Brain Plasticity

In "A Woman Perpetually Falling" by Norman Doidge, different techniques are used to help repair brains that have been damaged. One woman has her cerebellum damaged and cannot stay upright due to a dysfunction in her balance in her brain. Another man cannot see. The scientists hook electrodes up to the people's brains and they communicate for the damaged tissue, helping the brain function normal at least temporarily. The woman can stand for longer after each treatment. The brain is able to set those connections for the electrodes and has a residual effect on the woman.
"But our brains also reconstruct themselves in response from the simplest tools, such a blind man's cane"(26).  This means that our brains are rewiring themselves as we live just based off of our environment.
"we see with our brains, not our eyes"(15). I have always associated the eyes with sight and forgot about the brain, but there are other ways to see instead of using eyes.
"Even zig-zags on the carpet topple her, by initiating a burst of false messages that make her think she's standing crookedly when she's not"(5). I have newer thought about the visual element of balance. This made me think about how when patterns make even normal balance people. I wonder if this has something to do with motion sickness.

Clay Brain Model

In this lab, we modeled the different parts of the brain with clay, both from an exterior and interior view. We labeled different structures, such as the cerebellum, thalamus, pineal gland, and the various lobes of the cerebral cortex, among others.

Upper: the view of the brain from the left hemisphere along the sagittal plane (inside).

Lower: The view of the right cerebral hemisphere (outside).

Missing Parts of the Brain

There is a woman who does not have a cerebellum. The cerebellum is called the "small brain" because of the high density and importance of it. Normally people who lack a cerebellum have very severe speech and movement problems, but this woman has minimal problems because her brain has compensated.
Broca's area is part of the frontal cortex. It is responsible for language, both comprehension and formation. When a person has a damaged Broca's Cortex they might have problems in their speech, but will still be able to speak. The sentences they form are not correct in grammar, but contain the essential information. Stuttering is associated with this area.

Finding Inspiration

20 time is the exploration of a chosen topic or issue that faces our society.  In my project, I am asking the question what can motivate us to live a meaningful life that is outside of academics? My project is I will take pictures to capture meaningful elements in our local lives. The progress will be tracked on a blog or social media page with the photos and writings posted. This way will allow me to reach out to a younger and larger audience. The final product will be a collection of the pictures and writings in a scrapbook format.  I have chosen this topic because in the Bay Area the high academic pressure has led kids to lose sight of the important parts of life. This project will help to answer the question of why we should live a meaningful life.  My goal is to travel to places in our community (1/week) and share these pictures in that week. For the book, I will put what I post in it. I will measure my progress through the number of posts and pictures. I have some starting pictures that I hope to post this week. After that I am going to post once per week.

Unit 5 Reflection

This unit we began by covering the digestive system. The digestive system provides us with nutrients through the breaking down of food. Many of the organs in the digestive tract act as a long tube that keeps the contents away from our body cells. In the String lab, we discussed the length of all the alimentary canal organs stretched out. Other organs, called accessory organs, bring digestive juices to break down the contents to nutrients. The Whole process starts in the mouth with chewing and salivation. Then I swallow and the bolus goes down my esophagus to my stomach. My stomach churns and acid and enzymes eat away at the chyme.

In horses only part of their stomach is glandular, the part that secretes gastric juices. 

After a couple hours, the chyme enters duodenum, then travels to the jejunum and finally the ileum. In the small intestine, the pancreas and liver release enzymes that break down the food and help the small intestine absorb the nutrients as it travels through it. Finally, the remaining matter enters the large intestine where water is removed and is excreted through the anus. Relating to this metabolism is how our body uses the nutrients we take from the digestion process. For the most part, people in Saratoga remain in the fed state most often. The sugars we absorb are taken to the liver and made into glycogen. The remaining nutrients go to body cells(insulin is high and they are ready to take in glucose); the amino acids go to the liver, but the other nutrients become adipose tissue. Then we enter the fasting state. Once again this is quite common in Saratoga, as it occurs in the hours following eating. As the insulin levels drop the glucagon levels rise and glucogenesis, the making of glucose from amino acids and glycerol, kicks in. The body begins to rely on fat for energy and breaks down some adipose tissue, giving the heart and muscles energy. Ketone bodies begin to be made at this point. Finally, the body reaches the starvation state within the next week. Adipose tissue supplies the muscles, while the brain is fueled by ketosis and the glucose is used for making RBC. Eventually, only the vital organs will remain barely functional at which point death shortly follows.
Unfortunately, this metabolic process goes wrong at times often resulting diabetes. In type 1 diabetes the body attacks the beta cells on the pancreas, preventing insulin from being released.Without insulin, the Gult-4 receptors cannot take in glucose to use. In type 2 diabetes the body no longer responds to the insulin and can no longer take in glucose either. Both result in thick syrupy blood that can result in clots and high blood sugar. Long term the kidneys can become problemed from the hyperglycemia and eventually fail.

Diabetes has risen to epidemics in the US. 

The endocrine system controls the hormones in our body. Hormones are chemicals that our body releases to signal other parts of the body to trigger responses. A steroid hormone is lipid based hormone that can travel through cell membranes. The steroid goes into the nucleus and binds with the DNA. Nonsteroid hormones cannot go through the cell membrane so they use receptors on the cell's outer surface. Insulin is one of these that need to react with the receptors to activate a response. In diabetes this is what goes wrong and does not respond. The nonsteroid hormones reacting with the receptors causes a domino effect in the cell. The endocrine system uses negative feedback to regulate the amount of hormones in the body. This works like a thermostat where when it gets to the desired temperature (or hormone level in this case) the supplier shuts off. One major gland is the pituitary gland. This can directly react with the body or it can trigger other glands to release their hormones.

The lymphatic system is like the sewer system of our body. It cleans up the fluids that have come out of the circulatory system and cleans up after the inflammatory response. This system runs closely with the circulatory system, wherever there is a capillary there are lymph capillaries that help clean up. They also are intertwined in each villi to catch anything leaking out of the gut. The lymphatic system has a central pump, but it mainly relies on muscles and valves to pump the lymph around. The lymphatic system produces WBC for the body's immune system. Whenever we go to the doctor they always poke around in our neck area. That is because we have many lymph nodes there. If we are sick with a cold they will be soft and swollen because the lymph system is catching and collecting clumps of the bacteria in the lymph nodes. In cancer the lymph nodes will be hard. The tonsils catch anything that enters through the mouth. The thymus helps develop T-cells.  The spleen makes and recycles RBC.
My goals I have begun to work towards. I wrote my relate and reviews promptly except for one. This has helped me be less stressed about class and more prepared. My running I have not started. I am going to keep this goal. In order to push myself more and give me an incentive, I have signed up for a 4-mile race in April. Now I feel like I have a purpose to run.