Drafts

Asking people to take pictures of me in my neighborhood was a learning experience. Although it may not be considered “deviant behavior” in some eyes, it did in fact deviate from the social norm by taking people out of their comfort zone to act in a way they normally wouldn’t. The variety of reactions that I encountered shows that everyone is different. Some groups of people are more reluctant to break the social norm whereas other groups of people are completely unfazed by it. I suppose the right response depends on the situation at hand. In any case, I now realize that it takes a conscious effort to go against the social norm because of the social pressures that come with being seen as a deviant.

A cognitive distortion that a person who has panic disorder may experience falls under the idea of "all-or-nothing thinking." All or nothing thinking is when an individual looks at something as all goods or all bads with no in between. People with panic disorder often see themselves as overly nervous or frazzled. When they see themselves this way they go without noticing the times they're calm, cool, and collected. They will either see themselves as a huge success or a huge failure.

Peripheral neuropathy refers to the damage of the nerves and the damage to the peripheral nervous system. Damage to these nerves can result from trauma injuries, infections and metabolic issues. Patients with peripheral neuropathy seem to experience symptoms distally and works its way up. Symptoms include feeling of pins and needles, pain in hands and feet, burning, loss of balance, numbness and tingling. There are a variety of classifications and about 100 types have been found. Peripheral neuropathy usually affects all nerves at the same degree of damage. Some causes could also be due to autoimmune diseases, alcoholism and vitamin deficiency. 

Initial migraines that females experience are due to hormonal imbalances during puberty. The imbalances in hormones can cause an toll on overall health, social life and school work. A solution that may work is birth control, which can be used to balance the hormonal levels. Migraines can occur due to low levels of progesterone in adolescent females. Progesterone is a hormone that fluctuates during the menstrual cycle. Scientists had found that two thirds of women have migraines before their menstrual cycle, due to progesterone imbalances. Hormones can vary depending on the time such as days and months. The patterns of hormone flow can affect the person differently depending on how much of an imbalance there is.

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/04/also-i-hope-we-can-cure-all-disease-interview-with-neurotechnologist-ed-boyden/

This article, published on April 3, 2019, is about Ed Boyden, the founder of optogenetics. This article interests me because I work in a lab on campus in which we use optogenetics. Recognizing that the brain’s neurons communicate using electrical pulses, Ed Boyden wanted to invent a technique to further define the neural circuits in the brain. The technique uses proteins called opsins from natural sources such as bacteria and fungi, that are light-gated ion channels. A neuron is made to expresses these opsins using injection on a viral vector, so when a light is shined on the neuron, it is depolarized and fires action potentials. This technique relates to material in this course because it can be used to further elucidate the neural circuits involved in pretty much everything. For example, in my lab, we are using optogenetics to find the neural circuits involved in sensorimotor gating, something that patients with schizophrenia have an inability to do. If we can find the circuit, we will be better able to design treatments for patients with schizophrenia. In order to further the technique of optogenetics, less invasive applications would be ideal, although these do not exist yet. As Ed Boyden mentions, we need better methods to watch the brain in action. The only way we can do this in the lab right now is by decapitating the mice and harvesting their brains.

The three phases of digestion are cephalic, gastric, and intestinal. During the cephalic phase, food has not entered the body but smell and thought of food stimulates the central nervous system to start preparing the body for the injestion of food. The salivatory glands begin to salivate. During the gastric phase, food begins to enter the stomach and there is a strech in the stomach that triggers hormonal and neural signals. Mechanical and chemical digestion begin to take place in the stomach. An increased pH stimulates G cells to release gastrin, which stimulates stomach activity. The intestinal phase begins when food passes through the pyloric sphincter and into the small intestine. There is mechanical, endocrine, and neural control. 

In this lab the starting materials (acetic acid and isopentyl alcohol) were reacted together. The refluxed solution never separated into two layers so the expected final product of isopentyl acetate was not found therefore there was no final weight or percent yield calculated. This could have been due to either a failure to mix the liquids well or from a frayed plastic connector piece in the distillation apparatus. In order to analyze the odor and IR spectroscopy another student’s product was used. The odor resembled a banana scent which is comparable to the expected odor of isopentyl acetate. The IR spectrum has a large dip around 1740cm^-1 confirming the presence of an ester. However, there is also a large peak at about 3600cm^-1 indicating some impurities in the product.

Bulimia Nervosa, commonly known as Binge-Eating Disorder is a mental disorder in one which a person binges followed by behaviors designed to prevent weight gain from the binges. A binge is classified as uncontrolled eating of large amounts of food. Some behaviors include self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives (or other purging medications), fasting, and excessive exercise. Like anorexia nervosa, about 90-95% of bulimia cases occur in females. The peak age of onset is between 15-21 years old and the symptoms can last for several years.