Stroke: An Assault on the Brain

What happend to the brain when a stroke occurs?

Brain cells suddenly die because of a lack of oxygen. This can be caused by an obstruction in the blood flow, or the rupture of an artery that feeds the brain. The patient may suddenly lose the ability to speak, there may be memory problems, or one side of the body can become paralyzed.

 Three types of stroke:

First is Ischemic stroke that accounts for about three-quarters of all strokes. Occurs when a blood clot, or thrombus, forms that blocks blood flow to part of the brain. If a blood clot forms somewhere in the body and breaks off to become free-floating, it is called an embolus. This wandering clot may be carried through the bloodstream to the brain where it can cause ischemic stroke.

Second is a Hemorrhagic stroke that occurs when a blood vessel on the brain's surface ruptures and fills the space between the brain and skull with blood called subarachnoid hemorrhage or when a defective artery in the brain bursts and fills the surrounding tissue with blood called cerebral hemorrhage.

Third is Transient Ischemic Strokes (TIA) that occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery for a short time. TIAs may occur days, weeks or months before the onset of a stroke. The symptoms of a TIA are like the warning signs of a stroke, but they usually last only a few minutes. TIAs are strong predictors of stroke risk. Don’t ignore them. Call 9-1-1 or seek emergency medical attention immediately.

 What disabilities can result from a stroke?

It depends on where the stroke occurs and how much of the brain is affected. Smaller strokes such as TIA may result in minor problems, such as weakness in an arm or leg. Larger strokes such as Ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes may lead to paralysis or death. Many stroke patients are left with weakness on one side of the body, difficulty speaking, incontinence, and bladder problems. 

 Who is most likely to have stroke?

• People over age 55
• Male
• African American, Hispanic or Asian/Pacific Islander
• A family history of stroke
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Smoking cigarettes
• Diabetes
• Obesity and overweight
• Cardiovascular disease
• A previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA)
• High levels of homocysteine (an amino acid in blood)
• Birth control use or other hormone therapy
• Cocaine use
• Heavy use of alcohol - heavy regular drinkers have a considerably higher risk of stroke early in life compared to others.
• Men from divorced families have a higher chance of suffering a stroke than those from families which are still intact

What is brain plasticity and what does it mean in terms of recovering from a stroke? 

All of these ailments are treated through speech and language therapy. Brain plasticity makes improvements in communication skill. This distinctive trait makes the brain a very valuable organ, as it can constantly adapt itself to deal with new input and information. There are two different types of brain plasticity:

The First type is Functional Plasticity that occurs when infants are born and start developing into children. Studies have shown that the immature brain grows and creates neural networks at an unprecedented rate, as the brain is flooded with new sensory input from the outside world.

The second type is Structural Plasticity that occurs over the course of a lifetime, as the brain changes with age to reflect new experiences and events as a result of learning.

How does Brain Plasticity Work?

Plasticity refers to the brain's ability to repair and reorganize cells. This means having healthy cells of the brain taking over jobs that were previously carried out by brain cells which were destroyed.
This is done by sprouting of new synaptic connections and creating new pathways to unaffected parts of the brain.
The brain's plasticity appears to be greatest when we are young. You can probably recall how much easier it was to learn, such as a foreign language or a musical instrument, when you were younger.
Of course our ability to learn new skills continues as we become adults. This indicates that the brain retains a certain level of plasticity throughout our lives.
When neurons, the primary cells of the nervous system, are damaged by a stroke or brain injury, other neurons take over for them. This adaptive behavior allows us to reorganize the brain in an effort to recover lost skills.

Twin Studies

 

                         Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart

 

What is this Twin Study about:?

 Aim: In 1979, T.J. Bouchard began to study twins who were separated at birth and raised in different families. The Minnesota Twin Study of Adult Development began in 1986 to identify what causes individual differences in aging. Study of identical (MZ) and fraternal (DZ) twins allows for estimation of how genes and environment affect the aging process.

Example: One example of the amazing similarity of twins reared apart is the so-called “Jim twins”. These twins were adopted at the age of four weeks. Both of the adopting couples, unknown to each other, named their son James. Upon reunion of the twins when they were 39 years old, Jim and Jim have learned that:

• Both twins are married to women named Betty and divorced from women named Linda.
• One has named his first son James Alan while the other named his first son James Allan.
• Both twins have an adopted brother whose name is Larry.
• Both named their pet dog "Toy."
• Both had some law-enforcement training and had been a part-time deputy sheriff in Ohio.
• Each did poorly in spelling and well in math.
• Each did carpentry, mechanical drawing, and block lettering.
• Each vacation in Florida in the same three-block-long beach area.
• Both twins began suffering from tension headaches at eighteen, gained ten pounds at the same time, and are six feet tall and 180 pounds.

