Daniel Renaud

The State of Connecticut has recently decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana and treats it like a minor traffic violation where those under than 21 would face a 60-day driver’s license suspension, similar to the penalty for underage possession of alcohol. However, it should be remembered that marijuana remains illegal under federal law (and is against Trinity College policies.) In addition to the possible criminal penalties for marijuana use, it is important to consider the long term health consequences of marijuana on short term memory.
The use of marijuana has dramatically increased in recent years. Currently 10 out of the 50 states in the United States have legalized marijuana and the legalization of marijuana at the federal level is being considered as well. It is therefore essential to thoroughly analyze the physical and mental effects marijuana has on the human body in order to educate the public about potential health consequences of sustained marijuana use and before action is taken to further legalize the drug. Marijuana is currently a Schedule One drug that is primarily smoked or ingested and activated cannabinoid receptors in the human body to induce pleasure. Scientists believe the THC in marijuana travels through these cannabinoid receptors located in the brain’s frontal cortex and hippocampus which in turn can potentially cause damage to both of these areas which are primarily concerned with the brain’s ability to recollect short term memories Thus the impact of marijuana use on short term memory is an issue that deserves attention.
In a recent study conducted by Professor Reto Auer published in the New York Times, he concluded that marijuana use on a daily basis over five years had a negative effect on short-term memory. While the effect he found was not that significant over that time period, if the negative effect on short term memory and pot smoking continued at the same rates, the impact upon short term memory could be severe. So although in Connecticut you may not land in jail, you should keep in mind that the impact of marijuana may remain with you forever.

Rachel Scheub

Selflessness: A Mental Disorder?

Earlier this year, on October 10^th, NPR aired a podcast titled “What Drives Some People to Take Personal Risks to Help Strangers.” Before we get into the science covered in this podcast, consider this: is there such thing as a truly selfless act?  This question is trickier than it appears.  Imagine you were in line at Dunkin Donut’s this morning and you decide to pay for the person behind you in line as well.  On the surface, this appears to be a kind, totally selfless act.  How would some you benefit from paying for some random stranger’s coffee?

Even if there are not monetary or physical benefits from this kind act, research has shown that reward centers in your brain are activated when you do an altruistic act.  Those “warm fuzzies” you feel when you do something good are actually a physiological response to your kind act.  So, if your body is responding positivity to your action, you are still getting something out of your action.  So, was your choice to buy the coffee truly selfless? Or was it still intrinsically selfish because your reward centers were activated?

While this may have already blown your mind, think about a psychopath, which is a mental disorder characterized mainly by a tendency to act only in self-interest and demonstrate apathy towards others.  We would consider someone without any desire to help anyone selfish (and consider this negatively).  Why do we look down upon self-interest so much? Evolutionarily, would it not make sense for us to be motivated to survive (and therefore prioritize our own needs)?

Now, synthesize these two pieces of information. Contemplate the fact that no action is completely selfless and that theoretically, we should be motivated to survive. So, based on this, would it not be abnormal to encounter a person over-motivated to help others? Are humans programmed to not act selflessly if it is costly to our own personal health? Why would someone act detrimentally to their own health to save someone else’s life (say, by donating a kidney)?

Back to paragraph one: “What Drives Some People to Take Personal Risks to Help Strangers?” Brain scans of those who conducted life-saving acts of altruism revealed an abnormally large amygdala in people who have acted in this overly selfless manner.  Scientists interpreted this in correlation to the altruistic acts to mean that those with large amygdalae are more heightened to the fear and distress of others.  This explains why someone might decide to save the life of a stranger even if it may hurt their well-being in the long term.

At the end of the day, selflessness is more complicated, and presents both neurological and philosophical questions for us.  Most of us fall somewhere on the continuum between the guardian angel with a large amygdala and psychopaths. So, next time someone buys you a coffee in the drive-through, think about what might have been going through their head.

