TEENAGE BRAINS

The video we saw in class about teen brains had many interesting new facts that surprised me. One of those was the amount time that we teenagers need to sleep so we can a have a normal and good day. I was surprised by this because I thought we needed even more sleep than what we need, I have problems waking up every morning and I don't even sleep 7 full hours which makes me be sleepy and tired the rest of the day. Knowing this made me change my time of going to sleep and now I feel better and with more energy everyday. I felt connected to one of the teens that appeared in the video which said that she had mood swings, this happens to me a lot one day I am super happy and the next day I am sad or upset; sometimes its a matter of hours. Honestly I felt bad seeing how teenagers did not care how the treated their parents, Im not sure if I am that bad to them but if I am definitely going to change my ways of treating them. The first guy we saw was so mean and disrespectful to his parents and that shouldn't be like that. I think that the test they did to see how the amount of sleep you get affects how you function and work during your day, and they proved themselves right looking at how the kid that did not sleep enough got a low score and the kid that did got a high score. I learned a lot from this video not only new knowledge but new ways of thinking how to act.  

How our Brains Work?

1. What does the word "hemisphere" refer to when talking about the brain?
 Hemispheres refers to both sides of the brain left and right.
2. What are the major differences between the lfet and right sides of the brain?
The right side of the brain is more visual and focuses on feeling emotions while the left side is more logical and focuses on learning hard tasks. The right hemisphere processes in a sequential order and the left hemisphere processes intuitevely.
3. What is the corpus collasum?
It is a thick band of nerve fibers that is in charge of sending messages between the left and right hemispheres.
4. Explain the study performed by Paul Broca in which he discovered "Broca's area."
Paul Broca was a french physician, anatomist and anthropologist. A part of the frontal lobe is named after him because he discovered that it was the part that makes us talk.
5. Explain the study conducted by Roger Sperry in regard to "split brain."
Roger Sperry was a neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and nobel laureate. He discovered the what was the split brain with two other men. The split brain is when the corpus collasum connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
6. Explain the study conducted by Karl Wernicke which led to the discovery of "Wernicke's area."
Karl Wernicke was a german physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He discovered the Wernicke's area which is one of the two parts of the cerebral cortex that is related to the understanding and writting and speaking a language.
7. Which lobe is more responsible for vision?
The occipital lobe
8. Which lobe is more responsible for hearing and language?
The temporal lobe
9. Which lobe is more responsible for performing math calculations?
The frontal lobe
10. Which lobe is most responsible for judgement, reasoning and impulse control?
The frontal lobe

Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage was an american railroad construction foreman who is known for surviving an accident in which a big iron rod was driven completely through his head destroying his frontal lobe. This happenned on September 14, 1848, Gage was preparing the roadbed for the Rutland and Burtlington Railroad in Vermont. He had to add blasting powder, a fuse, and sand and them compact the charge into the hole using a large iron rod. The sand was added at 4:30 p.m and the powder exploded carrying an instrument he was using through his head, this tool was an inch and a fourth (diameter) and three feet of length it entered on the side of his face and later passing back on the left side and out of the top of his head. This caused him to change his personality and become a mean person, he literally lost all of his friends and lived alone for the rest of his life. This accident helped investigations and because of this people know that the personality has to do with your front part of the brain which is the part that got damaged. That is a very interesting fact that I learned. Brain localization means that different parts of the brain have different roles and functions in our brain. That may seen obvious but for example 2 parts of our liver do the same function so not every part f our body had different roles. The brain also exhibits lateralization which means that the cerebrum has 2 different parts the left and the right which are different in some ways and alike in others. Some people are more left brain and others more right brain; both like different things. The left side controls the right side of the body and the right side controls the left side of the body. It is amazing how Gage could survive that accident but unfortunately he lost his entire life because of it.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage

www.facstaff.gpc.edu/bbrown/psych1501/brain/loclat.htm

HOMOSEXUALITY: nature or nurture?

"The phrase 'Nature and Nurture' is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed" this was said by Francis Galton an english polymath. Nature and Nurture are two different ways that manipulate how a human being's personality or behavior can turn out. These two are are completely different and their influence in some topics is being strongly debated by scientists. One of those topics and the one that is being debated the most is homosexuality. Nobody knows if homosexuality comes from nature meaning your genes or from nurture and how your parents raised you. In my opinion homosexuality comes from nature; you cant choose to be straight or gay you just are what you are. I think that those who admit or realize that they are gay or lesbians after a long time is because the changes that had to occur before happened late but it has nothing to do with how you are treated at home, that can help you realize you are a homosexual but really everything was already in your genes. This is being debated by many scientists and no one still knows what causes homosexuality but they do know that gays and lesbians can be noticed at a small age. The video we saw in class showed examples of childhood pictures of people and videos of them as grown ups, and differences between a straight person and a gay person could be noticed since they were kids and we could actually predict if they were going to grow up straight or gay just by the way they acted, moved their hands, sat etc. Another example to prove my point is the video we saw about the two identical twin brothers, this shows that is comes from genes because they are both brothers and they are both treated the same but for some reason one is more manlike and the other is more femininelike. We could see that one preferred to play with boy stuff and the other one with girl stuff; we could also see differences in their ways of dressing, their decoration in their rooms, the way they talked and how they acted all fot these showed that one going to be straight and the other one gay. 

As Neil Swidey said in his book you cant make someone gay as well as you cant make someone straight you are just born with it but of course home is involved in this because as parents try to stop their child to be gay the more insistent they become the most probabilities that the child will not change. Some parents see homosexuality as a disease and really its just a rare change in someones genes that makes the person different. Scientists opinions in this topic is divided because really both of the sides can equally defend themselves with great points. Some of them believe that your sexuality may be changes and repaired but others think that you are born with sexual preferences and that you cant change that. Both points can support themselves for example the nature concept can defend their point with the two identical twins with different preferences and the nurture concept may defend their point with their theory that we can all be influenced by our environment not only in the sexual preference way but in every single way. 

In conclusion after doing my research i changed my mind about where does it come from, I think that homosexuality comes from both nature and nurture. A person may be born gay but their environment may either change their way of thinking or even make it stronger. Scientists still are debating about this and they will keep on probably during years. No one knows if a traumatic life may lead to certain rare choice in preferences or if what Paul Ewald said that homosexuality is considered a virus is true. More research can maybe figure the whole problem out but it  will be difficult because they are both right in different ways. 

SOURCE: http://www.gaylife.about.com/