Broca's aphasia

Brocas aphasia is brain damage that causes language impairment. I believe my grandmother has this. She has had two strokes and the second one is the one that has really impaired her language. The first stroke she had she was fine. Her personality and humor were still there. She knew something was wrong with her because she felt like she had something on her tongue. For a while she had a little trouble talking and us understanding her. The second stroke she had was the worst. My grandmother has her good and bad days in which we can understand her. She gets frustrated because we don't understand her. I believe that she knows what she wants to say but the words don't come out understandable. Another thing with her is that she recognizes us but she does not know our names.

Vulnerable developing brain

I don't understand why women who know they are pregnant drink alcohol. They are just negligent or not educated and don't know the consequences that will happen to their unborn child. The fetus has no fault and is the one that is going to suffer for the rest of their lives. Fetal alcohol syndrome is very bad and affects the fetuses brain. They will have hyperactivity, impulsiveness, difficulty maintaining attention, mental retardation, motor problems, heart defects and facial abnormalities. If alcohol impairs are judgment it does many more things to the fetus. It impairs their judgment also but not only for a moment but for the rest of their lives. Even smoking and drugs. If it does a lot of damage to the women's body, it hurts the developing fetus even more. Women should take care of their bodies if they don't want to stop doing harm to their bodies or stop drinking or doing drugs if they want a healthy baby.

Communication at synapses

Today I was reading up on cocaine and methylphenidate aka Ritalin and its effects. It mentioned that cocaine gives rapid effects because it is sniffed or injected. Ritalin would have the same effect if the user were to inject it as well, but since it is taken as a pill, people don't get the same results. I think this is crazy because people give Ritalin to their children. How can we give this to a young child? I know that some children might have a disorder but it is like giving them illegal drugs. The book states that there have been studies that have been inconclusive as to whether taking Ritalin increases or decreases the chances of being drug abusers. I would not like to give my child a medication that has some sort of resemblance to drugs, I would try to come up with an alternative.

Blood brain barrier

I was reading on the blood brain barrier and was amazed that it is like a shield to viruses. It is awesome how are body has different types of defense mechanisms. The blood brain barrier helps protect our brain kind of like a scanner in that it shields against the bad things like viruses yet it allows good things such as vitamins and medications. Even though it acts as a shield there are certain bad things that get through such as Alzheimer's and drugs (heroin). When Alzheimer's attacks the brain it kills the vessels thus allowing hazardous things to enter into it.

Even though there might be a couple of things that may pass the blood brain barrier, it is a good thing that we have it to help us fight something so small that could be life threatening. It's amazing what are body can do!

The biological Approach to Behavior

After reading the assigned material for the week, I was astonished that animal protestors would target the researchers and their family especially their children. I can't believe the protestors can compare an animal life to a human life. How else do they expect for researchers to come up with cures to save human lives. Do they think they can come up with it without doing any testing? Who do they expect for them to do research on? I think I would rather lose a rat than lose a mother, father, sister, brother etc. Have they not had a family member sick and need medicine or even themselves? How do they think that Tylenol or any other medication came on the shelf? Not without testing. I don't think they would like to give their family member pain medication and them not wake up because there was a side effect because the medication was not properly studied or tested. We need animals to do testing to come up with cures. That is why God gave us animal and plants for us. I would rather lose an animal than a family member or friend.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RALTi42h0k