Food, Obesity, and Psychology

"Your child will live a life ten years younger than you because of the landscape of food that we’ve built around them.”    -Jamie Oliver

     Food is something that is essential to our health and our life in general, but sometimes food becomes a problem. When food becomes a desire or compulsion, it is the start of a serious problem. Everyone has heard that the number one cause of death in the States is heart disease, which is then followed by diabetes, and a whole list of things that could have been prevented.  I know people often talk abouy how they believe that this is the year to get in shape or eat healthy, I think it is necessary to start now before the pounds become harder to shed. 
      Everyone has their comfort foods, which they need when they don't feel so great and are under stress. Even though we may think that it may not interefere with our health, it does have an impact. Comfort foods and eating out of boredom are unhealty and are do to the neurotransmitter Dopamine, which is a receiver of pleasure.  The same receptors that dopamine excites also give pleasure by means of drug use, sex, and food.  When you get food, or even engage in those other activites, your brain sends a message and tells you that this feels good.  Because it feels good, it is something that will likely occur again.  Things that give us pleasure are ones that we want to keep doing because we want to maintain that "high". Your belly enjoys eating popcorn, not necessary for the taste, but because it makes you feel good, so then you do it again and again. It can become a vicious cycle, and I think it's essential for each individual to be aware of what they eat. Too much of a food high can lead not only to weight problems, but to disease and to eventual death because of those diseases.  If you were ever told you are what you, it is true, so make sure to respect it.
     I know this post is a bit different from what usually may be written, but it does have a psychological aspect. Also, I was inspired by the TED Talk that is available below. Please watch and at least skip through the articles below. I hope you enjoyed this post of Psych Knowledge. Stay tuned for even more info, thank you!

 (I do not own the rights to any of the links below)

Jamie Oliver's TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jamie_oliver.html

Two helpful online articles:

• Article 1
• Article 2

Schizophrenia

   

(This image is from here!)

    These days when most people think of this mental disorder would probably jump to the movie "A Beautiful Mind", which was directed by Ron Howard.  The movie tells of a brilliant man who has hallucinations and delusions, which are two of the positive symptoms of Schizophrenia.

    Individuals that are diagnosed with this mental disorder can be be thought to have acute or chronic Schizophrenia. Acute Schizophrenia is mostly associated with positive symptoms, which I will list below, and is usually a one time thing.  An individual may have a psychotic break in their early twenties, and then show no other signs. With chronic Schizophrenia, the individual faces this disorder throughout their life and it is associated with negative symptoms.  

    The most common positive symptoms of schizophrenia are delusion, hallucination, and thought disorder, and others are uncommunicative and socially withdrawn. There are various types of delusions. Thought broadcasting is when the individual believes that someone else can read their mind.  Thought insertion is when they think that someone has put a specific thought into their mind.  Thought of control is when the individual believes that something that they do will have a consequence on the world. Delusion of persecution is when they think that someone is trying to kill them, which is obviously rational to a normal person.  Another rare delusion is one of grandeur, which is when the person thinks that they are Jesus, or anything related with religion.  The definition for a  delusion is a profoundly, invalid belief.  A hallucination is almost never visual; quite often it is a voice which can be linked to the delusion.  This hallucination does not come out of nowhere, but rather it seems as though it is a message and you are being told something.  In addition to the auditory sense of the hallucination, there is also a tactile sensation. An example of these are bugs on the skin, snakes in your stomach, and so on. Someone with schizophrenia can cycle in and out of episodes of delusion and hallucination. Thought Disorder seems to have a poetic feel to it. The individual is able to talk and speak, but what they say may not always make sense. It is as though they have a word salad and these thoughts seem to be 'off track'.
     Negative symptoms are things that are absent in this individual compared to a "normal" person. They are socially withdrawn, have a poverty of speech, flat affect, and they do not initiate goal-oriented behavior. If the schizophrenic person is aware of them self, then they would be able to tell that they are not connecting with the people that are around them.  These negative symptoms can be associated with loss of brain tissue and frontal lobe damage.  The positive symptoms are not associated with frontal lobe damage, but an increase in the neurotransmitter Dopamine.
    There is so much more that can be written about Schizophrenia, but I thought that I would give a somewhat brief introduction to this mental disorder. Hope that you enjoyed the Psych Knowledge that is within this post. Feel free to comment and stay tuned for even more great topics coming up. Thanks again for reading!!! Take care!

Hippo + Campus = Hippocampus

(this image is from here!)

