Category: Neuroscience

Exercising the brain as always advertised in different media could be the basis of neural biology. A learning exercise experiment with rats showed generation of new neurons. These new neurons were presumably formed in a taxing situation of difficult learning exercises. The implication of this is that it is possible for those suffering from Alzheimer particularly when the condition is still at the early stages, have the ability of slowing it development by ensuring that they actively engage their brains. By the 1990s scientist showed that mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons, refuting the fact that it was only reserved for the young developing minds. Elizabeth, then at Rockefeller University, demonstrated that new cells could arise from the hippocampus part of the brain, which is involved with learning and memory. This was supported in1998 when neural scientists in US and Sweden showed that neurogenesis also occurred in humans. This was carried out in rats by the application of BrdU (bromodeoxyuridine), which made it possible for the news cells to be pointed out. The new cells production could be influenced by several factors as follows: alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and eating blue berries goosed generation of new neurons. From the experiment on the rats, it seemed that the new neurons could be produced in a cognitive challenge, then fade away. Experiment was done to observe the effects and survival of newborn neurons. The scientist used an experiment called the trace eye blink condition likened to Pavlovs dogs which salivated when there was a sound. At the beginning BrdU was used on the rats with more rats being included after a week. After some time, the experiment proved that learning was required to sustain new cells developed.

In addition, by exercising the rats in one day severally rescued the new neurons from death. This showed that task of rescuing the new cells does not involve thought. Another experiment involving a difficult task using the same rats but with the duration of the tone lengthened; this resulted into more new neurons rescued than previous one. Another experiment where rats were tested for several weeks with MAM, which stopped dividing of cells, and put in training with untreated and treated were found to be poor students. This is the same with the human brain where chemotherapy impairs the cell division but antidepressant was found to be modulators of neurogenesis. With the case of people with Alzheimer, new neurons produced do not survive to become fully mature and those in early stage of dementia are suggested to take aerobic exercises. This shows that engaging the brain in some hard tasks is actually healthy to the mind and consequently can keep some diseases off.

List of dislikes and likes and the way forward

Likes

1. Learning new things could enhance generation of new neuron cells.
2. Difficult learning can help the new formed cells to survive.
3. Exercises could play a role in generation of neurons.
4. Antidepressants play a role in modulation of neurogenesis.
5. The mind robbing disease could be reduced in engaging in cognitive exercise.

Dislikes

1. Though the Alzheimers disease and early stages of dementia could be controlled the rate of neurons production could not balance with the depreciating neurons.

Way forward

People should be informed of the cost of not engaging in brain exercises; there is a need to encourage people to engage in brain exercise as this is likely lead to many health benefits.

Psoriasis, unspecified

Pathophysiology

Immunological triggers provoke a discharge of a large number of leukocytes to the dermis and epidermis; the epidermis becomes infiltrated by activated T cells inducing the proliferation of keratinocytes, and then an unregulated inflammatory process occurs along with the ejection of various cytokines (Mahajan & Handa, 2013).

Symptoms and Signs

Psoriatic rashes on the skin, sudden occurrence of scaly areas of redness, pain, itching, joint pain without visible changes on the skin, rash developing after a recent pain in the joints.

Lab and Diagnostic Tests

As a rule, the diagnosis is established based on a typical clinical picture. To exclude a fungal infection, especially if the foot or hand is injured, microscopic examination of skin samples for the presence of fungal cells may be required (Mahajan & Handa, 2013).

Urolithiasis (N21.8)

Pathophysiology

The most common cause of urolithiasis in adult patients is an intravesical obstruction which can be caused by prostatic hyperplasia or prostate cancer in men, stricture of the urethra (after trauma, surgery, inflammation), etc.; whereas the mechanism of stone formation is associated with the impossibility of complete bladder emptying, stagnation, and concentration of residual urine leading to precipitation of salt crystals (Gould, VanMeter, & Hubert, 2014).

Symptoms and Signs

Impaired urination with frequent urges during movement, interruption of the urine stream or acute retention of the outflow, urinary incontinence due to a stone stuck in the narrow neck of the bladder.

Lab and Diagnostic Tests

Urine analysis allows identifying the microflora and its sensitivity to the selection of antibacterial therapy. Ultrasound of the bladder helps to see the stones as hyperechoic formations with an acoustic shadow.

Nephrolithiasis (N20.0)

Pathophysiology

The pathophysiological process is multifactorial and complex, yet important premises for the onset of the disease are the change in kidney function caused by a disorder in the regulation of blood circulation and impaired lymph flow; due to imbalance between colloids and crystalloid urine, the salts begin to precipitate and crystallize (Sakhaee, Maalouf, & Sinnott, 2012).

Symptoms and Signs

Blunt pain in the lumbar region, renal colic, severe sweating, as well as increased frequency of urination.

Lab and Diagnostic Tests

Ultrasound and roentgenology, general and biochemical analysis of blood and urine. In nephrolithiasis, micro-constrains (sand), depleted renal epithelial cells, and erythrocytes can be found in the patients urine (Sakhaee et al., 2012).

Urolithiasis (N20.1)

Pathophysiology

Calculus of the ureter usually develops on the background of chronic urethritis, prostatitis, prostate adenoma; fistulas, diverticula of the urethra, stricture of the urethra; urolithiasis; mineral metabolism disorders, inadequate diet, dehydration, urinary tract infections (Gould et al., 2014).

Symptoms and Signs

Severe pain, difficulty urinating, weakening of the urine stream, hematuria.

Lab and Diagnostic Tests

Palpation and the gynecological assessment are the major diagnostic methods. An ultrasound test of the bladder allows visualizing the hyperechoic formation of the urethra (through an acoustic shadow). A general urine test is also performed: macro- or microhematuria and the symptoms of inflammation can be determined (Gould et al., 2014).

Insomnia (G47.00)

Pathophysiology

Insomnia may be due to physiological predisposition, psychogenic disorders, diseases of the nervous system and internal organs; neuroses and neurosis-like conditions (psychosis, depression, panic disorders, etc.); somatic diseases that cause night pain, dyspnea, heart pain, respiratory disorders; organic lesions of the central nervous system (stroke, schizophrenia, brain tumors, etc.) (Dunphy, Winland-Brown, Porter, & Thomas, 2015).

