Neuroscience Critical Thinking

chose Psychologies: Advance in Neuroscience particularly “Secrets of the Brain” as my discovery to research. I stumbled upon it because I could understand very little about the Discovery of the Higgs Boson which at first seemed very intriguing to me. In the 1700s, a British physician Thomas Willis refuted the original claim by earlier scientists that the brain was only made of phlegm. He found out “that the custardlike tissue of the brain was where our mental world existed.” Furthermore, he began dissecting brains of mice and dead people to prove his point. Some interesting facts about the brain include: there are 1.3 billion terabytes of information contained in the human brain and the “estimate that 84 percent of all the

What, teachers can change your answers on the tests, that means no more studying for me! What class is this and where do I sign up? The thought of teachers changing answers on a test doesn’t possible to happen; unfortunately, it actually occurred at Parks Middle school, when the teachers had changed the students answers on a standardized test. They were caught and had to face many consequences besides losing their jobs; it seems they can serve time in jail for the “criminal act” they did. The school was not doing well in the beginning, since they had low test scores for “the past 6 years in a row.” It may seem the teachers just lost hope towards their students of scoring well on the test, causing them to take matters in their own hands. The

Have you ever wondered how you can speak, walk, listen, memorize, read, and feel? How does one organ, weighing three pounds, control everything? This is where neuroscience comes in. I was first introduced to the topic while preparing for the regional Brain Bee during my junior year of high school. I was reading Brain Facts and I was immediately intrigued. I would run to my biology teacher’s classroom right after school so I could receive answers to my many questions. I’ve never before been so excited to learn. I finally found my passion. I no longer ask, “why did the chicken cross the road?” Instead I ask, “why did the action potential cross the optic chiasm?” To get to the other side, of course. If you can't tell by now, I like brains.

Why is critical thinking essential to biological psychology? ‘Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behaviour’ (Pinel, John P. J. 2014, p.3). In biopsychology, critical thinking is essential as it allows researchers to think creatively about biopsychological information (Pinel, John P. J. 2014, p.14). Critical thinking is the process in which weaknesses in existing beliefs or ideas and the evidence on which it is based on are identified (Pinel, John P. J. 2014, p.14). This essay will present a variety of reasons such as the ethical issues surrounding animal research, the disadvantages of using a small sample size, the negative implications that can occur when the process of a peer review is not done properly and the problems

Critical thinking and good scientific investigation is important in both medicine and psychology because people need to really think and research if the medicine they are taking or the therapy program they are doing, actually helps them. Sometimes there are other sources that help, but many of us give credit to the wrong source. Many people just notice that a therapy or medication worked for someone and think that it works for everyone but it doesn’t. For example there some commercials that try to sell pills to lose weight, and they use testimonials. The people on those testimonials may have actually lost weight because they exercise while taking those pills. At the end they end up thinking that the pills actually worked, when in reality exercise

In 2012, Carl Zimmer went to Van Wedeen as a volunteer for tests on his brain. When looking at results by using diffusion spectrum imaging, Wedeen found many right angles in the circuitry of Carl Zimmer’s brain. At the time, many scientists were skeptical at the patterns Van Wedeen found, but he knew that it was part of something important, and would continue his research. When looking at the past of our knowledge of the brain, “it’s easy to forget that for much of history we had no idea at all how it worked or even what it was” (Carl Zimmer). There have been many outstanding discoveries in neuroscience in recent history and they come from people like Van Wedeen, who continue pursuing ideas even when other may not. Jeff Lichtman

In an attempt to help solve the greatest mystery biologist have, which is how the brain works, Carl Zimmer volunteered to be a neurtoscientific guinea pig for Van Wedeen and his colleagues at the Marinos Center for Biomedical Imaging located on the Boston Harbor. Wedeen’s focus was on the brain’s wiring and was able to show Zimmer some of the circuitry important to language, also including other kinds of thoughts when Zimmer inquired about his brain imaging. I have to admit it made me wonder about my own wiring, along with my intellectually handicapped daughter’s and in awe of this technology.

“[I]n sum, the neuroscientist can tell us a great deal about the brain about its constitution and the physical laws that govern it; he can already explain much of our behaviour in terms of the physical, chemical and electrical properties of the brain...”

The purpose of this report is to describe the function and overall purpose of the brain, and compare it to current technologies that aim to replace or mimic it. The human brain is a complex organ that is still being heavily studied. Research has shown that many functions and components are still misunderstood by scientists, but the overall function is well documented.

The advances in neuroscience have come because of the desire to see the brain in action. According to Society of Neuroscience there are three main objective in neuroscience. The first is to understand our brains and how they function. The second is to comprehend how the central nervous system develops, matures, and maintains itself and the third is to analyze and apprehend neurological and psychiatric disorders, and learn methods to prevent or cure them [2]. With the advances they are in fact able to better understand ‘ordinary’ brains as well as those with disorders like autism or Alzheimer’s disease. “As they map the brain in greater detail, they may learn how to diagnose disorders by their effect on anatomy, and perhaps even understand

Famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, “Everything we do, every thought we’ve ever had, is produced by the human brain. But exactly how it operates remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries, and it seems the more we probe its secrets, the more surprises we find” (BrainyQuote). The brain is like a galaxy. There is general knowledge of the universe; however, new secrets of planets, moons, and stars are discovered on a daily basis. Similarly, scientists know the basic structure and functions of the brain, but new aspects of the brain are revealed everyday.

This week we are learning about discovery and exploration and I believe the discovery and exploration of the brain are as immense as discovering and exploring the Universe. In” Psychology: Advances in neuroscience ("Secrets of the Brain," National Geographic, Feb 2014)”, author, Carl Zimmer, gives us a tour of some of the amazing research into the brain and the many immense leaps forward scientists are making in the area.

Today, Alzheimer Disease (AD) has become a part of almost every household and it is likely that ineffective communication pattern plays a role in the primary caregiver and immediate family inability to get a handle on it. Communication patterns between family members may lead to the success of getting a handle on caring for someone with AD or its detriment, depending on the level of effectiveness. The effectiveness of a communication pattern is likely connected to the overall declination of caregivers’ depression and is worthy to be studied to decrease depression.

In researching the topic of Advances in Neuroscience, I learned many things. In learning about the brain and trying to figure out how it works on a minute structural level, many advances have been made. Scientists are eager to answer the question “how does the brain really work”. In answering this question many basic questions have been answered but that has led to even more questions. As scientists develop easier and better ways to look at the brain and interpret the data that they find, they also struggle to figure out how to collect and store all of the data that they will need to interpret just one single brain.

This essay will be focused on two different approaches to cognitive psychology: Cognitive Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Cognitive Neuropsychology is concerned with the patterns of cognitive performance and emphasis on the cognitive effects of brain-damaged patients who suffered lesions, injuries or diseases, providing vest information on normal human cognition. (Eysenck and Keane 2015, p.5) Whereas cognitive neuroscience involves in-depth study of our brain and behaviours. As the brain contains numerous neurones and is so complicated, the cognitive neuroscience emphasis on the biological side of the brain and focuses on the lobes that are divided from the cerebral cortex.