What were the findings?                                                             

1.Genetic factors appear to influence personality, mental, and activity-level changes as adults become older.

 2. Maintaining an active lifestyle will contribute to more successful aging

 3. Continuing to engage in intellectual activities will help adults retain cognitive functioning as they age;

 4. Keeping an active social life will contribute to stronger feelings of happiness and well being.

                                                        

 Participants of Study?

Participants of Study were twins born in Minnesota from 1936 to 1955 to be used for psychological research. Recently, it has added twins born between 1961 and 1964. It primarily conducts personality and interests tests with its 8,000+ twin pairs and family members via mail.

Conclusion?

An identical twin reared away from his or her co-twin seems to have about an equal chance of being similar to the co-twin in terms of personality, interests, and attitudes as one who has been reared with his or her co-twin.  The differences between twins reared apart must be due totally to the environment, and given that these twins are just as similar as twins reared together, we can conclude that the environment, rather than making twins alike, makes them different.

Ethical Issues?

Scientists make genetics too important. For example they believe when the twins have many similarities in their behavior it's because of genetics. But it can be effect of something else such as coincidence. Twins are not a random sample of the population, and they differ in their developmental environment. 

Twins differ very little from non-twin siblings. Measured studies on the personality and intelligence of twins suggest that they have scores on these traits very similar to those of non-twins. Twin studies are thus in part motivated by an attempt to take advantage of the random assortment of genes between members of a family to help understand these correlations.

While the twin study tells us only how genes and families affect behavior within the observed range of environments, and with the caveat that often genes and environments will covary, this is argued to be a considerable advance over the alternative, which is no knowledge of the different roles of genes and environment whatsoever.Twin studies are therefore often used as a method of controlling at least one part of this observed variance

                                Adoption Study

Aim: To determine the contribution of environmental and genetic factors to the poor performance of black children on IQ tests as compared to white children. The initial study was published in 1976 by Sandra Scarr and Richard A. Weinberg.

The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study tried to answer whether the gap is primarily caused by genetic factors or whether it is primarily caused by environmental and cultural factors.

Example: Children who are socially identified as black may still be subject to racial discrimination despite being raised by white parents. Yet, it was previously known that adoption into upper-middle class white families has a positive influence on the IQ and school performance of white children.

The study showed significant differences in adoption patterns of mixed-race black/white and black adopted children.

Participants Of Study?

Scarr and Weinberg studied black, white, Asian, indigenous American, and mixed-race black/white children adopted by upper-middle-class white families in Minnesota.

 Findings Of Study?

 The average IQ of the adopting parents was more than one standard deviation above the population mean of 100. The biological children of these parents were also tested. The sample of adopted children was selected by eligible parents contacting the researchers for participating following a newsletter call. The geographical origin of the adopted children was not uniform. All except one white adopted child was adopted in-state. Black and interracial children came from twelve states and Asian and indigenous American children came from Minnesota as well as from Korea, Vietnam, Canada and Ecuador.

 Conclusion?

 On measures of cognitive ability (IQ tests) and school performance, black children in the U.S. perform worse than white children. The gap in average performance between the two groups of children is approximately one standard deviation, which is equivalent to about 15 IQ points or 4 grade levels at high school graduation. The average IQ score of black children in the U.S. is approximately 85, compared to the average score of white children of 100. 

Ethical Issues?

There have been conflicting findings concerning whether adopted adolescents have more psychological and behavior problems than non-adoptees. Brodzinsky, Schecter, Braff, & Singer study in 1984, Brodzinsky, 1990; Brodzinsky, 1993 studies found mean differences between adoptees and non-adoptees.

These studies suggest that as a group, adopted adolescents are more likely to be maladjusted than their non-adopted counterparts.

The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study provided the opportunity to explore differences in psychosocial adjustment among transracial adoptees, Caucasian adoptees, and their non-adopted siblings during late adolescence and early adulthood, a potentially vulnerable point in their development. The use of a sample not drawn from clinical populations resulted in a more representative group than those in most investigations of the adjustment of adopted adolescents.

 In general, the birth offspring had the fewest reports of significant adjustment problems, and the adopted adolescents were reported as more likely to have experienced poor adjustment. The findings of the current study are consistent with the literature showing that adoptees, including adolescents, are at greater risk than non-adoptees for externalizing behavior problems, learning disabilities, school adjustment problems, and delinquent behavior. Shireman in 1988 had found that parents reported more serious academic and behavior problems among Black transracial adoptees. However, this difference was due primarily to a larger number of reports of learning disabilities for these adoptees.