    The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is for storing and retrieving memories, or it's a way of learning to recall.  The hippocampus sends to the cortex and other areas to fire areas for the "episode" to become real.  Short-term memory is when you are trying to remember or recall something and an hour later the thought doesn't come to you.  Sometimes the memory is consolidated into long-term memory, such as remembering a phone number, or where you parked your car. (Consolidation is when short-term memories are encoded into long-term memories.)It is not a structural change in the brain. In order for short-term memory to turn into long-term memory there needs to be structural changes in the brain need to occur.
   One of the famous cases of damage to the hippocampus is Patient H.M. He had been in an accident, and the doctors decided that the best thing to do was to remove his hippocampus. As long as he was able to keep his short-term memory active, as in working memory, he was able to remember things. When he would get distracted, H.M. would forget what he was trying to remember for the doctor, and would even forget the question.
   Before his hippocampus was removed, his memory was like anyone else's, but after his surgery he had trouble with his short-term memory. Afterwards, he was still able to recall any memories that he had from his childhood. This told researchers that the hippocampus was not necessary for retrieval of memories from the past. However, H.M. had trouble retrieving memories from several years prior to his surgery.  The reason for this is because this process of consolidation doesn't occur all at once. It happens over the course of time; takes years, months, and so on.
     H.M.'s immediate short-term memory was intact, or at least for a little while.  He was capable of having a conversation with someone, but if he talked to that person for too long, then he would forget.  He would be able to read the same book and magazine over and over again. If a nurse that H.M. met left the room, then came back, H.M. would reintroduce himself to the nurse as though he had no idea of who she was. He would constantly ask where he was and other similar questions.
     Even though he wasn't able to make any new memories, he had the potential to learn new skills. One of them being a finger maze, which consisted of H.M. tracing a maze with his finger, and as he kept doing it, he would get better at it each day and each time that he tried. Even though he was getting better, he was not able to remember that he was actually getting better; this is an example of rehearsal of skills, or practicing your procedural memory.
      A great example of short-term memory loss is the movie "Momento". The character in this movie has the same sort of problems where he is unable to recall things for more than several moments. He also constantly asks if he has talked to a particular person before and other similar scenarios. The film is entertaining and gives the film watcher the ability to get an insight into this deficiency.
     Thank you for reading this post on Hippocampus with a focus on H.M. Hope you enjoyed this post and today's Psych Knowledge. Thanks!

Wernicke's & Broca's Aphasia

        Wernicke's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is the cause of left-hemisphere damage.  The area of the brain where this occurs is within the left inferior cortex.  An individual with this deficiency does not have a problem with getting the words out, as in they don't stutter, but the words have a fluidity to them. The individual is able to say words, but these words don't have any meaning. These individuals understand the dimensions of the conversation, and even though the words lack any concrete meaning, the individual doesn't get frustrated with them-self.  Their words can be thought of as a "word salad". Also, they are unable to understand verbal speech or even sign language, which can be a comprehension issue. This type of Aphasia has a relatively normal or fluid production of words, but these words come out as jibberish.  Therefore these individuals have a difficultly of actually comprehending the language or the content (of the conversation).

 video example 1    video example 2

(I do not own any rights to these videos)

        Broca's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is also the cause of left-hemisphere damage, which is often thought of as a stroke.  Broca's Area is located in the left inferior frontal cortex.  People with this disorder struggle to get the words out and because of this, they often become frustrated with themselves.  They do not have any difficulties with comprehension, but they may often stutter to try to get the correct words or sounds out.  It is a motor problem with trying to get the words outs properly, which is linked to functions in the frontal lobe.  Even though people with this type of aphasia have a difficulty to produce words, the words still makes sense; there is comprehension of what is being asked.

                                             video example 1    video example 2              

                                        (I do not own any rights to these videos)

       Hope you enjoyed this introduction into two vary famous types of aphasia! This language dysfunction is often cause my damage to the brain and isn't just something that happens when you wake up one morning. It affects, according to the link below, "....80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia." Thank you for visiting this page today, and hope you enjoyed today's psych knowledge!

information on aphasia

Contralateral and the Corpus Collosum

  (This image is from here.)

