Dec 10 2013

Should parents abandon the "just say no" slogan of the Reagan era?

Parents should abandon the "just say no" slogan because telling a teen to just say no is like telling a dog to stop barking. In my opinion a teen is going to do what they want when they want to its just a matter of the parent knowing or not. If the parent talks to the child about drugs rather than just yelling and telling them to say no a lot more might get across,  for example if I didn't want my son in a gang I wouldn't tell him its a life that's going to get no where I would just ask questions like why do you want to be in a gang, what does it have to offer you, do you believe you'll have a better adult life with a gang or with school. Simply sitting down with a teen and conversing listening to why they want to do these things will accomplish more than just telling them what you want them to do.

Dec 11 2013

How hard do you work to control your impulses?

 I'm kind of used to biting my tongue and holding back from acting on emotion so now its kind of like second nature to control it, so honestly its not that hard but before it was pretty complicated because it felt like I couldn't be myself in a way.

i search

Why Do We Dream ?

aquasixio.deviantart.com

By Quiona Howard

Why do we dream? To answer this question you first must know what a dream is, right? In my opinion I believe dreams are our subconscious mind trying to tell us something, for example if you’re really stressed about school or work maybe you might dream about being trapped in the school or work building or maybe you have a dream about quitting and giving up. Growing up I was raised around a lot of superstitions so whenever I dreamt about someone being pregnant it meant death was near , or whenever I dreamt about fish it meant new life was to come, weird right? (Antrobus) One theory suggests that dreams are the result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli during sleep. For example, the sound of the radio may be incorporated into the content of a dream.

    I chose to do my report on dreaming because its such a mystery to me, there’s day dreaming and dreaming while you’re asleep. I have questions such as why do we dream, are they a symbol of what’s to come, is it something that has happened in a past life possibly, do other animals dream? Dreaming is something everyone does but its like no one ask questions so thats why I chose to do so. I wanna learn as much as possible during this project and I hope you do too.

The most typical time you begin to dream is when you enter REM mode. (Nordqvist). REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. REM is one of the 5 stages we enter while sleep, it is characterized by quick random movements of the eyes and paralysis of the muscles. We are in REM about 20%-25% of the time we are asleep while a newborn is usually in REM 80% of the time. People usually experience REM sleep 4 or 5 times a night (it comes in cycles), the first cycle occurs at the beginning of one's sleep and only lasts for a short time, with each following cycle being a little longer. It is common for some people to experience light sleep, or even to wake up after a cycle. The amount of time one spends in REM sleep has a lot to do with certain psychological factors, people with depression tend to be in the state for a shorter duration than those without it. Studies have shown that people who go to sleep after being sleep deprived enter REM sleep faster than those who weren't. While in REM sleep, most of the muscles become paralyzed and the activity of the brain's neurons becomes quite intense, similar to the activity during wakefulness. This is why REM sleep is sometimes known as paradoxical sleep. It's during this stage of sleep that most people are able to have especially vivid dreams.

    During REM, certain neurons in the brain stem, called REM sleep-on cells, become especially active these cells are most likely what trigger this phase in the sleep cycle. Once triggered and in a state of REM, the body stops releasing neurotransmitters, called monoamines, that are responsible for stimulating the motor neurons; this means that the muscles stop moving, essentially entering a state of temporary paralysis. Some people don't experience the paralysis, their muscles continue to move, even while they are in REM sleep. They may act out their dreams in violent or dramatic ways, this is a condition called REM behavior disorder. REM Sleep facilitates the way creativity combines certain associative elements into new combinations that are necessary or helpful for problem solving. This has been attributed to the cholinergic and noradrenergic neuromodulation that occurs while someone is in a REM state. Feedback from the hippocampus to the neocortex is reduced during REM sleep, and the low levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine in the neocortex (natural drugs in the brain) promote increased associational activity in the neocortical areas. Here’s a picture to give you a better look on things.

http://dreamcurrents.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sleep-rem-dreamcurrents.jpg

    So what did you learn after reading this article by Joseph Nordqvist? I learned that our dreams come about while we’re in REM and REM usually occurs about 4 to 5 times while we’re asleep. Also while researching I’ve found that we enter a paralyzing state meaning our muscles stop moving which is pretty cool if you ask me. Not everyone experiences paralysis while in REM so thats the cause for some people talking, swinging, or possibly walking while sound asleep. Obviously what I thought dreams were are wrong according to my research but I still believe that it has something to do with your subconscious mind but thats not important. After all this research I am proud to say that I learned a lot of valuable information that I can’t wait to pass on to someone who would want to know more about dreams as well. However if this project were to continue I would go into the field of daydreaming, I have a lot of questions about that but thats another I-search project for another day. Anyways thanks for reading!

MLA Citations

N.d. Photograph. Deviantart.net. Pachamama.org. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

Antrobus, J. (1993). Characteristics of dreams. Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming.

N.d. Photograph. Dreamcurrents.com. Spb.com. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

Nordqvist, Joseph. "What Is Rapid Eye Movement Sleep? What Is REM?." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 17 Jul. 2012. Web.

14 Nov. 2013. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247927>

Dec 4th 2013

1. Why does the prefrontal cortex take so long to fully develop, have there been any cases where someone was born with a fully matured prefrontal cortex?

2. Why does the prefrontal cortex hold so much power? What is the rest of the brain for then?

Dec 4 2013

1. “Adolescence is defined as the period of life that starts with the biological, hormonal and physical changes of puberty and ends at the age at which an individual attains a stable, independent role in society.”

2.  The gray matter of the anterior part of the frontal lobe that is highly developed in humans and plays a role in the regulation of complex cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning. 

3.  Synaptic pruning refers to the process by which extra neurons and synaptic connections are eliminated in order to increase the efficiency of neuronal transmissions.

4. The term 'social brain' refers to the network of brain regions that are involved in understanding others.

5. In the experiment the teenage and adult results were almost identical compared to the children of a younger age.

6. Blakemore is trying to understand phenomena such as risk-taking, which activates the limbic system, hypersensitive in adolescents, while the prefrontal cortex, which moderates risk-taking, is still developing in adolescence.

7. I see my own adolescence as an opportunity rather than a problem because I'm not nearly as risky as others in my age group.

8. For all educators out there stop acting like you weren't once a teen and be more understanding of whats going on in our brain maybe then everything would go a lot smoothly in classrooms or at all when dealing with adolescence.