Sources: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mvandul/Weinbergetal2005.pdf
                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Transracial_Adoption_Study

Theory of Evolution

                     What is theory of evolution?

Theory of evolution show that variation is the difference in genes of members in the same species. Another condition is selection, which consists of survival of the members of the species depending on their genetical differences.

The third aspect of evolution is retention of the "chosen members" that were able to adapt to the surrounding. Universally said, evolution is the survival od the fittest.

                   Nature vs. Unnature

The nature vs unnature is concept of struggle between heridity and environment and which of these two influences an individual more. Genes in DNA are the foundation of traits, yet without organism they are useless. For example, one may be born with genes for better running, yet without good nutrition provided by the environment those genes will neve be developed in traits. Genes develop the right traits only in the right environment. Genes themselves are the genetic code, also called genotype, that is part of the body, yet not all of it is expressed. The genes that are actually expressed as traits are called phenotypes.

 

                What is wrong with the concept of “nature vs. nurture”?
 Heredity and environment may have an equal effect on the development

 

               What is social Darwinism?

When the idea of evolution spread through the Victorian society, some peple like Herbert Spencer thought that people who are at the top of the society are more fit. It was spencer who came up with the term "survival of the fittest".

 

5. Explain eugenics.

People realized that some individuals are more capable than others. They came up with an idea that if only the most capable were able to reproduce, they could create superior human race, just like people breed dogs and roses. This idea of breeding superior human race is called eugenetics.

6. What is the problem with the concept of eugenics?

Eugenetics is based on misunderstanding of the theory of evolution. It assumes that genes of some individuals are more superior compared to the other individuals. While this may seem true, with every sexual reproduction these genes switch around and new combinations with new traits are expressed. This fake superiority makes some of the individuals hink that they have more right to reproduce than others or even prevent them from reproducing.

7. What does the term “fitness” mean in relation to evolution?

Biological fitness in Darwin's term means an allele of a gene that makes its carrier more sucessful than other alelles of that gene. This carrier is morel likely to live sucessful life and produce more helathy offsprings. An example is an allele that has a resistance to some sort of deadly disease.

8. What is meant by“genetic determination”?

Belief that genes and the environment determine physical and mental development.

9. What is“fixation”?

Fixation is a new "froezen"trait. When a gene becomes ccommon in population due to genetic, the population becomse comitted to it can be changed only due to mutation.

10. What is“canalization”?

It is a way of fixating genes where a trait is "controlled by family of genes for which there is only one allele in humans that all produce the same result" (page 32). In this case, the phenotypes are all the same.

11. What is“punctuated equilibrium”?

In African lakes, geologists found meters of snail skells thanks to whci they can recognize the differences of their adaptations throughout thousands of generations. However, not all generations differe and some traits are unchanged during many generations. Punctuated equilibrium is a time where natural selection exists, but it serves to maintain the existing form.

12. How does evolution relate to psychology?

Evolutionary psychology is another aspect of evolution. It applies biological changes to psychology and asks question such as "What are the bases of expirience, behavior, mind, and memory, of development and social interaction? Where do they come fom, and what are they for?" (page 3). They same way our bodies and the phycical structures were adapted, the same way was our mind.

Theo13. Examine one evolutionary explanation of behavior. Theorizing aAout Violen Crime (page 65)
It was observed that males vary in the tendencies to take care of their children. There are the males who are willing to commit to parenthood and take care of their children, also called dads. Then there are males who do not go beyond donating their sperm, these are called cads.
Females are due to sexual selection theory more attracted to dads, who are more likely to take care of their offsprings, which highers their chance of reproduction. Even though their chances to pass on their genes are lower, cads also have opportunity to reproduce. They can promise loyalty and then leave after the female is impregnated. They can intimidate rival males, exaggarate their abilities as good providers by stealing from others, or they can foce someone to have sex with them when all the other "nice" methods fail. They question is whether their behavior is genetically programmed. One of the answers may be that there is a condition called psychopacy, that is more common in males and causes them to be more manipulative, agressive and violent.
In 2002 in the USA, 19 884 men were arrested for rape compared to 278 women for the same aasault.

Stress - Case Study On The Dutch Hunger Winter

Dutch Hunger Winter happened on November 1944. It was World War II between Neatherlands and German. Germans took control of the food and sent it to Germany so the Dutch people were hangry. The infants that survived the Hunger Winter, suffered from malnutrition. First study was that Scientists looked and the grown adults that were born during this awful time period.  Second study showed the schyzophrenia,where was found found that genetics plays major role if this ilness will develop or no.
When two identical twins are born and one of them has schyzophrenia, the other within has a 50% chance of having it, too.
It was also found that babies that were born on beginning of this time period were born smaller, while babies conceived at the end of this period had normal size.