      The corpus collosum is a bundle of fibers that connects the left and right hemisphere of the brain.  There are surgeries that cut the corpus collosum which are called split-brain surgery and this is done with patients that have severe epilepsy. After this surgery takes place, there are still moments of epilepsy, but they are decreased.
      Contralateral control means opposite side; for example, the right hand is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain.  The corpus collosum passes information from the left side of the brain to the right side of the brain, and vice versa.  For those that are left-handed, sometimes there is crossover between the left and right hemisphere, especially with language and writing. The left hemisphere is responsible for language, and the right hemisphere is responsible for the intonation within language; which would mean that the right hemisphere is able to detect sarcasm, upward inflections, and so on. The right hemisphere is also responsible for images, as in visualizing the face on a coin. Linguistic thinking is thought to be originated in the left hemisphere.
     The most amazing aspect of contralateral control is that when someone is being asked a question, depending on the type of question, there eyes will move in the direction that is opposite to the hemisphere that is being activated. So, if you the eyes move to the left, then the right hemisphere is being activated, and if you moves your eyes to the right after being asked a question, then the left hemisphere of your brain is being activated. That bit of information should be fun to try on your friends!!!
       The right hemisphere is able to "appreciate" music and see things holistically, while the left hemisphere see things in an analytical manner.  The picture below shows some key differences between the left and right hemisphere. So, please take a moment to look at the image below.

(This image is from here.)

     Thank you for viewing this post on contralateral control and the two different hemispheres of the brain. Hope you enjoyed the above information. Thanks again for reading this post of psych knowledege!

Oxytocin, the love hormone

     Oxytocin, as described by James W. Kalat, is a hormone that is released within the brain that is also a neurotransmitter which is important for sexual and parental behaviors.  One way to think of oxytocin is to think of it as a chemical in the brain that can provide a euphoric feeling when an individual is engaged in sexual activity, and it is also released when a mother gives birth to her child. So, therefore it is important for reproductive behavior. It "stimulates contractions" withing the uterus during labor and also causes stimulation in the mammary glands so that milk is released. Oxytocin is released during sexual pleasure at the time of orgasm. After orgasm is experienced, there is an obvious state of relaxation which is the result of oxytocin being released.
    There have been studies done on rats that showed an increased in exploring areas that they had not gone before, which could be potentially dangerous, after they had experienced orgasm-which reduced their anxiety of the area. Therefore if the release of oxytocin was blocked, then it would seem that oxytocin is responsible for calm and the lack of anxiety after orgasm occurs.
     The link below is from a TED talk by Paul Zak who talks about oxytocin, but not really the way that I have said above. He talks about oxytocin and it's relationship to moralality, rather than focusing on the familiar notion of "love". Also, my favorite part of the talk is when he mentions hugs and the effect that it can have on individuals. His 'doctorly' advice is to have eight hugs a day, which will increase your happiness. Please do watch the video, it's a great talk!!!

Paul Zak: Trust, morality...and oxytocin

    Thank you for reading this entry, and that some useful information was absorbed. Or at least that you enjoy this blog post. Thanks again, and 

Memory, oh sweet memory!

   
    There are various types of memories that psychologists refer to and they are episodic, explicit, implicit, semantic, short-term, long-term, sensory, declarative, and procedural memory.

    Usually memory can be simply divided into long-term and short-term memory, but sensory memory can be grouped along with these types of memories. Sensory memory lasts less than a second and is based on touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Short-term memory, or working memory, lasts about a minute or so. Long-term memory is something that is stored within the brain throughout your life. With long-term memory that are various types of memories that help you throughout your life.

    Long-term memory can be broken into Declarative, or explicit, Memory and Procedural, or implicit Memory.  Declarative Memory is made of events and facts, things that are certain and can be recalled consciously. This type of memory is called Explicit because the information has been stored and it can be recalled explicitly. Declarative Memory can still be divided into episodic and semantic memory, which I will speak about a little later.  Procedural Memory is unconscious and it is consists of skills that are a "to do" task or motor functions.  A familiar is example is riding a bike; once you have learned the skills you don't have to think about what you need to do. This type of memory works with skills that have been mastered and are procedures. Procedural Memory can be called Implicit Memory when a past experience influences a certain task without consciously being aware of the past experiences.

    Episodic Memory and Semantic Memory are part of Declarative Memory. Episodic Memory is memory of specific events and experiences. It can be thought of as autobiographical memory because it is knowledge of your own life and the things that happened to you.Semantic Memory is more worldly and focuses on events, facts, and knowledge of the world that is around us. It is knowledge of a specific event or place without having experience of that specific place. 

     Those are the basics of the types of memories that psychologists have broken down.  Not only is there short-term and long-term memory, but also sensory memory. And within long-term memory, our memories can be broken down into unconscious and conscious memory. I think memory is an amazing thing because without it we would have a hard time functioning in our lives, especially with school. Hope you enjoyed the Psych Knowledge for today, and feel free to ask any questions, comments, or even suggestions for a topic. Thanks for reading!

 

 

Human Memory Information

(This information and picture are from the link provided above...)