosophers have been infatuated by the brain, but until recently the brain has been viewed as perplexing. Now, however, the brain is beginning to show its secrets. Scientists have learned more about the brain in the last few years than in all previous centuries because of the accelerating pace of research in neurological and behavioral science and the development of new research techniques. The brain is like a committee of experts. All the parts of the brain work together, but each part has its own special properties. Biological causes of clinical depression continue to be studied extensively. Great progress has been made in the understanding of brain function, the influence of neurotransmitters, and other biological processes, as well as how they may relate to the development of depression. Depression or anxiety causes individuals to have many changes in their behaviors. They tend to become isolated from their family, friends, or be social. Their eating patterns lead to either weight gain or loss; and sleeping patterns change where they either do not sleep or sleep excessively. They become agitated, irritable, and fatigue or have lack of energy. Biological psychology aims at finding the...
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...Brain injuries have revolutionized the same as cell phones have, and everything else in the world. But the real question is, has it gotten better or worse? A brain injury is very serious due to the fact that it is causes severe damage to your skull, and your skull is nothing to mess with. The area where your brain is most affected when someone has a traumatic brain injury are your frontal and temporal lobes. “About 300,000 TBIs occur each year as the result of sports” (Journal of Athletic Training). The most common brain injury is a concussion. A concussion is a type of a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. According to the BIRI (Brain Injury Research Institute)...
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...An Overview of Dementia: How It Has Touched My Life Dementia is an illness that occurs when there is a loss of brain function as a result of the presence of certain diseases. Dementia affects a person’s memory, judgment, behavior, thinking, and language. Dementia includes Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and tends to increase the most from the age of 65. Various references and literature in reference to dementia indicate that the number of patients with dementia will increase significantly as society ages, especially within the next three decades. Dementia causes significant family issues and can become a financial burden on patients and their family members. These burdens impair the ability of a person to function independently and also have a tremendous impact on his or her relationships and quality of life. The subject of this paper will discuss an overview of dementia, treatments of dementia, how it affects human lives, and also the affect dementia has had on the life of the writer of this paper An Overview of Dementia: How It Has Touched My Life As a child growing up in the early 1970s, the writer of this paper can recall his neighborhood. It was peaceful and had a several people who were known elderly and considered as senior citizens. The writer of this paper also remembers when the adults of the neighborhood would speak of the elderly and tend to talk the most about their strange behaviors. Although this was often the case, the talk of...
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...How cursive writing affects brain development: Although some schools spend little time on cursive handwriting lessons, studies show a connection between writing and brain development. Many would agree with first-century Roman writer Quintilianus that too slow a hand impedes the mind, However, modern education professionals seem to believe that promoting keyboard fluency will help as much to develop the minds of their students as traditional handwriting lessons once did. While students do need to be digitally competent to succeed, teachers need to continue to teach cursive handwriting according to much of the knowledge will poorly processed and inadequately learned. Cursive writing and the brain: “Theres some pretty powerful evidence of changes in the brain that occurs as a result of...
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...disease of brain and describes a serious deterioration in mental function, as memory, language, orientation and judgement , The causes of dementia are still not fully understood. Research in dementia is an ongoing and to date number of types of dementia and their causes have been identified. The brain contains billions of cells, in dementia some of these cells stop working properly. Depending what part of brain this occurs in it will affect the way an individual thinks, remembers, walks and communicates. There is a range of causes of dementia here are son of them:- Mixed dementia Mixed dementia is a condition in which abnormalities characteristic of more than one type of dementia occur simultaneously in the brain. Physicians may also call this condition “Dementia multifactorial.” In the most common form of mixed dementia, the abnormal protein deposits associated with Alzheimer's disease coexist with blood vessel problems linked to vascular dementia. Alzheimer’s brain changes also often coexist with Lewy bodies, the abnormal protein deposits characteristic of dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia. In some cases, a person may have brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. It is caused by nerves cells dying in certain parts of the brain and the connection between affected nerve cells deteriorates. As dementia progresses it spreads and affects other parts...