When mothers were malnourished in pregnancy they had higher rates of obesity and shyzophrenia.
Schyzophrenia causes hallucinations, delusions and difficulties to mentally focus, and people suffered from schyzophrenia are not able to distinguish between reality and the other world.
Epigenetics is when DNA isn't the only factor in what is happening.
Based on the Dutch Hunger Winter it can be observed that most of the affected people could have been born healthy.

Prominent Psychologist

 Paul Ekman

Date of Birth: 15.2.1934

Place of Birth: Washington, D.C.

University and Subject: New York University- Clinical Psychology

Field of Professional Study: Nonverbal Communication, Emotion

Important theories: Neurocultural theory of emotion

Explanation of theories: The theory posits the existence of universal facial expressions that provide a one-to-one mapping between the emotion a person feels and the facial expression the person displays. The facial expression displayed is the same for all people in all cultures, and therefore everyone expresses emotion in the same manner in nonsocial settings.

Solomon Asch

Date of Birth: 14.09.1907

Place of Birth: Warsaw, Poland

Date of Death: 20.02.1996

Place of Death: Haverford, Pennsylvania

University and subject:  College of the City of New York, Social psychology

Field of professional Study: Researches on group conformity, the effects of propaganda and indoctrination at Brooklyn College

Important theories: The effects of propaganda and indoctrination

Explanation of theories: That propaganda was most effective when fear and ignorance played a part in affecting the intended targets.

Roger Wolcott Sperry

Date of Birth: 20.8.1913

Place of Birth: Hartford, Connecticut

Date of Death: 17.4.1994

Place of Death: Pasadena, California

University and subject:  University of Chicago-zoology, Oberlin College- Neuropsychology and neurobiologist

Field of professional Study: Split-brain

Important theories: Chemoaffinity hypothesis

Explanation of theories: Chemoaffinity hypothesis states that neurons make connections with their targets based on interactions with specific molecular markers. The markers are generated during cellular differentiation and aid not only with synaptogenesis, but also act as guidance cues for their respective axon.

Gordon H. Bower

Date of Birth: 30.12.1932

Place of Birth: Scio, Ohio

University and subject: Yale University, Stanford Psychology Department, Experimental psychology

Field of professional Study: Mathematical models of memory

Profesional field of study: Cognitive level of memory and emotions

Important theories: Chunking

Explanation of theory: A person groups objects together to improve their memory. The huge benefits of mnemonic aids and how these aids are often converted into visual images, human associative memory and propositional learning, state dependent memory, connectionist modeling for categorical learning, and how we remember narratives.

Harry Harlow

Date of Birth:  31.10.1905

Place of Birth: Fairfield, lowa, U.S.

Date of Death:  6.12.1981

Place Of Death: Tucson, Arizona, U.S.

University and s

ubject: Stanford University

Field of Professional Study: Human Resources Research, Department of the Army, the Division of Anthropology and Psychology of the National Research Council

Important Theories: Cupboard theory

Explanation of Theories:  infants only had an attachment to their mothers because they were the source of food, thus associating the mother with positive feelings. Because of the baby rhesus monkeys’ attachment to the cloth mothers, this led researchers to conclude that attachment and the need for affection was deeper than the need for food.

Leon Festinger

Date of Birth: 08.05.1919

Place of Birth: New York City

Date of Death:11.02.1989

Place of Death: New York City

University and subject: City College of New York in 1939 where he gets a Bachelor of Science, in 1942 University of lowa- subject studied social psychology.

Important theories:Social Comparison Theory

Explanation of theories: People are comparing themselves to others in a close proximity such as co-workers, friends and family members. Festinger defined two types of comparisons upward comparisons and downward comparisons. An upward comparison involves a person comparing themselves to someone that is above them in some form e.g. someone who suffers from depression comparing themselves to someone who is generally happy.  Downward comparison is when an individual compares themselves to someone who is considered beneath them e.g. when a person who has worked hard to attain some knowledge now views those without that knowledge as inferior.

Carl Rogers

Date of Birth: 08.02.1902

Place of Birth:Oak Park, Illinois 

Date of Death: 04.02.1987

Place of Death: San Diego, California, U.S.

Universities and subjects studied: Wisconsin-Madison, Teachers Colleges, Columbia University where he had been study the clinical psychology, University of Ronchester. Subjects studied: Human personality and Human relationships, then he became a psychotherapist of client-centered therapy and student-centered therapy

Important theories: Person-centered theory. 