Symptoms and Signs

Pre-somnological and post-somnological disorders; reduced daily activity, impaired memory, and attention; aggravation of chronic conditions.

Lab and Diagnostic Tests

Diagnosis is based on the patients complaints. Polysomnography is recommended if the disorder is followed by a respiratory impairment or if the medical treatment is ineffective.

References

Dunphy, L. M., Winland-Brown, J. E., Porter, B. O., & Thomas, D. J. (2015). Primary care: The art and science of advanced practice nursing. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.

Gould, B. E., VanMeter, K. C., & Hubert, R. J. (2014). Pathophysiology for the health professions. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders.

Mahajan R., & Handa, S. (2013). Pathophysiology of psoriasis. Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, 79, 1-9. doi:10.4103/0378-6323.115505

Sakhaee, K., Maalouf, N. M., & Sinnott, B. (2012). Kidney stones 2012: Pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management.The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 97(6), 18471860. Web.

Heritability is the process of passing personal traits from one generation to another. It never demonstrates the magnitude to which genes are passed on from a parent to a child; instead, it illustrates the reason for differences between people. The transferred traits can either impose defects or be advantageous to an organism, depending on the genes present within the parents. For example, some human conditions, such as albinism, are transmitted from fathers and mothers to their offspring. Although heritability is a wide topic, Rosa Hoekstra and her colleagues believe that the difference is seen more in close family members.

Hoekstra et al.s concept illustrates that the only reason people possess different autistic traits is heritability. According to their research, autism is a gene that can be transferred from parents to their offspring. Therefore, it describes the extent to which an individuals gene exposes them to a condition. Hoekstra et al.s statement demonstrates that the traits can be witnessed within close family members. For example, monozygotic twins experience autism more than dizygotic children because the identical twins are closer since they originate from a single egg (Hoekstra et al., 2007). Freberg (2018) supports this assertion by illustrating that gene differences in people affect their response to drugs. Therefore, identical twins are more likely to experience autism traits if their parents possess the genes.

To summarize, heritability shows differences in personal traits instead of genes that are passed from one generation to another. The process is best explained by Hoekstra et al., who gives an insight into why identical twins have more similar traits compared to fraternal twins. Genes present in a person determine if a person can experience life conditions such as autism that are witnessed in many people.

References

Freberg, L. (2018). Discovering behavioral neuroscience: An introduction to biological psychology (4^th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Hoekstra, R. A., Bartels, M., Verweij, C. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2007). Heritability of autistic traits in the general population.Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 161(4), 372-377. Web.

Introduction

Cognitive levels are categorized into taxonomies based on the degree of generalization and class inclusion components or factors. The degree of generalization implies that the description of an object gets generalized as it moves up the taxonomy and gets more specific down the taxonomy. Class inclusion depicts the idea that an individual object is included in units of items in classifications up the taxonomy (Banich & Compton, 2018). The larger and more general categories are further sub-divided into smaller, more specific categories, thus the formation of category levels.

The degree of generalization and class inclusion is exhibited in the three significant levels of categorization, namely, the basic level, the superordinate level, and the subordinate level. The topmost classification in taxonomy is the superordinate category level. This category exhibits the most significant degree of generalization and the lowest degree of specificity. It does not provide detailed properties or configuration of entities therein. The basic level category, also known as the generic level, possesses the most basic cognitive properties. This level offers differentiation in perception between different entities. In this level, the conceptual information of a category is most relevant compared to the other levels. Entities under this level are presented with the most common and reliable idealization. This feature makes it the most privileged level among the three.

Subordinate category level exhibits a low degree of both class inclusion and generalization. It provides clarity in identification and offers a detailed descriptive and individuating features with a high degree of specificity.

Classic example

The concept vehicle is a much-generalized category and does not point to any entity or class of entity. It only points towards a configuration that is used for transportation. This description could accommodate trains, planes, tanks, and boats. The term car is a more specific concept, providing a more detailed description of entities. It does not, however, give a detailed description of its constituents. Individual entities under this class, such as the Jeep, Limo, Van, Minibus, and sports car, are more specific and provide a detailed description.

These cognitive levels of object identification are fundamental in the process of perception. As a critical stage of perception, object selection attempts to explain the difference in priority between stimuli in the environment. There are no unique stimuli as the brain unconsciously differentiates what is essential from what is less critical. This stimuli prioritization is influenced by emotion, motivation, perceptual expectancy, among other factors.

Cognitive Mapping

A cognitive map is a mental depiction or representation that enables an individual to obtain, synthesize, keep, remember, and decode data concerning relative attributes and locations of entities in their usual or imaginary spatial environment. In simple terms, a cognitive map is a mental image of the layout or configuration of ones current or past environment. Numerous studies conducted in the past with the aim of obtaining information to establish why and how animals find their way around and back home are the source of this theory (Banich & Compton, 2018). It has been established that animals unconsciously identify landmarks and physical features of their surroundings that help determine the location and direction of objects and places. This phenomenon enables activities such as finding your way around the city, giving direction to someone, and drawing maps or objects.

In order to draw the map that the professor describes, one has first to create a mental image of the city, containing details of the location and direction of features such as roads and buildings. This process involves acquiring the image during description, coding it, and storing it. Upon the instruction to draw the map, the stored information (cognitive map) is retrieved from memory and decoded onto a piece of paper or board. To draw the dinner chair, one will draw a representation of the chair from memory. This requires a concise manipulation and imposition of the spatial frames of reference for the drawing space and item (dinner chair).

Individuals with damage to the dorsal processing stream responsible for location decoding can describe the size, location, orientation, and shape of the object. They, however, experience great difficulty in controlling object-directed grasping movements. The dorsal stream is responsible for action control (spatial information) as opposed to the ventral stream, which is concerned with object identification. Therefore, an individual with this defect will have difficulty drawing elements and features of the map and dinner chair in their respective location and proportions.

