mental abbilities

1. Explain in detail what "savant syndrome" means.
-is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations. Although not a recognized medical diagnosis, researcher Darold Treffert says the condition may be either genetic or acquireded

2. What does genius mean?  Explain the difference between genius and savant.
- a genius is someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight. A savant is someone who someone who has a very strong memory in a specific area. These people usually suffer of a very severe brain inujury that has changed completely the way their brain works.

3. What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?

-a stroke is a rapidly loss of brain functuing.

-the affected area of the barin ins unable to respond or work after this has happened.

-after this has happened it is very possible that the victim will not be able to move one part of his or hers body.

- the person might ass well have problmes understanding language or using it.

4. What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?

-Functional MRI is based on the increase in blood flow to the local vasculature that accompanies neural activity in the brain. The FMRI helps us with new insights into physiological bases for disfunction. It measures the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. One powerful approach is to examine brain regions whose activity changes when people are asked to (i)  process different kinds of information (for example, words, pictures, sounds, letters, images);

5. What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?

- The corpus callosum (Latin: tough body), also known as the colossal commissure, is a wide, flat bundle of neural fibers beneath the cortex in the eutherian brain at the longitudinal fissure.
The corpus callosum is the major neural pathway that connects homologous cortical areas of the two cerebral hemispheres.
6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?

- Epilepsy is currently defined as a tendency to have recurrent seizures (sometimes called fits). A seizure is caused by a sudden burst of excess electrical activity in the brain, causing a temporary disruption in the normal message passing between brain cells. epilepsy can cause memory loss, specifically about the events that occurred during the time period involving the seizure. There is no clear cause to this condition.

7. What is autism?

- Autism is known as a complex developmental disability. Experts believe that Autism presents itself during the first three years of a person's life.

8. What is Asperger's Syndrome?

- Asperger's syndrome, also called Asperger's disorder, is a type of pervasive development disorder (PDD). PDDs are a group of conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the ability to socialize with others, to communicate, and to use imagination.

Accidental genius

A savant person is a person that may have e very low intelligence percentage but is extremely intelligent in a certain area. In this video we could see how a man could say any day of the week of any year even 2,000 yeas ago. All this man needs is to make the calculation in his  head and within seconds this man is telling you the day of the week. Another example f this is a girl that can memorize 5 books at the same time. This girl can even reed 200 pages in a hour and memorize very word in it. All this people are victims of brain injury, their brain injury has made them into a autism victim which at the same time has made them in to very intelligent people.

Make me a genius

Susan has proven to as that any kid can be made into a genius. When she was a little girl Susan’s father taught how to play chess. As she was growing up she started to fall in love in chess and become into one of the worlds best chess players. Ever since she was a little girl she was been beating older man at chess. Susan now has a photographic memory, she is able to play 5 chess games at the same time and even play chess without seeing the chessboard. It is very impressive how Susan is able to win without any hesitation, all Susan needs is the chessboard in her mind and picture all the moves she and her opponent are doing. 

GIFTED CHILDREN

Its is very interesting how a few kids in the words are born with extra abilities that make them more intelligent or capable of doing things that kids their own age are not able to do. Mark is a perfect example for this. Ever since mark was a very little boy he has been able to play more than 40 classical (hard) piano compositions. His ability to play so good and extraordinary has given him the chance to play side by side with one of his favorites piano players. If mark continues to practice the same way when he is much older he is going to be one of the most famous and talented musicians that has ever existed. Early brain stimulation is very good and will certainly help the child a lot when he or she grows up, but at the same time it might affected him or her because the brain might concentrate more in some areas and top using others, so when the brain needs those areas that the kid didn’t used so much before the brain will have forgotten how to use them. 

