Teenagers and their Brain

After watching the program, "The Teenage Brain", I realized every part of your body especially the brain is extremely complex. Even though the only change you can observe in a growing human being is physical, your brain is developing and gaining knowledge as well. In the video a group of people studies adolescents and why they act as they do. They determined that because of the brain is developing they have radical change of mood and behavior. I was also surprised about how technology advance day by day, the fMRI (functional magneting resonance imaging), is a great advance in technology. It permits you to see the brain and how it reacts in different scenarios. It is also very noticeable through the video that every adolescent has the same “problems”, they sleep late at night and have a difficult time waking up. It is very common in all of teenagers that their parents force them out of bed. It is extremely important to have a good night sleep, especially to teenagers. Because you are constantly developing you need to have a rest. It is incredible how much better your body functions when you get a good night sleep, it helps you in every aspect of life.

http://www.legacyofhope.com/images/may_2004_brain.jpg

How the Brain Works

The word hemisphere means half of a sphere, relating to the brains the word hemisphere means one of the two halves of the brain left or right hemisphere. The major differences of the hemispheres i the brain are what they control, the left brain is analytical and controls the right side of the body, the right brain is creative and imaginative and controls the left side of the body. Corpus collasum is a wide flat bundle of about 200 million nerves that allows the two hemispheres of the brain to connect. Pierre Paul Broca was a French physician, anatomist, and anthropologist. He was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde, France the 28 of June, 1824.  He studied the ventroposterior region of the frontal lobes in aphasic pacients. The patient he first studied was Leborgne, which had inability to speak clearly. In 1861, through post-mortem autopsy, Broca determined that Leborgne had a lesion caused by syphilis in the left hemisphere. Due to his observations he concluded the ventroposterior region of the frontal lobes (now known as Broca's area), was responsible for speech production and syntactic skills. He died July 9, 1880. Roger Sperry was a neuropsychologist,neurobiologist born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1913, he died during the year of 1994. He won a nobel prize together with David Hubel for their work in split-brain research. Roger Sperry examined ten pacients operated due to epilepsy and determined that the two hemispheres of the brain are totally separated from the one another. Karl Wernicke was born a 15 of May of 1884 in Poland, he later died a 15 of june of 1905 Wernicke began researching  the effects of brain disease on speech and language. Wernicke noticed that language deficits were not always because of damage to Broca's area. He found that damage to the left-posterior, superior temporal gyrus resulted in bad language comprehension. This region is now known as Wernicke's area, and the result of damage in this area is known as Wernicke's aphasia. The occipital lobe is responsible for vision. Temporal lobe is responsible for hearing and Broca's area, Wernicke's area at the junction of the partiety, temporal, and occipital lobes in the left hemisphere are responsible for language planning and understanding. The frontal lobe is responsible for problem solving such as math calculations, it is also responsible for emotions, reasoning, planning, movement, creativity, planning and parts of speech. Judgement is also linked to the frontal lobe. The Cerebral Cortex is responsible for reasoning, and the back edge of frontal lobes is responsible for impulse.

http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~bbrown/psyc1501/brain/loclat.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wolcott_Sperry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Broca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wernicke
http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~bbrown/psyc1501/brain/loclat.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002391/functions.html

PHINEAS GAGE

Phineas Gage was an American railroad construction worker born on July 9 1823, who worked constructing the Rutland & Burlington Railroad outside the town of Cavendish,Vermont. On September 13, 1848 when he was about 25 years old, he was to adding blasting powder into a hole created before on a rock, with a fuse, and sand, then compact the charge into the hole using a large iron rod. Accidentally the powder exploded, the iron rod he was using to compact the sand passed through his right side of the face passing through the left eye and out of his head. It is believed the iron rod landed about 80 feet or 25 meters away. Surprisingly Phineas Gage was able to speak a couple a minutes after the accident and manage to walk with no help and sat on a cart for almost a mile to the lodgings in his town. He was examined by two doctors who thought it was a miracle he was alive. He was almost a month in semi-comatose, family and friends were already ready for his death, but by November he was walking and talking normally. Phineas Gage left frontal lobe had been completely destroyed, that injury is reported to be directly relating with a person's behavior and personality. He became a very annoying person and friends did not enjoy being with him, friend though of him as "no longer Gage". The case of Phineas Gage was very helpful to the study of the brain and its functions. Scientists discovered that different parts of your brain have different tasks that make you who you are, for example the frontal lobe is responsible for your behavior and personality. Brain localization means that different parts of the brain carry out different functions, the whole brain do not work at the same thing. The concept of brain lateralization is that the two halves of the brain perform different functions, the two halves are connected by the corpus collosum which is a group of more than 200 million nerves that communicate both halves. The corpus collosum is not vital some people have the corpus collosum removed due to epilepsy. For right-handed people the "left brain" performs all the analytical thinking, while the "right-brain" controls feelings and creativity. In conclusion, the brain is divided in different parts that control how we think and react.