Psychology of Recognition and Knowledge Representation

Vision performs numerous functions, including object grasping, obstacle avoidance segmentation, object tracking, and object recognition. Object recognition refers to the ability to allocate names to visual objects ranging from broad labels (categorization) to specific labels (identification). The ventral visual stream is responsible for the decoding of visual information. It is a brain area tasked with object recognition and can easily recognize objects with different properties and categorize them. Cons and rods are fundamental elements of vision, tasked with the obligation of perceiving light, color, and detail. The optic nerve and the retina analyze and process visual data actively and are therefore considered an extension of the brain (Banich & Compton, 2018). The visual cortex comprises of neurons responsible for translating visual data from the optic nerve into a recognizable image.

Following the process explained above, when I pick an object in class, say a pen, my brain automatically perceives the physical properties of the pen in terms of color, shape, and texture. The brain applies semantic attributes to the pen, which comprise of the definition of the object (pen), its functions, and its relationship with other relevant objects (pencil, paper, and book). This explains the process that occurs in the brain to recognize a visual object.

To recognize an object from memory or imagination, the brain includes in the semantic attributes of the pen the previous encounters from memory to identify the object. The recognition process facilitates the description of the pen by employing the attributes of the pen. When describing the pen, I focus on features such as its shape, color, function, and texture. In order for this process to be successful, I must possess an applicable knowledge of the pen. My brain relates the pen to my knowledge of its attributes to enable me to define the pen.

The Relationship between Hippocampus Brain Regions and Navigation

The human brain is an exemplary organ with extraordinary capabilities that include analysis, creation, information processing, and reasoning. It also possesses an innate perspective of direction that enables animals and humans to find their way around their habitats and surrounding environment. This intellectual property of the brain is referred to as spatial orientation and is mainly applicable in navigation. Spatial orientation enables animals to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings and mapping their movement from one point to another. Research studies carried out in the past have obtained interesting results concerning the ability of animals to find their way around familiar, and unfamiliar environments (Banich & Compton, 2018). For example, one can easily navigate, and precisely locate the direction of their fridge downstairs even in total darkness. The hippocampus is the area of specialization in the brain that is responsible for navigation.

Cab drivers are known to navigate and find their direction easily, even in crowded and confusing routes in big cities. It is clear that these drivers have a good sense of direction. This is due to the repetitive nature in which they navigate these streets daily. Their hippocampus region has gradually adapted therefore improving their navigation skills. According to researchers, most of these drivers were initially not good at navigation but with time and practice their skill, and navigation techniques have improved greatly. This theory, therefore, proves that the hippocampus has properties that enable it to grow and advance in its adaptation.

Children have also proven this theory in their growth as most of them experience difficulties locating and finding their way back home in their first few years, but after some time, they can navigate even complex map setups and puzzles. The hippocampus therefore grows and develops due to consistency in practice. The only reason the skillful drivers can navigate complex routes is because they have gradually improved their skills. Anybody can easily navigate the streets of big cities with enough practice and adaptation.

References

Banich, M. T., & Compton, R. J. (2018). Cognitive neuroscience. Cambridge University Press.

Introduction

Religion exists in every recognized global civilization, yet not all faiths hold a similar system of doctrines. The case for the presence of God can be made using the religious experience defense. According to this theory, the most plausible justification for religious encounters is that they represent a true view or perception of a heavenly presence. Many arguments have been made in favor of and opposing adopting this claim. A miracle restoration or a dream or revelation in which God appears to an individual are both examples of religious experiences. Sociologists research spirituality as a societal entity and a set of beliefs. Religion influences how individuals behave and see the universe as a belief structure. This paper analyzes how Sigmund Freud and William James viewed and defined religion and the methodologies for studying religion they argue for. Furthermore, the differences and possible overlaps between the two authors are also discussed.

Sigmund Freud

Definition of Religion

Individuals do not practice religious belief in a vacuum; rather, it governs behavioral choices and is the greatest reliable source for figuring out the fundamental purpose of existence. While the psychoanalysis style of thinking made Sigmund Freud best known, the neurologist also had a strong fascination with religion. Although Freud declared himself an agnostic as an adult, his Jewish upbringing and background significantly impacted how his thoughts developed. In one of his best-known articles, Freud stated that religious ideology was a delusion, a sort of neurosis, and potentially an endeavor to exert dominance over the outside world. The neurologist proposed that religion is an illusion that gains power through its capacity to conform to peoples irrational wishful emotions (Freud, 1928). An effort to define religions position in human evolution is seen as a contrast to the neurosis civilized men experience as they grow from children to adults rather than as a permanent possession.

People defend themselves against different types of dangers and hardships via religion. This defense, in Freuds opinion, is a facade. The gods do not shield humans; this is only how they are perceived to have been. A notion that a wish will come true because individuals desire it to happen rather than whether reality enables it is known as an illusion. In Freuds view, the illusion is childish since it is typical for children to anticipate their true desires to be met, which causes them to experience genuine difficulties due to a wishful thought process (Freud, 1928). Therefore, Freuds viewpoint is that religions impair people since rather than discovering a method to seek it themselves and build their strengths, they anticipate the passive redemption of God or gods. Freud believed that religion offers protection from the oppressively powerful authority of life and the need to make up for the painfully perceived flaws in society.

Methodologies of Studying Religion

Sigmund Freud offers a naturalistic explanation of religion that is improved by theories and insights drawn from the field of psychoanalysis, which he helped to found. Perhaps appropriately, Freuds views on religion are fairly nuanced and conflicted. The psychiatric ideas and therapy techniques that makeup psychoanalysis find their sources in the writings and concepts of Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, the essential principle of psychoanalysis is that each individual has unconscious wants, feelings, experiences, and ideas (Freud, 1928). Psychoanalysis treatment aims to liberate suppressed feelings and experiences to bring the unconscious to consciousness. An individual can ultimately be assisted and healed via a therapeutic experience (Freud, 1928). Freud views the Oedipus complex as essential to a proper comprehension of human growth psychologically and several of the most significant and vital complex realities in daily life, such as religious thinking and conduct.

