DNA Testing and Bipolar Disorder

In this article it talks about using DNA testing to figure out your likelihood of having bipolar disorder. The article got me thinking about people who would use this in a negative way. Would there be people who discovered that their young child will most likely have bipolar disorder and then treat them differently, or even worse, not want them anymore. If i were a parent i don't know if i would want to know if my child had bipolar disorder early on. I would be afraid i might treat them differently. But a plus side to it would be being able to prepare and research about the disorder so you could handle it more effectively.

Night Terrors

My boyfriend's little cousin, Jake, is 9 and he for the last year or so has been experiencing night terrors. I've actually seen him after he has woken up and he was afraid, but he had no idea why. Whenever he has these night terrors he can almost never be woken up and his night terrors have also caused him to wet the bed from being so afraid and unable to wake up to use the bathroom. He has even been tested with it and has been told that if his night terrors get much worse he could even scare himself to the point of where he could die. Now after learning about it i can understand why it is so hard to wake him up. I never thought so in depth on it before today, and now i'm going to worry about him more.

Rewards

In class today we were talking about intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and i realized that almost everything i do has extrinsic rewards. I go to work for the money, i go to school for the grades, i do or say certain things so i won't get in trouble of things like that. I don't want to go to work, usually go to school, do school work, or say certain things, but its something i do because i like the reward out of it. The only thing that is more intrinsic would be hanging out with my boyfriend of friends. i don't get rewarded for hanging out with them, i just do it because i like to. I almost feel as if i should do more intrinsic things, but then i think; "what would i get out of that"

Operant Conditioning in my life

After talking about operant conditioning i made the connection between something that happened to me that is actually operant conditining. Last year I was speeding down a street that i go down every day to get to school. just down the road i was pulled over and given a warning for speeding. Now whenever I drive down that same street everyday i watch my speed because I am afraid of being pulled over again.

Vision

This is my second attempt at posting my weekly blog for the second week. i thought it poster earlier when i did it, but it only saved it instead so I'm reposting it and hoping it works.
This week we talked a lot about vision and problems with eyes. I can very easily relate to vision problems because i can recognize many of the symptoms of bad vision because i have very terrible vision. Without my contacts i can barely read in front of me and driving would be very dangerous. At night i take out my contacts and wear glasses which also correct my vision. I noticed that the book never really mentioned that vision can worsen over time, and i know this for a fact is happening to me because every year when i have my annual eye appointment my vision is getting worse. For example last year my eyes were both -7 and now they are -7.25

Old Brain New Tricks

So I did this with Alicia and neither of us understand how the tongue is connected to the eyes. The article specifically said they both have no connection. We came up with the idea that it may go threw first the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex. Once the message is received it would go threw the parietal lobe of the sensory cortex. From that, the message is taken over to the occipital lobe that would possibly have been taken over by other parts of the brain due to plasticity.

MDMA (Ecstasy)

MDMA releases serotonin, dopamine,norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. It also releases prolactin and oxytocin. MDMA is an agonist and it creates an amplified sense of intimacy, mood lift and arousal. It will also give you increased energy and alertness.
After prolonged use of MDMA not having it in your system anymore could cause anxiety, depression, headaches, and restlessness. MDMA has also been associated with liver damage and excessive wear of teeth.