Early Life Depression & Anxiety Changes Structure Of Developing Brain
Childhood anxiety and depression alter the way amygdala (almond shaped mass of nucli) connects to other regions of the brain. These kids can grow up even more depressed and are overall prone to having more emoitional problems. Did you know that one in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar dissorder? Reaserchers found a brain chemical important to antidepressant response in mice. Oh and an enzyme called STEP is more dominant in the brains of schizophrenic people.
I chose this article because I have a lot of friends with these dissorders so it caught my eye and I wanted to read about it. Umm what I found most interesting about the article was the fact that children with these issues may not out grow them. Then again at the same time it kinda sucks that like one in 17 people have it.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (2)Monkeys ‘Move and Feel’ Virtual Objects Using Only Their Brains
Date: October 6th 2011
Summary (8-10 sentences)
Two monkeys learned how to use brain activity to move an avatar and identify the texture of virtual objects! This technology is trying to start to be used by quadriplegic patients so they can use thier arms or walk again. This is done by wearing a robotic exoskeleton so they can even feel the terrain they walk on. The monkeys used brain signals to move the body without actually moving their limbs. The texture of the objecst were virtual so they sent a current through the robot skeleton into the brain so the monkey could identify it. The purpose of the whole experiment was to help the people who are even completely paralized to be able to feel or move again. They say that this will be available to the public in the next few years. There was absolutley no movement of the limbs, just using brain waves to move.
What you found most interesting about the article and why.
I found that you can virtually touch things by just using your brain was amazing. Because they are using this to help people who have been paralized was pretty cool and it wasnt just mindless reasearch. I liked how you could slip on an exoskeleton to do the work for you. But since they said it would take a few more years to get the product to the public, that was kind of a bad thing I guess because it seems to already be done so why cant we just put it out there now for like a test run?
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (6)