William James

Definition of Religion

Several people believe William James to be the greatest perceptive and inspiring American philosopher. Religious belief should be based on human experience if it intends to avoid being reduced to irrational desire. James describes religion generally as peoples feelings about how they perceive their relationship with the supernatural. According to this definition, religious ideology does not entail the societal aspect of religious community or belief in a transcendental, monotheism God (James, 1903). James distinguishes between two different forms of religious understanding: the healthy mind and the ill soul. The healthy-mindedness is described by hopeful delight and the sick soul by a morbid pessimism. Instead of the doctrines of established religions, James thought that the fundamentals of religious life worldwide were personal religious experiences. This theory is supported by the philosophers analyses of conversion, repentance, mysticism, saintliness, and insights into genuine, personal religious experiences.

James thinks there is much to live beyond the physical universe, and this invisible realm has real-world implications. If humans refer to the supreme deity as God, they have good cause to believe that their connection with God is active, and God offers assurance that the moral principles they endeavor to uphold will endure. Even considering the polytheistic idea that the Almighty is a group of godly personalities, James is hesitant to accept the idea that God is either one or unlimited (James, 1903). The philosopher makes judgments about three religious doctrines that are based on experience. The beliefs include: the individuals purpose is accomplished by establishing harmonic unity with it; the individual senses the world is a component of and draws its importance from a higher spiritual reality; that divine communion and meditation are effective. James extends his theory to religion, focusing on the possibility that individuals salvation relies on acknowledging God before there is any evidence that God exists.

Methodologies of Studying Religion

James examined religion from a psychological perspective. The philosopher used pragmatism, a psychological method that gauges a concepts veracity via testing and looking at its application in real-world situations. James interest in religious practice is among his greatest significant contributors to the research of pragmatism. According to James, the influence of truth on human conduct should be considered; as a result, ones religious beliefs can be justifiable if it improves their quality of life (James, 1903). Additionally, the pragmatic method views it as a question of practice rather than judgments about what is true and false. James pragmatism contends that ultimate ideas typically lack logical underpinnings and calls for theory accountable to experience (James, 1903). James believes that religion should only refer to a completely structured system of emotions, thinking, and institution to differentiate between institutionalized and individual religion.

Differences between Freud and James

James and Freud both found the phenomena of human awareness to be fascinating. They both firmly believed in the fundamental, unchangeable will of human behavior. James, unlike Freud, did not concentrate on the roots of religious thought; instead, James was concerned with the person, not the organization. Freud was a fervent atheist, but James had a strong intellectual enthusiasm for religious ideology. In contrast to Freud, who thought religious faith was childish reasoning, James thought medical materialism was a label for the overly simple-minded. The disagreement between the two thinkers arises from their shared conviction that their interpretation of the collective unconscious concerning spirituality is superior and their failure to consider alternative interpretations. James was unmistakably a pluralist, unlike Freudian psychoanalysis, which saw sexuality as the only emotional center of the human experience. James was a wide, anti-dogmatic philosopher who could never be seduced by a belief system focused on a single reason because he thought life was sufficiently broad for that.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although many peoples lives are impacted by religion and spirituality, it is unclear how these factors contribute to sometimes favorable and sometimes detrimental effects. According to Freud, the most significant component of a civilizations psychical inventory is religion, which he describes as an illusion. According to James, religion belongs only to the fully developed system of institution, feeling, and thinking. Freud and James studied religion using a variety of methodologies and produced results that benefited their research. To awaken the unconscious, Freud utilized psychoanalytic therapy that intended to free repressed emotions and experiences. On the other hand, James used the pragmatic approach to examine religions validity and consider how it might apply in actual scenarios. The two authors have several differences and overlap in their writings on how they viewed religion. James disagreed with Freud, who believed that religious belief was based on naive thinking and that physiological materialism was a term for the excessively naive.

References

Freud, S. (1928). The Future of an Illusion. London. Hogarth Press and Institute of Psychoanalysis.

James, W. (1903). The varieties of religious experiences. New York, London, and Bombay. Longmans, Green, and Co.

Some psychologists argue that all actions occur depending on processes in the brain. This human bodys organ releases certain chemicals called neurotransmitters responsible for a specific set of functions. However, the statement that human consciousness and actions are the result of neural processes is quite debatable. The data obtained from researches on brain can explain some aspects of a persons decision-making process. Still, this information cannot be a reliable source for all human behaviors and mental processes.

Neuroscience cannot explain the fundamental components of peoples experiences. Although thoughts can be attributed to neural processes, they are also the result of complex historical and cultural dynamics. Experiments in which an impact on a particular area of the brain causes a specific action do not prove that the only source of these experiences is the brain. A complex chain of memories can be awakened through one specific neural network activation and neurotransmitters. Meanwhile, the memory itself appeared in these neurons only due to the interaction with other people and the world. The brain can be considered the channel rather than a source of the behavior.

Some researchers agree that neuroscience can explain everything, referring to the analysis of the working of neurons, glial cells, and synaptic connections. In case of behavioral addiction, no extraneous chemicals enter the body, but it causes an enormous dopamine production (Linden, 2011). It is an active substance responsible for motivation, creating a sense of future pleasure (Linden, 2011). People get used to the behavior that causes dopamine and attempt to repeat such actions. However, as opposed to substance addiction, psychological dependence is also a chemical change in the balance of substances in the brain which modifies its work, but the process is different.

Currently, all over the world, there is considerable interest in the scientific achievements, mainly in such areas as psychology, biomedicine, and natural sciences. The trend in brain research prevails; neurotransmitters have a significant impact on human behaviors and mental processes. However, in this regard, experimentation is still advancing, and it cannot be assumed that the human brain defines all peoples actions as this organ is still unstudied.

Reference

Linden, D. J. (2011). Addictive personality? You might be a leader. The New York Times. Web.