Works Cited:

https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/10/10/555070329/what-drives-some-people-to-take-personal-risks-to-help-strangers

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22794262

Anna Hackett

Food Blog

We all know the feeling, absolutely craving that gooey chocolate cake, that cheesy pizza, or that crisp salad even. You also probably know the feeling of seeing an advertisement for a restaurant with sizzling steak, steaming fries, and creamy ice cream. It turns out, marketing agents have a better idea as to what they’re doing than we may assume. You may already be somewhat familiar with the process of rewards and punishments in the brain. A pathway known as the mesolimbic dopamine pathway is the principle area of the brain associated with this phenomenon. Our brains are trained to learn what stimuli in the environment or actions we do lead to rewards, or good feelings. Food is no exception to this mechanism and we can thank dopamine for how we feel. We know that eating brings us happiness; we as well as our brains consider it a reward when we eat, thus dopamine is released. So, seeing food advertisements where the food is displayed as if it were right in front of you causes our brains to signal to us that we want what we are seeing and we want to complete this new goal to release dopamine. We associate seeing the food with eating and thus being happy. Advertising agencies are no fool to this process and thus know, the more they show you and the more frequently you’re exposed to their commercials, the more you’ll want their food. This same spark of craving can come from scrolling through social media. So many people, if you’re like me, follow food Instagram accounts or blogs that are dedicated to showing the delicious, mouth watering, food finds the poster has managed to get their hands on somewhere in the world. It may seem harmless scrolling though these accounts, but you’re actually causing your body to get feelings of hunger without realizing it. You may have noticed that after a few scrolls through one of these pages you start feeling like you’re ready for a snack. Whether or not you indulge in these feelings is an entirely other thing, but only those with willpowers stronger than mine will be able to resist these new cravings. So, next time you’re scrolling though one of these accounts, because realistically this post won’t make you stop, nor should it, try and see if you’re starting to get those munchies feelings you brain is trying to induce.

References:

Dooley, Roger. “Food Ads: How Brains Respond.” Neuromarketing, 29 Sept. 2014, www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/food-craving.htm#.

Banks, Amy. “The Dopamine Reward System: Friend or Foe?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 12 July 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-love/201507/the-dopamine-reward-system-friend-or-foe.

Bergland, Christopher. “The Neurochemicals of Happiness.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 29 Nov. 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201211/the-neurochemicals-happiness.

Romm, Cari. “What ‘Food Porn’ Does to the Brain.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 Apr. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/what-food-porn-does-to-the-brain/390849/.

Anna Hackett What Makes You You? The Nature Nurture Debate

The mind is a mysterious entity that so many have tried to decipher. Why are some people so outgoing while other people are so shy? Why are some siblings’ mannerisms the same, while others’ couldn’t be more different? There has been a lot of exploration as to what makes us the way we are and the main question is are we destined to have a certain personality or do our experiences mold us to be the people we are? In truth, there is still a lot of debate on the subject as proof has been found to sway scientists one way or the other, but there is one trend that seems to be widely agreed upon: our childhood is integral to our personality. Let’s start with an interesting relationship between childhood and genetics. You may have heard of the “serial killer gene” study. In this study, a man named Jim Fallon discovered through scanning unknown groups of families’ brains that his family seemed to all have brains matching that of a psychopath. A psychopath is someone who has a disconnection with feeling emotions or having a conscious. They often have an inactive orbital cortex, which works closely with the amygdala, a section of the brain involved in fear, aggression, and emotion. Fallon found that there are actually two genes that can be passed down that make someone more likely to show aggression and violence that are common in serial killers. One is a version of the MAO-A gene that produces less monoamine oxidase-A enzyme, which results in irregular metabolizing of dopamine. The other gene is CDH13, which is involved in connecting neurons. The main point, though, is that even though his whole family had these genes, most of them weren’t serial killers (though some of his ancestors were discovered to have murderous pasts). This proves that genes don’t necessarily mean someone’s personality will be one way or the other, but they can play a role. What was found to be the main trigger for whether these genes were a factor or not was whether or not the person had a traumatic childhood. In the event of a happy, nurtured childhood, these genes would never pose a problem, with a less fortunate one though, things become bleaker. Now, there are still some who believe this is nonsense and genes play no role. Other scientists believe that our first six years of life can determine how we act later in life. The notion that we have one personality is being stepped away from and being replaced with the idea that people have multiple personalities depending on the situation they are in and these roles we take are dependent on how responsive parents are, what your position in the family is, and the narrative your parents had for you based on their own childhoods. Again, the quality of your childhood is not an end all be all, simply a starting point that can potentially be changed later in life. An interesting point that has been discussed, though, is what our society would be like if people stopped assuming their children are genetically wired to be a certain way and started owning up to the idea that they have an immense role in the character of their child. So, where do you stand on this debate? Do you agree with the notion that our genes are more likely to drive us towards a certain personality? Do you think a person’s experience will have a greater affect on how they act? It’s a complicated phenomenon, one we may not fully understand for a very long time, but it’s pretty amazing to have at least come this far in uncoding it. References: Ashley, Sarah. “Do You Have the Serial Killer Gene?” Modern Notion, 2 Oct. 2015, modernnotion.com/do-you-have-the-serial-killer-gene/. Smallman, Etan. “What Gives Us Our Personality? Nature Takes on Nurture.” Metro, 30 May 2015, metro.co.uk/2014/03/03/what-gives-us-our-personality-nature-takes-on-nurture-4342057/.

