Sleep

Parents Beware: It's not just a nightmare! 

If you hear a child cry out at night, do you rush out to see what is wrong or leave them be until they get it out of their system?  What if this happened every night? For some parents whose children suffer from night terrors, this is what they go through. At first it might seem that the child is just acting out to gain the parents attention, but it might be that the child is suffering from a night terror. However, how do you determine whether the child is having a night terror or your usual nightmare? One of the main differences between night terrors and a nightmare is that when children wake up they will not remember having a night terror and with nightmares they usually remember the dream that they had. Parents are advised to not ask their child about their night terrors or even mention that they had one. Other suggestions on how to deal with night terrors, as well how to identify them in a child are discussed in the video below. 

I disagreed with a suggestion that the video gave on how parents should react with children who suffer from night terrors. Even though I don't have any children, I don't think I would be able to leave the child by themselves while they went through their episode. I think that I would wake them up before they suffered from the night terror, that way they would sleep better and so would I. It turns out that adults can also suffer from night terrors, especially if they are going through an emotional time that is causing them stress or if they consume alcohol. I myself have not had a night terror, but even if I did I would not remember it either way. 

Sexual Orientation

Twins - Not so identical after all

Whenever we see identical twin babies, we usually stop and say "how cute...", especially if they are dressed alike - then they are just outright adorable! Sometimes it is even difficult to tell whom is whom when they have the same facial expressions,  or if they do everything the same and speak alike that they appear to be just one sole person. We wouldn't for example be able to tell between Jack and Mack, unless they told us themselves.  Although, it turns out that some twins are not so identical in everything. What if Mack turns out to be a homosexual, and Jack a heterosexual. Then we would be able to tell whom is whom.  It turns out that monozygotic twins are more likely to have different sexual preferences compared to dizygotic twins. Meaning that one twin might be a heterosexual, while the other might become a homosexual. However that is not to say this is true for all twins, they can both be heterosexual or homosexual for that matter. In the following video, it explains how homosexuality in a twin can be derived during their development in the womb. A hypothesis in the video explains how some scientists believe that a twin can become a homosexual due to not receiving enough testosterone in the brain. That they do receive adequate testosterone to develop physically as a male, but there is not enough testosterone to orient them in being attracted to females. This video segment follows twin males and thus they're explanations are mostly related to males. 

However, I believe that a person has a choice in being either a heterosexual, homosexual or both if they want. I agree that it is interesting to investigate if there is a biological explanation to choosing a sexual orientation, but I just hope that it doesn't lead to people wanting to prevent that from happening or trying to find a "cure" for people who are under this "condition". Which is why this is a controversial topic in which many people will either disagree or agree with one another.  

Pain, Olfaction, Pheromones, & Synaesthesia

A Cure for Heart Break

How many of us have gone through a bad relationship and have had our heart broken? We think to ourselves that we will never be able to forget that person - that the pain is too great. Or perhaps you were betrayed by someone that you had trusted your entire life (a close friend, a sibling, a parent) only to have them break the chain of trust you had with them. These and many others can cause us to feel a pain  so great that some might say that we can "feel it in our bones". It turns out that pain is not only felt emotionally, but physically as well. Who would have thought that causing someone "heart break", can perhaps cause them to actually have their heart break. An article that I found on BBC News website provides more information on how emotional pain can also be perceived as physical pain. The following video is a new's report that talks about a research conducted by the University of Michigan and how their findings support this topic. 

However, if emotional pain can become physical, then can it be treated as such? It turns out that taking acetaminophen (Tylenol), can actually reduce the pain that you are feeling. A study done at the University of Florida showed that taking this medication does actually reduce the amount of pain that one feels. I chose these videos because I believe that they provide a good insight on this topic, with scientific research to support their claims. 

A question that was brought to mind when watching this video is that if a person begins to take medication to relieve the pain they are feeling, would they not become addicted in taking the medication? Would they become attached to the drug so as to prevent themselves from feeling any emotional pain? Or would it be better to feel pain, than not feel anything at all?

Learning, Memory, & Amnesia

Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo biloba? A herb that improves memory?! At long last, something that will help me remember during exams! I got so excited when I first read about it in this week's reading module, but soon the excitement turned to disappointment as I began to read towards the end of the section. It turned out that Ginkgo biloba  doesn't have any effects on improving memory. However I was still intrigued about this herb, so I decided to do a bit of research and found  some very interesting facts about it. It turns out that Ginkgo biloba has been used throughout the years in traditional Chinese herbal medicine to treat blood disorders and enhance memory. It is also believed to have antioxidant properties, which help in eliminating free radicals (cause damage to cells, DNA, or cell death --> can lead to cancer). Another use for Ginkgo biloba (the main one), is to improve blood flow to the brain. Thus it is mainly used (in Europe) to treat those that suffer from dementia. There have been studies to suggest that this supplemental herb can also benefit those that suffer from Alzheimer's disease. However, a study was performed in 2008 on people that had Alzheimer's; they were divided into two groups where one received ginkgo and the other a placebo. The study concluded that those that took ginkgo showed the same effects as those that took a placebo, thus there was no difference in mental function or a decrease in Alzheimer's. More information on Ginkgo biloba, can be found through the link.

Some people however, still believe that it does improve memory, no matter what the study proved about it's effects (or lack of). The following video is a news report that talks about the findings of the study, and how an elderly lady believes that ginkgo improved her memory. Her claim is that when she was taking Ginkgo biloba her memory was fine, but when she stopped taking it her memory began to fade.

Brain Lateralization

A Splitted-brain

Today in one of my classes I noticed something about the person sitting next to me. She was left-handed. I hadn't noticed that about her, until we accidentally bumped our elbows while writing.  It reminded me of when I was young and would try to write with my left hand. I had a friend who was left-handed and I had thought it was really cool that she was able to and I was jealous that I couldn't. I would try to write with my left hand but it was really difficult and what I could write wasn't legible, so I had to stick to writing with my right hand. I found it really interesting to read that split-brained people are able to use their left and write hands simultaneously (such as when drawing circles at different speeds). It appears that split-brained people have the ability to perform two different things at once and those that do not have a split-brain cannot-unless they have clear targets to direct their movements. People who have a split-brain are either born without a corpus callosum or they had it cut due to having severe epilepsy.

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, with about 1% to 2% of all people having epilepsy. Thus when lateralization of the two hemisphere was performed in the 1940s to prevent epilepsy, people suffering from this condition took advantage of this treatment. They did it without a care of some of the side effects that might occur such as having a split-brain and what it would entail (such as information going from one hemisphere could not cross to the other because of the damage to the corpus callosum). Current treatments for epilepsy that are being studied offer a different alternative than to cutting the corpus callosum. Now, scientists are targeting the genes involved in epilepsy and are trying to pinpoint which ones are active in different forms of the disorder, thus leading to better-targeted and more effective treatments. There is also a possibility of a new generation of pacemaker-type devices that may soon be able to cut seizures short or even prevent them from occurring, but it is still under clinical trial. Another treatment is to fight the inflammation that causes epilepsy by using anti-inflammatory therapy, steroids, or a molecule  called VX-765 that is being studied. These treatments however are still being researched and further clinical trials are still needed before they are used on the general population.