John Forbes Nash Jr. is one of the revolutionary minds in the field of mathematics during our times. By the time he shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1994, Nash had contributed significantly to partial differential equations, differential geometry, and game theory. I know you are wondering what does any of this information has to do with schizophrenia. Well, what if I told you Nash was schizophrenic starting at the age of 30 years and he fought this condition successfully to lead a nearly normal life with his wife, Alicia, until their premature death through a road accident on May 23, 2015. His struggle with schizophrenia and ultimate recovery led to the creation of the chef-doeuvre movie, A Beautiful Mind, by Ron Howard in 2001. Like many other admirers of Nashs achievements, even amid a debilitating health condition, I have always wondered what really goes on in the mind of a person with this condition. What does it really feel like to have schizophrenia and live with it? Well, to understand these questions, I found someone who has been living with this mental disease for over a decade and gave me some insights.

My guiding question when I met Lewis, a 42-year old male living with schizophrenia since he was 29, was  how is it like to live with this condition. It feels like paranormal, he quipped without giving it much thought. Sometimes it feels like I live outside my own mind  as if am watching my life from a distance, he quickly added. Lewiss schizophrenia started in the privacy of his mind when he was aged 29 years. He noted that his thoughts would wander from reality and continually live in the fantasy that he had created in his mind, which is basically hallucination. According to Aleman (2014), hallucinations are common among schizophrenic patients, and they occur in about 70 percent of these individuals. In neuroscience, hallucinations are associated with reduced grey matter volume, especially in the superior temporal gyrus (Boksa, 2009). The common forms of hallucinations are auditory, but they could also occur in visual, somatosensory, gustatory, or olfactory. Lewiss hallucinations were unique in that he could not classify them as such  he was an idea that came from his fascination with mathematical formulas.

He told me that sometimes when he was 25 he was exposed to the idea of fractals, which is a mathematical idea. He would spend days on end thinking of fractals and infinity to the extent that he was convinced he was on the verge of discovering novel mathematical principles. This preoccupation with mathematical ideas was so intense that he could not concentrate on anything else. As such, his normal life was disrupted and he was eventually fired from his job, due to poor performance. However, nothing of these occurrences mattered  all he cared about was the grandiose ideation of solving a complicated mathematical problem to unravel a side of the universe that has not been known before. Lewis was undergoing what Aleman (2014) calls the processes that work together to contribute directly to perception, even though they do not come from the external world, but from ones brain. In other words, what Lewis was experiencing was a lack of cognitive inhibition whereby his brain would create scenarios not being shaped by the outer world. His perceptual experience was hinged on autonoetic agnosia, which is the inability to differentiate between self-generated thoughts and externally generated events.

Lewis continued to think about these abstract mathematical ideas for almost five years without noting that whatever problems he was trying to solve were beyond his mental capability. He was deeply convinced that he was like Albert Einstein and within a short time, he became paranoid that someone else would beat him and solve the riddle first. This state-led to his first paranoid episode when he was 29. Together with his brother, they were outside their house in a kitchen garden tending some vegetables when he started imagining a horrific incident whereby a violent man walks into the house and chopped everyones head using an ax. He truly believed that this event was going to happen. He thus ran towards the house screaming that someone was about to kill them and he needed to call for help. Bentall et al. (2009) explain this occurrence by noting that paranoid patients exaggerate the likelihood of future threatening events, and such thoughts remain relevant even after controlling for their recall of such events  a claim supported by Zmigrod et al. (2016). Therefore, Lewis overestimated the possibility of these events happening in real life, which explains why he responded the way he did.

Soon afterward, Lewis started developing this strange feeling that people were watching him. He would think about this issue repeatedly close to a hundred times a day. It did not help that at the time, he was employed in a high-security facility fitted with many security cameras. He would obsess with the idea that someone was watching him behind those cameras, so he developed the habit of avoiding eye contact with the cameras. He would walk around with his head dropped to hide his face from whoever was watching him. When I asked him how it feels to live such a life, Lewis admitted that the hard part is when insanity starts kicking in as rationality fades away. Interestingly, even in the midst of this chaos, some rational thoughts still exist in the mind. For instance, he would rationalize that no one person could be watching him all the time, which means there was a group of individuals needed to accomplish such a difficult task. Revsbech et al. (2015) argue that the basis of rationality in schizophrenia is a syllogism, which is a certain argument structure whereby the viability of a conclusion is exclusively dependent on the truth of the premise, which explains the validity of his conclusion that several people were watching him.

Lewis told me that amidst all his psychotic thoughts, he maintained some rationality. Deep down he knew that he had changed  that he was not the person that he used to be before these episodes. Therefore, he would attempt to reconcile his past with his present  essentially matching the reality that he knew before and the one that he knew then. However, he admitted that this task was almost impossible. His new thoughts had infiltrated the way he constructed reality and processed information. As such, every experience that he had in the past was now being shaped by his new reality, and thus he basically became delusional. His state degenerated into having psychotic episodes characterized by visual and auditory hallucinations. His mental images were so real to him that he could not distinguish them from the truth. This scenario could be explained by the argument by Mækelæ, Moritz, and Pfuhl (2018) that reduced deliberate reasoning might potentially contribute to the occurrence of delusions, thus creating thinking bias, which is not dependent on a persons general intelligence. Perhaps Lewiss earlier experiences and obsession with mathematical ideas reduced his ability to think reflectively.

What is interesting in all these accounts is that Lewis was unaware that he was sick. This phenomenon is common among schizophrenic individuals. In answer to my question about how it feels to live with schizophrenia, Lewis noted that the experience could not be captured in a sentence. According to Aleman (2014), the neural basis of schizophrenia could be summarized as the marred activation of and connectivity between frontotemporal, frontoparietal, and frontostriatal brain networks, which are mainly used in assisting cognitive functioning and integration of thoughts and emotions. This assertion forms the basis for understanding the neural and cognitive basis of hallucinations and other problems associated with schizophrenia. So what happened to Lewis, you might ask. Just like John Nash Jr., Lewis has now recovered from schizophrenia and he lives with his beautiful family. He is a productive member of society in gainful employment leading a normal life. The journey to understanding the neuroscience of schizophrenia continues and firsthand stories like that of John Nash and Lewis continue to play a central role in this process. Their brains are different from ours and the quest to understand how different they underscore the role of neuroscience in schizophrenia.

References

Main Article

Aleman, A. (2014). Neurocognitive basis of Schizophrenia: Information processing abnormalities and clues for treatment. Advances in Neuroscience, 2014, 1-15.