    

                                          

                       

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage

http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~bbrown/psyc1501/brain/loclat.htm
http://www.theorderoftime.com/politics/cemetery/stout/h/brain-la.html 

http://joeltalks.com/web_images/phineas_gage_mcmillan.jpg

http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/phineas_gage.jpg

http://static.open.salon.com/files/phineas.gif                     

Athletic Ability Nature or Nurture?

As science evolves scientists have now a better picture of pretty much everything. Scientists have developed a still unsolved controversial argument: is athletic ability nature (in your genes) or nurtured (environmental). There is evidence on both sides of the argument but a solution is still unknown. I believe it is mostly nurtured because you have to constantly practice to achieve what you want. 

Lionel Messi one of the best players of the world, had growing problems, short size and had to be held to medical help since little. Now he is the top player on the world and do not have physical advantage from other players because of his size and contexture, this in modern soccer is difficult because of the continuos struggles throughout the game that result mostly in adversity to small size people. But the other side of the controverse say that by being small Messi's has a smaller center of gravity and that allows him to make more maneuvers with the ball. Therefore I think Lionel Messi was both a "born" and "nurtured" super soccer player but through practice and perseverance he is now a superstar in soccer. Another example of this is Spain national soccer team, Spain is not known for being physically gifted the male popuation in Spain has an average of 1'75 meters tall. In modern day soccer strong and tall mostly overcome. But through perseverance and proper training since a young age Spain could develop a strong team and won the most prestigious tournament in soccer the World Cup.

Genetics determine strength, height, muscle size, lung capacity, flexibility, V02 Max flexibility and endurance basketball players give validity to this statement.   Most of the basketball have the characteristics of being tall, strong, fast and agile. Most of the basketball player surpass the height of 6"4 and many  people ask: Would he had become a NBA player with 6" feet tall? The answer is probably no. In a sport like basketball you have to be tall to succeed the taller you are the closer to the basket and you can score more easily.  An especific example in NBA is LeBron James, he has all the characteristics above, and many people may think he is a "natural" basketball player, and the he has also has an incredible athletic ability he said he can perfectly play american football. An example of all-stars that are believed to be a genetically gifted athletes are both Kobe Bryant and father Joe Bryant who used to play in the NBA.  Another example of a supposedly genetically gifted athlete is Lance Armstrong through tests he is determined to have one of the greatest V02 Max readings ever seen. This characteristic helped him to become the best cyclist ever seen. 

In conclusion, through research I believe that both nature and nurture have a say in a athlete. Even though by practice you can probably become and incredible athlete, it is true you need physical characteristics that will help you in your particular sport, like height in basketball. I believe that even though you need both nature and nurture you need more perseverance that natural characteristics like Lionel Messi, and think an athlete is influenced 60% nurtured because you need to practice hard and 40% nature because you need to have physical characteristics that help you. I had a good time researching about whether athletic ability is nature or nurture, because it is very controversial and interesting.

  

    

http://www.ine.es/revistas/estaespa/101_8.pdf

http://expertfootball.com/training/naturevsnurture.php

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/sports/photos/2009/04/05/messi-leo090405getty.jpg

http://stupidcelebrities.net/wp-content/lebron-james_photos.jpg

http://www.checkoutmycards.com/CardImages/Cards/078/391/08F.jpg

http://www.byjamesraia.com/content_images/2/Lance.jpg

NATURE vs NURTURE

The term "NATURE VS NURTURE", represents the common debate, on why you act or are the way you are was it in your genes, or your experiences have formed you? Throughout the years scientists have discovered that how you look is in your DNA, but cannot yet tell if the way you social interact is in your genes. This has been a hot topic in approximately the las fifteen years. The term "NATURE VS NURTURE" was first used by Francis Galton, he was Charles Darwin cousin and was mostly  influenced by his cousin's book "The Origin of Species". It would be a great discovery to tell who "wins" between NATURE VS NURTURE because it would let us understand why some people act the way they do. The most influential topics on this debate are: athletic ability, intelligence, criminal behavior, personality, homosexuality and a person's creativity. The main question is whether you were born with this traits or from practice and personal experience you developed this traits.  Most of the psychologists think most of what we get to do is nurtured to us rather than passed biologically. I think most of this traits are nurtured but people receive more thing biologically than their looks.

            

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture
http://www.adoptionblogs.com/media/FosterAdoption/nature_nurture.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJuOTk_y-xsE9QrBYlIT7nj-cR0sREN7U5Hn2amZuWN2jjtstWMrCLFp2e0RvE7PoeXtKm3qnmxXSIgD4TotKG6FF_gN9qNTfU-wXmKgzpcrciAYLkcIdZhavILMvIye14p84sWnbZwU1s/s400/Nature_versus_Nurture.jpg