Explanation of theories: the self-concept is the most important feature of personality, and it includes all the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs people have about themselves. Rogers believed that people are aware of their self-concepts.

Albert Bandura

Date of Birth: 04.12:1925

Place of Birth: Mundare,  Alberta, Canada

Universities and subject studied: T 

Importnt theories: Bobo doll experiment

Explanation of theories: Studying children´s behavior after watching a model punching a bobo doll and getting rewarded, punished or suffering no consequences for it.  It shows that people not only learn by being rewarded or punished itself and they can learn from watching somebody being rewarded or punished, too. Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model.

Kurt Lewin

Date of Birth: 09.09.1890

Place of Birth: Mogilno, County of Mogilno, Province of Posen

Date of Death: 12.02.1947

Place of Death: Newtonville, Massachusetts

Universities and subject studied: He  entered the University of Freiburg to study medicine, but transferred to University of Munich to study biology. He studied psychology

Important theories: Group Dynamics Theory

Explanation of theories:  Describe the way groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstances.  Based on the feelings and emotions members of a group form a common perception. The interactive psychological relationship in which members of a group form this common perception is actually "Group Dynamics".

Erik Erikson

Date of Birth: 15.06.1902

Place of Birth: Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Date of Death: 12.04.1994

Place of Death: Harwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Universities and subject studied: Development Psychology on Harvard Medical School, University of Vienna

Important theories: Theory on psychosocial development

Explanation of theories:  the development of ego identity. According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experiences and information we acquire in our daily interactions with others.

Alzheimer's Disease

 What is Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's is an progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In older people alzheimer is common cause of dementia. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—and behavioral abilities, to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.

 

Why is Alzheimer so common now than in the past?

The answer for this question is that people are getting older. People live longer and that`s why the Alzherimer`s dissease has more time and possibilities to progress.

How is Alzheimer`s an economic issue?

The costs, for supplies produced for keeping the Alzheimer`s victims alive and assistance for them are very high. Some companies, producing specific drugs, supplies, hospital technology but also many private clinics can have a big profit from people suffering from this disease. There are also several founds supported by the government were organized to aid the Alzheimer`s cummunity.

 How was Alzheimer`s discovered?

In 1901, Dr. Alzheimer met Auguste D., a 51-year-old woman who became his patient at the asylum for the next four years until her death. Her condition steadily deteriorated displaying memory loss, difficulty with speech, confusion, suspicion, agitation, wandering, and screaming when bedridden. She became incontinent and unaware of her surroundings. When Alzheimer performed the autopsy in 1905, he found her brain had shriveled and neurons had disappeared. He also discovered the characteristic “neurofibrillary tangles” and “senile plaques” that we now know as the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Alzheimer presented his findings to a group of psychiatrists in 1906, the first public description of this new disease. When he made this discovery, Dr. Alzheimer was unaware that the disease would be named after him and would also become the most common form of dementia in older people.

How Alzheimer's robs you as identity?

Alzheimer`s erases all the memories step-by-step.

At first the affected person does not remember where he or she putted her keys, forgets constantly names, dates. In the final stage of this terrible dissease people are not able to speak, to communicate and are not aware of their sorrounding. Memories are your identity. You could not be the peroson you are without them, so if they start to disappear, your identity disappears hand-in-hand with them.

Process of Alzheimer's:

 Alzheimer starts with simple forgetting of random every-day things like where the keys were left, what was eaten for breakfast or what date/day it is. There are two common approaches to managing the symptoms which include use of medications specifically engineered to control the symptoms and non-drug strategies such as changing the patient's environment to resolve challenges and minimize obstacles. Abnormal deposits of proteins form amyloid plaques and tau tangles throughout the brain, and once-healthy neurons begin to work less efficiently. Over time, neurons lose their ability to function and communicate with each other, and they die.

In Mild Alzheimer Stage is changes in other cognitive abilities are evident. These may include getting lost, trouble handling money and paying bills, repeating questions, taking longer to complete normal daily tasks, using poor judgment, and having some mood and personality changes. When this happened, usually people are diagnosed. In Moderate Alzheimer's Disease damage occurs in areas of the brain that control language, reasoning and sensory processing. Memory loss and confusion grow worse, and people begin to have problems recognizing family and friends. They may have hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia, and may behave impulsively. 

 

In Severe Alzheimer's Stage plaques and tangles have spread throughout the brain, and brain tissue has shrunk significantly. Therefore people with severe Alzheimer’s cannot communicate and may forgets how to breath and at the end as the body shuts down, person will die.