Supplementary Articles

Bentall, R. P., Rowse, G., Shryane, N., Kinderman, P., Howard, R., Blackwood, N., Moore, R., & Corcoran, R. (2009). The cognitive and affective structure of paranoid delusions: A transdiagnostic investigation of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(3), 236-247.

Boksa P. (2009). On the neurobiology of hallucinations. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 34(4), 260-262.

Mækelæ, M. J., Moritz, S., & Pfuhl, G. (2018). Are psychotic experiences related to poorer reflective reasoning?. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(122), 1-10.

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The term ‘neuroethics’ is fairly new to the world of bioethics and neuroscience. This word/concept was formulated by a world history scholar, William Safire, in 2001. For a long period of time, scientists pointed to genetics as the main scientific challenge to our ethical, legal, and social practices and beliefs. Over time and through much research, it became apparent that genetics were much more complex and included interactions between genes and environment. Neuroscience does not only deal with genetic aspects, but also with biological features such as our minds and behaviors. It is shown that neuroscience includes genetic influences on behavior combined with environmental influences. Due to growth in the field of neuroscience, it can now be used to assess many areas of life other than scientific and medical uses. Such areas include education, business, politics, law, entertainment, and warfare. The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of neuroscience in everyday life and assess its effect on both individuals and society.

The evolution of brain imaging has caused large amounts of research in neuroethics to emerge. An example of this is regarding the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Questions that have been and are still being asked include, ‘What do we do when anatomical abnormalities or signs of disease are revealed in the course of scanning?’. The overarching ethical question in relation to MRIs is what should researchers do if this takes place, and should participants have the choice not to be informed of the findings? Another issue in the world of neuroethics is the use of predictive and diagnostic imaging for progressive diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. This type of testing is important for the creation of treatments for these diseases. When thinking about the ethical implications of this type of imaging, we must contemplate the benefits of knowledge with the burden this knowledge can bring. Other imaging methods such as PET scans have aided in the vast broadening of cognitive neuroscience. These types of imaging have shown that human functions such as cognition, emotion, joy, love, and fear are localizable in the brain. Recent brain imaging research has focused on analyzing results of trials and studying individual differences in brain activity. In past decades, there have been different focuses in imaging, but since 2000, imaging has been used for other purposes such as studying individual differences in personality and how it is shown in the brain. Other measurable traits include attitudes, tendency towards violence, personality, and abilities. An example of this is, the more aggressive someone’s behavior is, the higher the activation of the left amygdala is to angry faces. Most people have heard of lie detector testing; there is another way to know whether or not someone is lying using a functional MRI (fMRI) to test brain activity. An additional use of brain imaging is for neuromarketing. This can be useful in knowing how people respond to products, as well as the emotions and motivations of consumers. There have been ethical questions surrounding the privacy of brain imaging. This is due to the fact that in a sense, it can tell researchers about your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and traits without giving a behavioral response. A general misunderstanding of neuroimaging poses a greater ethical challenge than the issue of mental privacy. This is valid in that protecting citizens is important; however, these imaging methods do not pose a threat to the participants.

Another area that has raised neuroethical awareness recently is brain enhancement. This can be described as interventions that make normal, healthy brains better. Brain enhancement contrasts with the treatment of patients with unhealthy or dysfunctional brains. In more recent years, people have started to utilize what was once used as clinal treatment to improve their lifestyles. One significant concern is that drugs made for long term psychological use provide profit motives to pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, the shift from only clinical use to use by healthy people will benefit these pharmaceutical companies. Safety is another ethical concern regarding brain enhancement. Most people believe that it is more important to restore a sick person’s health than it is to make an already healthy person better. Though there is not a lot of knowledge regarding the long-term safety of enhancement, there is also minimal knowledge about the long-term effects of many treatments for neuropsychiatric issues.

Cognitive enhancement has ethical questions such as if stimulants really work to enhance cognitive abilities. The research on this is fairly inconclusive due to the fact that studies have shown improvement in cognitive abilities, no change, and also impairment in cognitive abilities. One of the widely used drugs for cognitive enhancement is Adderall. This is seen on many college campuses, as students hope to enhance academic performance. Another new drug used for similar reasons is Modafinil. This helps people to control when they are tired, and allows people to stay awake and alert for many hours at a time. There are now companies that are creating drugs for the purpose of cognitive disorder treatment as well as for cognitive enhancement.

An additional type of enhancement is used to alter mood, personality, empathy, trust, aggression, and more. This type of enhancement is referred to as social-affective enhancement. This started with the integration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, also known as SSRIs. These drugs help people who deal with depression and anxiety disorders. Not only do SSRIs help in a clinical setting, they have also been found to have more ‘cosmetic’ effects. A recent study found that SSRIs affect personality more than they affect depression. SSRIs also have been seen to be useful in criminal behavior matters due to their ability to encourage prosocial and law-abiding behavior. Other forms of social-affective enhancement include drugs used to increase libido in both men and women as well as the use of oxytocin and vasopressin to alter similar behaviors as SSRIs. There are also types of enhancement that are non-pharmacological. These include transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation. The use of these technologies is still in the trial-and-error stage; however, they have been researched to show enhancement of learning and memory. Other people seek out the help of medical professionals to aide them in enhancement. The ethical question here is whether or not physicians should promote the well-being of their patients beyond healing illness and alleviating suffering. This issue has been researched and shown that it is both morally and legally acceptable for doctors to do this for their patients.

When thinking about cognitive enhancement, two main issues arise. The first of these is regarding fairness. If a student is to take a cognitive enhancing drug to help their academic performance, this could be seen as unfair to those who do not take the drug. Similarly, to athletes taking steroids to enhance their performance, people who take exams while on a drug that enhances cognitive performance, may perform better. However, the point of many tests is to predict future performance. Therefore, as long as the test taker is continuing to use the drug it is not unfair, unless they took the drug simply to do better on the exam. Socioeconomic status is another element to consider. Many of these drugs are expensive, therefore eliminating the ability for those of lower socioeconomic status to access these drugs. The second issue that comes to mind with cognitive enhancement is freedom. When thinking of freedom, one of the main examples that comes to mind is the choice to use the drug or not. In the workplace, those who take the drug and perform better and produce more may be favored by their bosses, this can lead to other employees choosing to take the drug or risk being replaced by someone who will.