Starving for perfection? Is it worth it? Sababa Anber

Did you know that around 10 million females and about 1 million males suffer from a type of anorexia or bulimia in the United States? In fact, millions of people more are struggling with compulsive eating disorder, which is about a 70 million people worldwide. Interestingly, the number of reported cases of young women suffering from anorexia, between the age of 15 and 19 has escalated every decade since 1930. Eating disorders consists of different types, such as anorexia nervosa, which is the fear of gaining weight, bulimia nervosa is the act of binge eating then purging or vomiting, and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS), and binge eating disorder falls under that, which is eating until uncomfortably full in one sitting. Compulsive (or binge) eating disorder is quite alike as bulimia in various ways. Such as, in both disorders, a person feels guilty and are regretful about overeating. However, purge eating is not seen in people who suffer from compulsive eating disorder. They therefore, tend to be overweight or obese which could lead to several cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure. About 1800 to 2600 calories a day is the normal, healthy, amount of food for an average teenager or an adult. However, during a bingeing episode, a person can eat about 25 times that amount, which could be equivalent to eating an entire chocolate cake or even an extra-large pepperoni pizza. Actually, people who binge eat, tend to consume these several times during the day! Research studies show that in the development of eating disorders, a significant role is played by genetic factors. For instance, the relatives of women who suffer from anorexia tends to be 11 times more likely to develop anorexia, while relatives of women with bulimia are four times more likely to develop that. The most devastating effects seen in people with Eating Disorders include depression, isolation, lack of self-respect, substance abuse, feelings of incompetence, rage, and anxiety. Especially, people who are either admired or mocked for their weight are at a greater risk of developing these symptoms. It is imperative to help people who are suffering from eating disorders. If your loved one is suffering from eating disorders, it is essential to communicate your concerns in a caring and supportive way. Most importantly, confronting the person you care about is a crucial step in order to get them both the help as well as the treatment that they deserve. Start with a casual conversation if you must, but it’s better to open up and talk about it, than suffer in silence. References: 1. Eating Disorders Statistics.” National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Association Disorders. 2012. Accessed: April 20, 2012. 2. Sonenklar, Carol. 2011. Anorexia and Bulimia (USA Today Health Reports: Diseases and Disorders).  Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books

Selective Memory – brain blog article by Bella Blumenschein

It is crazy to think about how our brains physically change when we form memories. When studying this process, we learn about how the neuroanatomical processes help us create these memories and store them in different brain regions. Even more fascinating is the fact that some of our memories are not even accurate, and we sometimes genuinely believe in stuff that never even happened, or happened in a completely different way. Facts, events, or specific stimuli are called declarative memories, and those declarative memories of personal events specific to a time and place in our past are labeled episodic memories. When we talk about selective memory, we refer to these events in our past, but not everything we experience is actually stored in our brains. Instead there are several factors that lead us to remember some, and forget about others.  My goal here, however, is not to list the different potential triggers of selective memory, but instead focus on the one that intrigues me the most.

