Adoption

Recently in class we have been discussing how our parents pass down certain traits to us through our genes and how our environment affects this. This whole thing has made me think a lot about myself and who I am. I am personally adopted when I was only a few weeks old. I wonder how much I am like my biological parents and how different I would be if I lived with them still. My mom was only 13 years old when he had me. I can’t even imagine being raised by someone that young. Just that fact makes me think that I would have to be different from who I am now if I were raised by my biological mom. Because I was adopted I was able to be given everything I needed and deserved while I grew up while I think this would have been a lot harder had I stayed with my biological mom.

I also wonder how much I am like my parents. I know I got a lot of my looks from my dad, especially my dimples, from the pictures I have seen. But I mean personality wise. In the book it said that an adoptive family doesn’t really affect who I person becomes and this simply makes me wonder where some of my traits are from. Someday I hope I will be given the opportunity to find out, although that seems doubtful.

Neuroplasticity

In Old Brain, New Tricks I read about neurplasticity and rewiring the brain. In the article, a researcher developed a way to rewire a person's brain using only a camera and a postage stamp-sized plate that is placed on the tongue. He was able to give blind people vision again. For pulses were sent through the tongue into the brain depending on the colors that the camera picks up. These pulses would be known as the sensory imput and so would be sent to the parietal lobe of the brain, which is the sensory cortex. But since the person is see this, the impulse has to some how be sent to the occipital lobe that contains the visual cortex. So the sensory cortex would need to send this information to the visual cortex in order for this to work. The best part about this whole thing is that the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe are right next to each other so they would esaily be able to communicate with each other. All that would be needed are a few interneurons to transmit the pulse from the sensory cortex to the visual cortex. Over time, the sensory cortex would grow and become stronger, soon almost taking over the visual cortex.

Pramipexole

Pramipexole is also known as Mirapex and Mirapexin. It can be used to aid in both Parkinson’s disease (stiffness, tremors, muscle spasms, and poor muscle control) and restless leg syndrome. Normally the basal ganglia are affected. This has a very high amount of dopamine releasing nerve cells. This then, in turn, activates several dopamine receptors. In Parkinson’s disease, the neurons deteriorate and cause the receptors to no longer properly receive dopamine signals. This then causes the basal ganglia to no longer have the ability to regulate body movement efficiently and causes motor functions to suffer.

One long term effect of pramipexole is an overall feeling of tiredness. Also patients that are put on Mirapex as a medication can be put at risk for getting orthostatic hypotension. This is where a person’s blood pressure suddenly drops very low when they stand up. This can cause a person to have a sense of dizziness and feel lightheaded. Mirapex can also cause a person to experience hallucinations.

Pramipexole is an agonist for dopamine receptors in the brain. It directly stimulates the dopamine receptors that are underfunctioning because of Parkinson’s disease. This then, in turn, helps to restore the dopamine signals needed to the proper level and help the basal ganglia to again function properly.

If the symptoms of Mirapex become too much the patient should slowly get off the drug. It is highly discouraged that the patient stops taking it cold turkey. They are encouraged to take less and less of the drug a little at a time. If the drug is misused, it is recommended cutting back on the dosage. Most likely with misusage, the person is going to experience extreme sleepiness, especially if Mirapex is being taking with other medicine for colds and narcotic pain medicines. Again they should slowly work their way off the drug a little at a time, and hopefully they should return back to normal.

http://www.rxlist.com/mirapex-drug.htm
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/pramipexole.html
http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands_split.jsp?pg=/ppdocs/us/common/dorlands/dorland/nine/100012758.htm

The Test!

My test went better than expected. I went into the test on Friday slightly nervous. I wasn't really sure what to expect and just hoped that I had studied enough the night before. While taking the test, I felt like I was doing alright and that i would probably come out of it with an ok score. I did better than i had expected and am very happy with my score.

After this test, I feel like I can relax in this class now. I am not as nervous about the future now and am fully ready to continue on. I now know what to expect on tests. I am fully confident that I will be able to succeed in this class.

Views on the YouTube Project

I personally enjoyed the YouTube project. I had fun being able to video tape the interview. I find it much easier on me to video tape rather than having to do it in real life in front of the class. Although it seemed like a lot of people were having technical defficulties, I had none. Everything worked right away from Patrick and I, and we had no problems getting this project done. This was a quick and easy away to learn about abunch of psychologists. It was also much more entertaining than just having to read and take notes on all of them. This isn't like a normal project and it made learning and little more fun and entertaining.