Neuroplasticity Essay

In the article Beautiful Brains by David Dobbs, evolutionary research conveys that during the adolescent and teenage years the brain encounters an astonishing amount of growth and transformation. Dobbs states that these developments contribute to many of the irresponsible decisions made by teens. In the past, the brain was thought to cease maturing around the age of ten, however, new investigations have found that between the ages of twelve and twenty five, the brain continues to develop, undergoing a considerable metamorphosis. During this metamorphosis, myelin insulates a greater number of neuron’s axons, increasing the speed in which messages are exchanged, dendrites branch out and become broader, accelerating the rate at which messages are received, and synaptic pruning occurs which causes the brain’s cortex to become slimmer and more adept. During teenage years, the brain is still learning to network as well as deal with day to day obstacles such as stress, exhaustion and problems. Dobbs explains that teens act the way they do because their brains are not done maturing.

Brain science is hard to understand. Very hard. However, Dr. Norman Doidge describes the current understanding of brain plasticity by using relatable examples and comprehensible diction instead of arduous textbook style writing. In The Brain that Changes Itself, Doidge challenges the age-old belief that the brain's structure is concrete by providing countless experiments that prove the brain to be malleable.

Why have more than two-thousand people exonerated for crimes they didn’t commit? Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S. Memory can be influenced by anxiety, stress, reconstructive memory and other factors possibly affecting the testimony of the eyewitness and in turn, misleading the jury. I think that when subjects witness a crime they will struggle to remember important details of the event, and their recollection could be easily altered. This is because the reconstructive memory can be influenced by factors such as stress, anxiety, and verbal cues.

Every 15 minutes, a teenager dies due to drunk driving.(9) Austin Donovan Hall, now 18, lost control of the Chrysler convertible he was driving and smashed right into a tree and telephone pole, while driving 119 mph in a 35 mph lane.(7) He departed from an underage drinking party less than a mile away from where the incident occurred.(7) The vehicle then flew off the road hitting a tree and a light pole in the process.(7) Shawn Gangloff, age 15, was in the same accident. He was thrown from the car and later became a casualty due to his injuries.(7) Max Dechter who was in the car as well, then 17, was taken to the hospital, where he was to remain for months after the accident.(7) Teenagers should not jeopardize their futures and lives for the

Many people have disregarded the fact that children too can commit despicable crimes; crimes that not even adults would think about committing. Juveniles have had their era in in being able to manipulating courts to give them a lighter sentences for their so-called “mistakes”. These juveniles have made puerile excuses to try and exonerate their actions by blaming their impulses, rather than taking accountability for them. Juveniles should be tried as adults due to being aware of their crimes and having an intention to kill, however, brain development and maturity can play a role into the reason why teens kill. With being tried as an adult juveniles should be granted the opportunity of freedom pending on their rehabilitation status and if requirements

Technology is everywhere in today’s world and it is rapidly evolving. As technology evolves, so does the society using it. Technology is negatively affecting the way we read, write, and live. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr focuses on how the introduction of newer ease of access technologies has changed the way we read, write, and even think.

Justice Elena Kagan spoke for the majority of the supreme court, “Mandatory life without parole for a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features—among them, immaturity, impetuosity, and failure to appreciate risks and consequences.” This was the ruling of the Supreme Court case on June 25, 2012. Juveniles are no longer allowed to be sentenced a life sentence without parole. The majority is correct, the underdeveloped, adolescent mind is still growing and cannot be compared to an adult’s.

The brain is not the straightforward machine it once was thought to be; it is actually quite flexible. different regions of the brain are associated with different mental functions, but the cellular components do not form permanent structures or play rigid roles. The brain is able to change with experiences, circumstances, and needs so now that the Internet is so influential today the way people think is often changed.

What if the internet came with a warning label which read: ‘Caution: frequent use may cause cognitive decline, depression and addiction’, would you still use it? Consider that the internet has replaced caffeine as our most commonly used mood altering substance, and it’s an addictive one too. The idea that our brain can be reshaped by the internet was first thoroughly explored by Pulitzer prize finalist author, Nicholas Carr in his thought provoking book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Drawing on his theories, this essay expands on Carr’s hypothesis to explain that not only is the the internet effecting our cognition, but that it is also encouraging the development

Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is a type of severe memory impairment that does not give the ability to form new memories, beginning with the onset of a disorder (Kalat, 1998). Anterograde amnesia is a result of brain damage to the hippocampus. In the film Leonard and Sammy have damage to their hippocampus, a part of the brain that is heavily involved in learning and memory (Kalat, 1998). The hippocampus is where new information must pass before being permanently stored in memory. If the hippocampus is damaged, no new information can enter memory, but older information that have already passed through prior to the damage may be safe (Myers, 2006). This fact is clearly depicted in the movie as Leonard forgets people and his conversations with them or when he is doing something and forgets halfway through why he is doing it. This damage to the hippocampus can arise from strokes, brain aneurysms, epilepsy, blows to the head, and various other

Kelsey Phillips Psych 101 Friday, May 8, 2015 Memory Memory is learning over time., its like filling a filing cabinet of what one’s learned over time. Memory is a set of encoded neural connections in the the brain (The Human Memory). Three processes include encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding is like a

The brain regions involved in information retention are also important considerations. For instance, the hippocampus plays a critical role in the consolidation by converting immediate memories into long-term memories. The hypothetical process of reconsolidation is an important process to keep in mind when studying as it proposes a memory trace is revised and reconsolidated in the hippocampus. Moreover, this process can become an indefinite cycle and the information consolidated will have extremely strong memory traces, making it effortless to recall the information from long-term memory.

The hippocampus is a paired brain structure, which resembles a seahorse and is located in the ventromedial part of the temporal lobes. The granular cell layer of the hippocampus contains mitotically active neural stem cells (NSCs). The hippocampus forms new memories and is also associated with learning and emotions. Since the brain is symmetrical, the hippocampus is found in both hemispheres of the brain. When both sides of the hippocampus are damaged, the ability to create new memories can be delayed. The theory of the hippocampus supporting memory function was first discovered more than fifty years ago, in the case study of Henry Gustav Molaiso (H.M.). He endured a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy for the relief of epilepsy. Immediately

behavior, learning and memory of an individual ( 1). While Dr. Noble noted the more affluent children possessed larger hippocampuses than their disadvantaged counterparts (Brain Trust 47), Hanson notes that the lifestyle of less affluent families affect the hippocampus negatively. For instance, maternal separation can negatively impact the hippocampus, I.e. working mother's. The lower the income a household has, the more stress it faces. Outstanding stress can have long-lasting negative effects on the hippocampus (1.). Hanson found that poor children had less gray matter within the hippocampus (5). Hanson concluded that “higher levels of chronic stress” could result in small hippocampal volumes into adulthood and other “early environment” factors, such as

The Nervous System is the control center and one of the most important systems in the human body. The Nervous System is comprised of two parts: The Central and the Peripheral Nervous Systems, which divide into smaller sections. (“Nervous System, sciencedaily.com”) Each part of the Nervous System has jobs that keep humans alive and well. Every single movement that bodies make, millions of neurons fire off signals up to 268 miles per hour to indicate to the brain that something happened! (“15 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Your Brain, safelaunch.org”) It is so vital to human life that almost nothing can survive without it.