It is known that the parts of the brain such as the amygdala and cerebellum that are responsible for emotional arousal are also involved in the consolidation of memories. However, I wonder until what point is this process a physiological and chemical one. It is sometimes hard for me to believe everything that happens inside our heads is just a product of nature, especially when it comes to the way our emotions manifest themselves and influence how other processes work. It is easier to comprehend that in general, events that are emotionally charged, such as the car accident I was in over ten years ago, are vividly remembered, while I wouldn’t be able to tell you whatever boring thing I was doing at this time last month. This seems evolutionarily beneficial.

What does not seem to make sense to me is how when we develop feelings towards something, somewhere, or someone, we tend to shape our memories around the way we idealize them, and forget whatever does not coordinate with these idealizations. Is that biological or do we do it to ourselves in the sense that we force our minds to remember some stuff and forget others? To put into perspective, in a relationship I experienced in which we both hurt each other to the point of becoming very distant and not talking anymore, whenever I think of the situation, I remember everything I did that could’ve ruined it, and do not have one single memory of being hurt by that person without it having been my fault. My friends, however, are able to recall and tell me about various of these situations and even with them reporting them to me, I do not seem to remember experiencing that. What I remember from our relationship is the fact that I screwed up many times, and feel the guilt of being fully responsible for us growing apart. Till this day I wonder, how did my brain mechanisms influence the way I remember this experience in a certain way, without letting me see any differently.

By Sababa Anber

Do you ever feel that you cannot distinguish between dreams and reality? For those living with narcolepsy, the line between wakefulness and sleepiness is so blurry that one can look like they are perfectly awake, but their mind is far off on a vacation. My friend Elizabeth was diagnosed with a severe case of narcolepsy with cataplexy when she was in 6th grade. It crept up on her as she’d fall asleep at the ballet bar or in the middle of a friend’s party. It was painful for her to recognize that something her sisters assumed would be a passing personality quirk has proved itself to be a permanent burden in her life. Narcolepsy with cataplexy is a condition in which both sleep and wake states are disrupted.  Since becoming a narcoleptic, Elizabeth has never had a normal night’s sleep. It is not about her simply being tired. On a daily basis she copes with disrupted wakefulness and she will never sleep a night with normal sleep architecture. Elizabeth takes Xyrem, the most controlled substance in the U.S. that is only dispensed by one pharmacy in St Louis. It is deliberately manufactured to be short acting and foul tasting in order to discourage its abuse or use to harm someone. In fact, in drug circles it is known as the date rape drug, so she has to be extremely careful about keeping it safe and private. Xyrem knocks Elizabeth out, once at 11 pm, and then she wakes up, goes to the bathroom and takes it again around 2am, all of these just so that she can function normally; or at least hope to, like a regular person. Narcolepsy prevents Elizabeth from taking late night dance classes, having sleepovers, or reading for long hours (which she used to love to do). Plus, it can be an embarrassing disorder as well. People constantly take photos of her sleeping and laugh as she drifts off in class. Her teachers and friends sometimes question the legitimacy of the disorder. They sometimes won’t take it seriously– suggesting that she go to the nurse, or take a quick nap and then everything will be fine, frustrating her in her every step in life. She uses her functioning and awake time very carefully so that she can live the most normal life possible. She doesn’t, for example, drink alcohol (which is prohibited on her medication anyway). And she has restricted extracurricular pursuits. She spends most of her waking hours, which are very limited, studying, eating (meals are her main social life) or in class or at her job. She was in a dance group first semester which she resigned from in order to keep focused on her academics. In the past, she has fallen asleep during an exam and this resulted in the teacher having to create a substitute exam. On other occasions she has taken an exam while appearing awake and looking at the exam upon completion, it was evident that she was in a partial REM state and had written jibberish, and had to retake the exam. Lastly, an interesting part of having narcolepsy is that it comes with an incredible command over dreams. Narcoleptics have extremely vivid dreams and nightmares which are interesting to hear about. Every time I do not get sufficient sleep, I just remember that I am lucky to have the capability of sleeping normally when I want to. We must all appreciate our time awake and try to accomplish as much as possible. References: Elizabeth Sockwell, Class of 2020, Trinity College