When thinking about the ethical implications of social-affective enhancement, issues concern the value of authenticity in our feelings about ourselves, our relationships, and our world. In a 2002 study performed by Fukuyama, worries came about that SSRIs inappropriately raise the self-esteem of the user, which undermines a crucial source of motivation in our lives. The ethics related to this question whether or not low self-esteem does in fact inspire people to strive for greatness or does it more commonly prevent people from reaching their goals? There are obvious benefits to social-affective enhancements, however, there are still disadvantages.

Neuroscience not only provides us with important knowledge about our brains, it also provides us with a new perspective of humanity. We view humans as moral creatures rather than machines, with parts working to make our bodies function. We are slowly shifting in this and it can be seen in how we now view addiction. We now know view addiction as a mental problem, not a result of a failed person. Similarly, to how we have shifted this view, if we were all to decrease our view of human actions as being physically caused, our moral stigma to these subjects would decrease. Many studies seem to show that neuroscience will in fact change our laws and ethics. The idea that humans are physical beings or ‘machines’ challenges religious beliefs that we are made up of a mind, body, and spirit. The more knowledge that comes to light about neuroscience shows that our mechanisms are simply our machine working. We as humans believe that we deserve protection from harm simply because we are human. When thinking of this, we can see that if we are no longer viewed as moral creatures, but physical ones, it would be hard to defend the statement that we should be protected from harm just for being human. New findings in neuroscience pose many new questions and perspectives regarding human life. Due to this, we may see a shift from the view of us as moral beings to viewing ourselves as a product of physicality.

Neurosciences has quickly progressed into a much larger sphere with regards to how the brain works and discoveries which have a number of advantages. Brain research has come a long way with regards to ways in which the public are benefitted and filled with new and interesting knowledge which help one understand the development of the brain and how we interact as humans in our daily lives. In this paper the subject of cultural neuroscience will be intricately explained and how it was a major development and played a significant role in the understanding of the brain.

A crucial discovery and success with regards to the brain, was the introduction of successful non-invasive neuroscience methodologies which includes the functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) as well as even-related potentials. These imagining procedures have allowed neuroscientists to perform a number of tests regarding the cultural impact on the functioning of the brain, as well as the relations to behavior, including the way one thinks, feels and behaves.

Cultural neuroscience surfaced from the questionable compatibility of neuroscience and cultural psychology. Cultural neuroscience in a simpler manner can be expressed as a demonstration of that the brain simply absorbs and reflects its cultural surroundings (Bunn, 2011). It focuses on the study that genetic and cultural factors interact, both separately and together affecting one’s mind and behavior. When we are to analyze one, there are two approaches to be taken in understanding people. Culture is naturally stored in the brain and the human brain is naturally constructed to acquire culture (Ames, Fiske, 2010). The brain is thus capable to coordinate the thoughts and behaviors of a person in different social settings which has aided the evolutionary survival of human beings. Thus, both the brain and culture working as an antagonistic pair. Over time, the brain itself has uniquely and greatly evolved to attain basic cultural capacities of those including language and mortality (Ames, Fiske, 2010), thus drawing on the fact that without the neurobiological capabilities culture itself would not exist.

A study was taken on perception, which is the basic cognitive process. This study was able to identity a controversial and interesting development. The research was done on two people, an American (Western culture) and a Singaporean (Eastern culture). Through the process of neuroimaging, the study was able to reveal that of the response to adaptation. The adaptations occurred in the hippocampal gyrus (the grey matter in the brain which surrounds the hippocampus), as well as in the lateral occipital cortex. This study was able to show the great influence that culture has on the brain with regards to the perceptual styles of the Western and Eastern cultures. While the Western culture identifies as an individualistic fashion, making use of trait adjectives and the Eastern cultures identifies as a more collectivistic fashion, referring rather to situational roles. Another unique feature that be identified of that of Western culture is the reduction of personality to neurology.

It is vital to compensate that cultural influences can have a great effect on the rates of mental diseases, including: depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. These diseases effect the functioning of the brain, thus leading to a disadvantage in general wealth of one’s life. In approaching this, it is extremely important to note the science in these specific disorders may be affected drastically by the culture that one is surrounded by. By highly regarding the culture, it enables an easier medical diagnosis while a patient might still be in the early time period.

In cultural neuroscience one is able to identify the leading factors that play a great role in this sphere of science and outcomes reached through assessing such factors. We are now able to identify that factors such as one’s ambitions, anxieties, as well as abilities can now be rooted in terms of the cortical regions in the brain, neural pathways, as well as neurotransmitters. Thus, concluding that cultural neuroscience has changed the face of our cultural aspects, as well as problems arising from these cultural aspects.

Not only has cultural neuroscience been a great significance with regards to understanding the brain and developing, but also with the help of new neuro features such as neurasthenics, neuroeducation and social neuroscience. These three new neural aspects have aided in the understanding of the engagement in our neural biological correlates, namely art, education and our social behavior.

Cultural neuroscience research has aided in revealing aspects such a difference in the brain structure of a person, as well as identifying culturally based differences in one’s behavior. Cultural neuroscience has made a phenomenal movement towards the understanding of the brain and made a significant discovery that culture variation is functionally specialized in neural mechanisms. This can be derived from the fact that the social transmission of specific cultural values, beliefs and practices have led to the modification of low-level sensory systems.

In conclusion, I believe that cultural neuroscience plays a significant role in the development of the brain. It allows one to look deeper into how our brain and structured with regards to our cultural settings and backgrounds. Through cultural neuroscience we have been able to not only discover our perceptual style differences, but also how important it is with regards to the general health of our brain in staying aware that our cultural can affect the wealth of our brain and its processes. Through cultural neuroscience we have been able to erode the long-standing philosophical reasoning behind the conflict between various platforms such as the ‘nature versus nurture’, ‘thinking versus feeling’ and ‘mind versus body’ debates. These platforms have all been solved by making use of the non-invasive imaging techniques and performing studies on various groups of people. Through this neuro-imaging evidence it demonstrates that culture aids in the neurology of the self-understanding.