nature VS nuture

Homosexuality has been questioned for many years, are we all born with out sexual orientation or do we start to learn and acquire it as we start to grow up and find who we really are and realize if we are straight (being attracted by the opposite sex) or gay (liking the same sex). I have always believed even after watching this video that to two theories about sexual orientation are true. One theory being the one that each person is born with its own likes, and the other being that as the years go by the person might start to realize what she or he really likes. A person might be born straight, but maybe as the years go by that person may go through a lot of traumatizing events that might confuse the person and force him or her to change all of his or hers perspective of life. In this video we could see how twin who have identical genetics can be very different in their way of sexual orientation, both being male. While one of them has a very masculine bedroom, decorated with army toys, soccer balls, and dark colors the other twin has a room, which would be classified, as a typical girly room. Pink walls, stuffed animals, white horses are found in his room. Pink nail polish is displayed in his hands. Girls who prefer to play with soccer balls and spend time with other boys (tom boys) are more likely to like women when the grow up, form the fact that they have spend so many time pretending to be a boy that they eventually start to think as a boy.  All around the world these people are being victims of racisms, it is my personal opinion that these people should be treated as equals, it is very true that its not right nor normal for them to be attracted to the same sex but is not their fault. It is also true that some of these people lose their minds and start changing there outside appearances as well (travesties); this might be one of the reasons why people don’t like them. 

inside a criminals mind

There is a big difference between normal minds and criminal minds. Criminal minds think a lot different than normal people do, they constantly have this thought of using violence against people, this simple though soon becomes their addiction and illness. Form the Fact. That their brain is damaged form some way or another, the brain does not tell the person what thing is right and what is wrong. The person might have grown up in a very violent or sad society so with time the person got used to it and grew up thinking and learning that those bad things are right, and they should be done. These brains don’t have the capacity to distinguish the right from the wrong. These people are more dangerous as time goes by, emotions affect this a lot as well. When a person is sad or mad or any other kina of negative feeling people act without thinks and to wrong things without thinking correctly or even without thinking they just act out of impulse. In my personal opinion, a criminal must be in a constant pain, pain that is surrounded by sadness and angriness, which as said before, only contributes to their unusual acting. 

A brain injury

Many things may lead to brain injury such as swelling and pressure. It must be horrible t olive everyday without being able to do half the things you wanted, all because your brain does not work the same way as others brain do. When a great forced is applied to the brain, the brain might be deformed, if the brain gets deformed it might affect the way it works for the rest of the persons life. Contusion, Axonal injury and bleeding in the brain are the three different types of brain injuries a person may suffer of.  When a brain is damaged, the person might be affected in speaking language, understanding it and even thinking rationally. All of this might lead to issues to be able to adapt themselves into their normal lives, once your brain is damaged you are introduced to a new World where nothing is as easier as it used to be, these people might take years to able to adapt their selves into this new way of leaving, some might never be able to adapt themselves. Friends ad family are very important when this kina of things happen. The love and confront received from others help enormously in this kina of situations. 

MRI

The MRI is a new technology that has helped us over the years. The MRI can see from the hard surface to the soft tissue inside ones body. This incredible piece of technology even is used to see and observe the brain while it is working. As the machine goes through the brain a Light is shown in the areas where the brain is being used, making it seem. Almost like a mind reading machine. Many studies have been made with this machine. A patient is placed inside the machine and given different types of assignments to do while the machine is working its magic. Another test they do is they tell the patient to think of a certain object and se which part of the brain shows the light, making it easier for the scientist to study how the brain and its part work. With enough study and research, it is easy to mind read a persons brain by identifying what kind of object they are thinking about just by seeing which part of the brain is lightens up. It is quite weird and interesting to see the brain image in the computer and know that eventually with in time it will be very easy for us to read minds and understand each other easily, maybe without needing to speak. 

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Learning about the brain, its parts, and how it works has helped me understand more abut how I feel and why I do things. A side from its little side the brain works master and harder than a car motor. The brain within seconds can transfer information to any part of my body and safe my life. A teeneagers brain is still growing therefore it needs more sleep than any other person, with all trh stress and activities us teeneagers go through everyday it is almost impossible for us to obtain those 8-9 hours of sleep. I personally get barely 6 hours of sleep each day including on weekends due tot the Fact. That even on weekends I have other curricular activities that tare early in the morning. On Saturdays for example I usually got o my art class which starts at 9 in the morning, in the night I go out with my friends and get around 12-1 in the morning, which gets me to bed around 1:30-2:00, the next day (Sunday) I need to get up very early because I need to go to church or go out with my parents. Due to the lack of sleep I have I am sometimes in a very bad mood or too tired to do any work. My parents usually get mad at me because at dinner time I am very quiet and don’t want to speak that much when they ask me questions, but they don’t understand that I am very tired, I don’t want to do anything but sleep and relax, but I can because I just got home and I still got a whole pile of homework and projects to finish. I wish my parents had seen the video we saw in class so that they would understand how I feel and what I have to go through every single day.