By Roxana Alvarez

Have you ever woken up not knowing where you are or who the people around you are? Lydia Velez-Herrera has. On Thursday during common hour, November 9th 2017, students and faculty were given the opportunity to hear Lydia Velez-Herrera, founder and president of “Lilly Sin Barreras”, discuss her experience as a traumatic brain injury survivor. According to Ghajar (2000), traumatic brain injury is one of the most common causes of death and disability (Ghajar, 2000). Carlson (2014) goes on to say that traumatic brain injury is a serious problem in which approximately 1.4 million people are treated and released from an emergency department, 270,000 people are hospitalized, and 52,000 people die from each year (Carlson, 2014). Translated in English, “Lilly Without Borders” is an organization that provides legal, informative, and personal support to those that have suffered from brain injury or those that experience cultural, language, or financial barriers. As Herrera’s presentation title “Can You See Me, Can You Hear Me” suggests, she and her organization are driven by the motto, “I Can See You, I Can You Hear You”, as they aim to provide resources to those who don’t have them or don’t know where to find them. During her talk, Lydia described how she was moved by her own experiences with TBI. Through them, she came to understand that sometimes all a person needs is an extended hand. At the age of forty-one, Lydia Herrera woke up and didn’t know where she was. During her talk, Lydia described how the members of her family became strangers to her. She became somewhat of an “adult child” and travelled to Puerto Rico to be with her mother who had to care for her. She expressed how, in Puerto Rico, she spent her time in eight hospital units, all contributing to her becoming overly medicated. During this time, Herrera felt as if she was constantly being watched. Her confusion with the disorder and, and with the way she felt she had to act, often led her to ask herself the question, “What’s happening?” She described that even the act of watching TV affected her negatively; she was easily overstimulated by the people and noises coming from the screen. As her emotional rollercoaster progressed, she was anchored by one quote that she repeated to herself constantly, “You can shake this.” Herrera was put in a position where she was made to understand many realities. At this time, judgement became an important quality in people to her. She claimed that when it comes down to it—intention is important. Perhaps she would be asked questions, (for example, “Do you speak Spanish?” or “Do you have a disorder?”) and that was okay—so long as the intention behind people’s words were not hurtful. As she progressed in her recovery, she also realized that it is important to not submit one’s self to his/her limitations (whether physical/mental/psychological/etc.). She met many people that pushed the idea, “I’ve always been this way” and, because of this, didn’t believe they could get better. She refused to hold on to this. On her search for healthcare providers, she learned that sometimes it takes people that are completely different from you to help you and that it’s important to be patient with, and stand up for, people with neurological disorders. Though Lydia’s TBI contributed to her struggling physically, socially, and emotionally, she expressed how, because of it, she grew stronger—especially in the fact that she never gave up on her own growth/improvement and refused to ever be anybody but herself. In having this experience, Lydia now aims to be a source of help and support to all of those in need—whether it be by providing them with information, legal help, or a general helping hand.

For more information on Lydia or Lilly sin Barreras, call +1.8609668955 or e-mail lillysinbarreras@yahoo.com

References Carlson, N. R., & Carlson, N. R. (2014). Foundations of behavioral neuroscience. Harlow: Pearson Ghajar, J. (2000). Traumatic brain injury doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736