Practicing sport or a simple physical activity, can change your brain. Regular physical activity leads to benefit in physical and mental health. In consequence, regular exercise has become an important part of a well-balanced lifestyle and is easily accomplished through sports. Study shows that playing practicing sports improves blood flow to our brain. This allows our body to build more connections between nerves within the brain which, improves memory, makes you feel more creative, helps your brain develop better problem-solving skills and is a form to relief the stress.

Our brains are still much quicker and more complex. “The human system is incredibly complicated”, says Culverhouse, from his office at Plymouth’s Centre for Robotics and Neural Science.

The human brain is truly amazing. It is almost twice the size of any other creature’s brain in comparison to our size, and it has tremendous strength. According to one study, to perform the same number of calculations per second as a single human brain, you would need to use every computer in the world. Part of what makes the human brain unique is the extent of our ‘cerebral cortex’, the tightly folded layers of neural tissue that give us the skills most other animals lack – the ability to reason, plan and communicate. The cortex is divided into two hemispheres, and each of those into four lobes: the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes.

The lobes are made up of neurons. In total, the brain contains up to 100 billion neurons, thin, branching, wire-like cells that carry the electrical and chemical impulses that make you who you are. They both transmit and store information and instructions – they’re the Internet connection and the hard drive all rolled together.

All a single neuron can do on its own is to fire an electrical impulse along its length, a tiny blip like a flicker of light. But it’s the connections that matter: neurons trigger other neurons, and it’s the overall pattern of billions of these tiny switches that creates thought and action in response to inputs from the rest of the body. For professional athletes, to reach the top and make them different from the non-athletes that do not do sports as a profession, it takes years and years of practice, focus and commitment. They have the ability to have impressive physiques, honed to perfection, the ability to jump higher, move faster and throw harder than many of us could ever dream of.

A memory bank of comparable moves and experiences, as well as a pattern-based mode of memory retrieval, aid athletes in making fast decisions. For example, we’ve all seen how expert tennis players can move swiftly to meet an oncoming ball with their racquet. However, it is easy to forget what connects the eye and the hand (the brain) as we marvel at their lightning-fast bodies. Professional athletes have highly developed brain processes for quickly perceiving information specific to their sport, such as the movement of an opponent or the trajectory of a rapidly approaching ball and making the correct movement. The studies have shown that professional athletes at the top of their game are able to predict which way an object is likely to travel earlier than novice, and even intermediate, athletes, giving them more time to plan an appropriate action in response.

Professional athletes’ ability to make predictions may also be built on their capacity to remember the past, that is, their memories. Through practice and experience, professional athletes build up a huge store of what are called ‘procedural’ memories. This memory is not just about muscles or body movements – it also stores things like the way a ball moves or turns when approaching us, or the way an opponent’s racquet swings to send a ball left or right. The brain makes predictions based on these memories, and the more knowledge or practice they have, the more precise predictions become. Athletes’ minds instinctively rely on these experiences to make extremely accurate decisions about an opponent’s move or the trajectory of a ball in a fraction of a second, enabling them to react lightning rapidly and precisely. As another example, researchers looked at professional basketball players and non-experts to see what went on in their brains as they watched movies of basketball players taking free shots. As they watched the footage, the responses of these groups of muscles to electrical stimulation of the motor cortex were observed. The activity in the brains of expert players, especially when watching shots that would not make it into the basket, was specific to the hand muscles which determined the fate of the shot. This mirroring of another player’s body movements in the brain can allow professional athletes to build forward models to predict the outcome of movements, enabling them to react in a split second and also can help them to learn how to do it better.

Although this research would not be possible with some advance technologies in cognitive neuroscience. The ability to show functional brain activity during athletic performance and while undergoing psychological interventions has been critical in supporting the disciplines effectiveness, though most of the research done through cross-sectional studies. Currently, the three most common neuroscience techniques related to sport and exercise are electroencephalography, transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional magnetic resource imaging, which they have been in development for over the past 30 years. However, it first has to be shown that transcranial direct current stimulation in athletes is at all capable of enhancing motor skill learning and/or motor performance, and if so, that this is performance-relevant and beneficial in specific sports disciplines.

Since effective motor function and efficiency are dependent on optimal brain activity, identifying adaptational brain alterations as a result of systematic training may lead to new ways to improve training progress in athletes. The goal of neurodiagnostics is to identify brain networks that contribute to performance improvement in general and, beyond that, brain networks that are particularly responsible for the execution of specific sports disciplines. This helps to identify youth athletes with the potential of becoming professional athletes. Neuromodulation, which involves the selective stimulation of performance-relevant brain regions, may also be a viable option for improving training outcomes. Finally, the development and application of neuromodulation in sports must be accompanied by a continuous discussion concerning framework conditions such as ethical aspects, risks, and implementation in the field.

It is important to understand that athletes are also often prone to injury, whether on a muscular, physical or traumatic level. Maximizing efficiency is often the primary aim, even though it comes at the risk of bodily harm. Recurrent traumatic brain injuries and even recurrent sub concussive impacts have been related to neurological impairments as well as long-term effects such as early dementia. The main aim of the medical professionals is to protect the athletes using existing knowledge of the brain injury. With that, medical professionals passed a law requiring that professional athletes accused of suffering brain injuries during a game or practice need to be ruled out from competition or sat out until they are apt to practice their sport. The evaluation of an athlete with a traumatic brain injury might take days, weeks, or months of recovery.

Sport is a deceptively difficult thing for the brain to do. The simplest of movements requires precise calculations of the speed and trajectory of objects, and of our own position in space. “There is more computational power in picking up a chess piece and moving it than there is in deciding the chess move”, says Dr. Vincent Walsh of University College London, one of the world’s leading cognitive neuroscientists. “I don’t think sport gets the respect it deserves in terms of brain processing power. It is a form of intelligence”.