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... April 30, 2015 Executive Summary I wrote this research paper as a requirement for the class Technical and Managerial Communications taught by Amy Hirschfeld. The topic of this research paper is mental health issues. The purpose of this paper is to bring to light a topic that is not very talked about but is very important. Mental health is something that is generally brushed off to the side, but mental health issues can happen to anyone at anytime. In this paper, I explain that being mentally health is being in a state of emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Small changes to this balance such as life experiences or biological factors can affect a person’s mental health. The major categories for mental health disorders and how they are categorized are as follows: * Anxiety- too much inner turmoil * Mood- major fluctuations in emotion * Psychotic- major disruptions in brain functions * Dementia- major disturbance to consciousness * Eating- unusual eating behaviors The best way to deal with these mental health issues is to talk to others about it. That is why it is so important for everyone to know about mental health so that they can be comfortable talking about it. Table of Contents Executive Summary Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.1 Purpose 2.2 Scope 2.0 Overview of What is Mental Health 3.3 What is Mental Health? 3.4 Causes 2.2.1 Life Experiences 2.2.2 Biological Factors 3.5 Warning Signs ...
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...Life-Span development Instructor: Dr. Mike Considine Week Two: The Brain and Neurons Development Developmental change evolves slowly in early childhood of the infant’s physical and central nervous systems. The infant’s physical and central nervous systems undergo rapid change during the first two years of life. The child weight double by five months of age, triples by twelve months of age, and quadruples by the age of twenty-four months. The child length does not change as fast as the weight, because the length of the child at birth is seventy-five of what it will be at the age of two years old. The changes in length and weight are accompanied by the transformations in the child’s body proportions. During this time the head grows the fastest and matures the earliest, followed by the rest of the body downward (e.g. the neck, torso, legs). Those parts that are closest to the center of the infant’s body (e.g. the trunk) grow faster and mature earliest than do parts that are farther from the center (e.g. the hands). (Santrock, 2013) The rapid changes in the child body proportions affect other domains of development, including perceptual, motor, cognitive, and emotional. The physical structure of the brain develops rapidly. We are born with almost all of the neurons that we will ever have, the human brain triples in weight by the age of three and quadruples in weight by age fourteen. The reason for the rapid change in the brain’s weight and size are first, a fatty substance called...
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...Childhood Adversity Almost half the nation’s children have experienced at least one or more types of childhood trauma. (Stevens) Childhood adversity is due to a dysfunctional childhood. (Pederson) There are many things that affect children’s childhood. Neglect and abuse, Witnessing domestic violence, Parents with drinking or drug abuse problems, and many other ways. This can change the brain and have lifelong effects on a person. There are ways to help people who have childhood adversity. You can also tell when someone is going through childhood adversity also. How can we aid victims of childhood adversity? So many things can affect children and their childhood’s. Each child can be affected differently in different situations. Neglect...
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...things more often, but they do not remember them again. The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease has dramatically increased because people are living longer. This is a result of advancements in medical technology that are increasing the human life span. That being said, now there is more responsibility placed on the individual and their caregivers to provide a supportive environment to combat this disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that causes a gradual, irreversible cognitive deterioration. The individual experiences a significant decline in their memory, language skills, perception of space and eventually, their ability to be self-sufficient and independent. Alzheimer’s disease takes a toll on the patients as well as their caregivers. “Being a caregiver for an ill or disabled loved one is widely recognized as a threat to caregiver’s quality of life” (Poulin et al 2010). The diagnosis of this disease affects the caregivers on physical, psychological, and social levels. Family, friends, and caregivers suffer from pain and stress as they witness their loved one experiencing the progression of the disease. Background “Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for about 60% of all diagnosed cases” (Tampi 2006). The onset of Alzheimer’s disease is gradual. In the earlier stages, patients experience mild impairments, like learning new information or remembering where they left everyday things, like keys. Changes in social behavior are...
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...lead to antisocial behavior, violence; crime of all sorts, even murder to get what they want. Giving up drug addiction takes strength, mind strength mostly because the mind is responsible for the addiction. It is the beginning of addiction and the end of addiction. The mind and the body crave pleasure and stimulate neurotransmitters in the brain and the addiction finds pleasure in the drugs and the sensation itself. Any withdrawals from the drug will bring about depression, irritability, suicidal thoughts, restlessness, and anxiety. Addiction is mind control and can be overcome if the person wants, learning about his or her condition will give insight and understanding as why he or she may be addicted. There are three categories that certain drugs can share and have many differences. Depressants can slow down the body and its activity from the nerve and brain which slows down the communication between the two. Depressants can relax muscles, calm nerves, useful for medical purposes for such cases as insomnia. Stimulants can stimulate the central nervous system and the brain, making the communication between the two faster. They can increase physical activity...
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