Exploratory Writing
1. Describe what you already know about Alzheimer’s disease. For example, you might know just a few facts or you might have a great deal of personal experience with a loved one who has Alzheimer’s disease. I don’t have a loved one who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. I do however know that Alzheimer’s is a disease that tends to make older people forget about their everyday tasks, about their family, etc. in other words, loss of memory.
2. In an attempt to prevent unsafe driving, some states require physicians to report a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease to the health department. The health department then notifies the department of motor vehicles. Do you think your home state should have such a law? Why or why not? I personally think they should have a law like this. That why they will prevent any accidents from people who suffer Alzheimer’s. They might forget what they’re doing or have any black outs and prevent a crash. Reading comprehension questions
1. Create a rhyme, image, or other trick to help you remember what the three parts of the brain do (i.e., create a mnemonic device). Describe your trick here. Cerebrum, problem solves, Cerebellum sits back and relaxes, brains stem connects to the boney friend.
2. Explain the term “thinking wrinkles.” The thinking wrinkles are in your brain's wrinkled surface and is a specialized outer layer of the cerebrum called the cortex.
3. You may have seen a T-shirt that says, “Left-handed people are the only people in their right mind.” Explain what that means based on the information in slide four. It says that the left half controls the movements on the body’s right half side. And the right side controls movements on the left side. And in most people, the language area is chiefly on the left. That’s why they say that left-handed people are the only people in their right mind.
4. How do neurons communicate with each other? Neurons communicate with each other because they all connect at 100 trillion points in your brain. Therefore, signals that travel through the neurons form the basis of memory, thoughts and feelings.
5. Describe in your own words how a brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease compares to a normal brain based on the information in slides eight and nine. It shows how Alzheimer’s disease shrinks the brain. It causes loss of tissue and kills cells. Therefore, the brain starts shrinking massively and looks like it is burnt.
If it helps, pretend you are explaining to your parents what the two brains look.
6. Explain what happens with tau and tangles that eventually results in starvation of brain cells. Tau collapses into twisted strands called tangles. They can’t stay straight, therefore they fall apart and collapse. Nutrients can no longer move through the cells, so they die.
7. What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease? The symptoms of Alzheimer’s affects learning first. However, when it advances, the symptoms start to be memory loss, challenges in planning and solving problems, difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, confusion with times and places, trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships, new problems with words in speaking and writing, misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace them, poor judgment, withdrawal from work or social activities, and changes in mood and personality. They even get suspicious about family, friends, and people they know.
8. Which of the ten warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease was most surprising to you? Why? Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships was most surprising to me because it’s hard to understand that just by looking at yourself in the mirror, you might think it’s someone else because you can’t recognize yourself. That’s really tough to take.
9. Which of the tips to keep someone with Alzheimer’s disease safe seems the easiest to do? Which one seems like the most difficult one? Why? The safest tip to keep someone with Alzheimer’s safe will be to keep medications in a lock drawer or cabinet because they may see them, not known how many to take, and can overdose because of the pills. The most difficult one that I thought was hard to do is to be prepared for emergencies. It’s difficult just by the idea of thinking a bad emergency can happen.