Molly Fitzgibbon

Upon entering high school and signing up for a fall sport it was a requirement for all athletes to take the ImPACT test. It seemed very unimportant to me at the time and something I just wanted to complete so I could get out there on the field. Little did I know in a short few months this test would be a necessary and helpful tool in getting diagnosed with a concussion. One crisp fall day of my freshmen year, I was out practicing on the field with my teammates. A simple drill was being executed, but when running full speed with my head down I collided heads with one of my teammates and immediately fell to the ground. When trying to stand I felt nauseous, disoriented and my head was in much pain. After going in to see the trainer, I went to the South Shore Hospital and a CT scan was done. Everything looked normal on the CT scan but I was diagnosed with a concussion and told I could not finish out the season. After hearing this I was directed back to school to take the ImPACT test again, it was amazing how much the results differed from my baseline results in the late summer. The ImPACT test shows multiple aspects of neurocognitive function, including memory, attention, brain processing speed, reaction time, and post-concussion symptoms. Personally, it took me months to recover from the concussion, I struggled with headaches for quite some time. As I was recovering from the concussion, I took the ImPACT test multiple times to see if my score was returning back to the baseline, and sure enough as time passed it was evident that my brain began to heal and my scores inched closer and closer each time to back the level where it would normally function at. Throughout the rest of the season it was evidently noticeable that people treated my concussion very differently than if I had a sprained ankle. There was such a push to get back out there on the field when if I wasn’t ready I could have done more harm to my brain. Throughout my high school career, I watched people get multiple concussions and return back even when they had not been fully healed. Overall, by doing that these people seemed to struggle more with chronic headaches and long term effects of their repeated concussions. I am very thankful that my concussion was on the less severe end and I waited until my test results again matched those of the baseline so my brain was able to heal properly. References: http://www.nebsportsconcussion.org/impact/sports-related-concussion-testing-and-impact-testing-program.html

Emma England

One of the biggest questions in neuroscience stems from the question: what is perception? How do we know what we are seeing in the world is the same as what someone else is seeing? For example, the red we all have learned to describe, could it be maroon to someone else but they just learned to associate the maroon color with the word red? This is a million-dollar question that no one has answered, despite the technology we have. In the article “How Machine Learning is Helping us to Understand the Brain” by Daniel Bear, they bring up an interesting point about the metaphors we use to describe and understand the human brain. The author explains that many times, scientists study the bigger picture of the brain by using a “the systems approach”. For example, they study how large groups of communicating neurons lead to our perception of the world. Technology is expanding to the point that is not what is restricting us from understanding the brain. Alternately, he thinks that we should be taking an approach to the brain like an evolutionary biologist would and study the brain based on how it does something. Conversely, he states that we have been studying the brain as if we are seeking explanations for each aspect of what the brain does.  In my opinion, one of the biggest obstacles that we have yet to figure out is the line between sensing something and perceiving it. For example, in the visual system we know that the light source acts as the stimulus and this stimulus hits the back of the retina which then changes various cells turning this physical stimulus (the light wave) into a neural signal that the brain can then understand. The message will then be sent from the retina to the primary visual cortex via the optic nerve. The brain will then interpret this light and develop a figure based on many of the aspects of the stimulus. This is how we are perceiving the world. However, there is still a lot we do not know. We know the stimulus (the light), the pathway the light follows to transduce the stimulus into a neural signal (the cells in the retina), how the neural signal travels through the brain (the optic nerve), and then which areas of the brain the signal synapses in to increase the neural firing rate (the activity) in that area of the brain (V1; or the primary visual cortex). But we don’t really have any idea HOW these increased firing rates of neurons in a specialized portion of the brain allow us to perceive the world we just know that’s what it DOES. Essentially, this connects to the mind-body problem as well as the bind problem. The mind-body problem is the issue of how physical processes such as nerve impulses and sodium and potassium molecules flowing across membranes (the body part of the problem) become transformed into the richness of perceptual experience (the mind part of the problem)? Additionally, the binding problem focuses on how the different aspects of the world come together to lead to our sensation. I learned about these two different issues in sensations versus perception in the Perception class taught by Professor Grubb at Trinity. All in all, the article states that we need to start looking at how the functions and allows us to carry out every day activities and experience the world through a variety of senses. It is not saying that we need to disregard our previous techniques by identifying what each area does, but that in order to get a greater understanding of the brain as a whole we need to focus on the HOW question. Studying the brain using this approach will hopefully help us understand the brain more completely and allow u to answer the question of whether what we are seeing is the same as how other people see the world. Bear, Daniel. “How Machine Learning Is Helping Us to Understand the Brain.” Salon, Massive, 25 Nov. 2017, www.salon.com/2017/11/25/how-machine-learning-is-helping-us-to-understand-the-brain_partner/.