For you video game fans, I am dressed as LINK from the legend of Zelda! My kudos to think geek.com for offering such a quality costume.
Here is what I am reading today:
:”Our findings suggest a link between brain birth defects and recreational drug use in expectant mothers,” Dr Anna David of the UCL Institute for Women’s Health, lead author of the study and Consultant in Fetal Medicine at UCLH. “We were unable to identify significant links between specific drugs and brain birth defects. Therefore I would discourage women trying to get pregnant and those in early pregnancy from taking any recreational drugs including cannabis. Since only 20 of the mothers in our study had babies with brain birth defects, a larger study of such cases is now needed to examine the links with specific drug use more closely.””
“”While 20 minutes of daily physical activity (DPA) is required in Ontario primary schools, there is a need for innovative and accessible ways for teachers to meet this requirement,” says Dr. Gurd, lead researcher and professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies. “Given the time crunch associated with the current school curriculum we thought that very brief physical activity breaks might be an interesting way to approach DPA. We were particularly interested in what effects a brief exercise bout might have in the classroom setting.””
“Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty person? When it comes to dieting, your answer could change how many calories you drink, according to a study published this month in PLOS ONE. Food psychologists have previously found that people drink less and feel more satisfied when they use a tall, skinny glass rather than a short, wide one, because the human brain perceives height more readily than width. Now, researchers suggest a more nuanced reality: The difference also has to do with where you focus your attention when you pour that drink. “
“Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is thought to play an etiological role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).”
“During the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), to be held October 27-31, 2014 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown Hotel, Steven J. Waller, of Rock Art Acoustics, will describe several ways virtual sound images and absorbers can appear supernatural.
“Ancient mythology explained echoes from the mouths of caves as replies from spirits, so our ancestors may have made cave paintings in response to these echoes and their belief that echo spirits inhabited rocky places such as caves or canyons,” explained Waller.”
“Thanks to this miniature telemetry technology, the animals could move freely in groups in large aviaries so that the scientists were able to continuously register the animals’ entire behavioural repertoire. In their experiment, the researchers concentrated on so-called “stack” calls. They discovered that these calls mainly promote cohesion between males and females within bonded pairs. “Constant contact with a partner is important, as the zebra finches live in large social groups,” says Lisa Trost, co-author of the study.”
“Binge drinking can have lasting effects on brain pathways that are still developing during adolescence, say neuroscience researcher Heather N. Richardson and her colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Louisiana State University. Results of their study using a rodent model of adolescent drinking appear in the October 29 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.”
Our daughter Karla drew these great pictures to bring in Halloween. A time to gift strangers and strange kids with chocolate!
64 Comments
aflor · November 2, 2014 at 5:56 pm
The article that I found very interesting was “Fun and games make for better learners” by Rosie Hales. I think that this finding proves important in terms that even a short physical activity decreases off task activities during a classroom setting. More research would have to be done to conclude that it is in reality true, but I think this shouldn’t be targeted to just Grades 2 to 4. Even myself, a college students, sometimes is in need of a break. I really like when professors give us a two minute break to just stretch. A physical activity would come in handy because it will wake some of the college students up that sadly might be falling asleep in class. Small kids love physical activities and a learning aspect could be incorporated into this activity. I will actually be interested if research (observations) were done in all school grades, even including college. I feel like in the end, it will become beneficial towards our learning.
ChelsPsychPerkins · November 2, 2014 at 6:11 pm
The article, “Sad Effects of Adolescent Alcohol brings on their Brain”, makes a fair amount of sense. Alcohol affects adults terribly so I am not surprised that it affects young adolescents even more so, their brains are still developing. Key areas of an adolescents brain are still maturing. If alcohol affects the prefrontal cortex, the adolescent’s white matter is also being damaged making communication between neurons and the brain hard. This is very scary. The sad thing about this article is the fact that so many people still love drinking alcohol, weather its occasional/social or every day, regardless of it effects on the body and brain.
savannahsperry · November 2, 2014 at 6:15 pm
I read the article “Herpes simplex infection and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease—A nested case-control study.” The article goes to show how our working knowledge of the brain and our biology is ever evolving. For a sexually transmitted disease to play a role in causing a neuro-degenernative disease sort of bends our understanding of how the body works. We have so much more to learn.
savannahsperry · November 2, 2014 at 6:17 pm
I read the article “Herpes simplex infection and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease—A nested case-control study.” I find the article interesting because it goes to show how little we know in the grand scheme of how our body and biology works. An association between herpes and Alzheimer’s is pretty mind-blowing because we generally consider the areas that those diseases occur in to be run by different systems. There is so much more we have to learn.
savannahsperry · November 2, 2014 at 6:21 pm
I also read the article “See glass half empty? Your diet may be in trouble.” I found this article interesting as it also relates to child development. As we develop, we see a tall skinny glass as being larger than a short and wide one, even though they may have the same volume. Because our brain perceives height more readily than width, the same reasoning may play a role in managing calories through dieting.
cmc4 · November 2, 2014 at 10:42 pm
I found the article “Ancient Auditory Illusions Reflected in Prehistoric Art” to be very intriguing. It was interesting to read about the connection between sounds and cave paintings and other ancient structures. Scientists believe that ancient cultures based their paintings and monuments off of the echoing sounds they heard in places like caves and canyons. Back in those days, people didn’t have the knowledge we have about how echoes work, so they believed that it was the walls or cliffs were communicating back to them. The article states that people in those times could have associated echoing claps as hoof beats and simultaneous echoes as thunder. They would paint wall paintings based off of the sounds they were hearing and interpret them into something that they knew, such as stampeding herds or thunder gods. This is very cool, because I think it shows how they were trying to draw conclusions from what they were hearing. What I found the most interesting were the experiments scientists were doing to find out the origin of Stonehenge. They experimented with sound waves and interference patterns on blindfolded subjects and it gave them the illusion of a ring of rocks surrounding them. This was such a profound way of finding out the relationship between ancient art works and sound waves.
sarahdelossantos · November 2, 2014 at 10:45 pm
I read the “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control” article. I found it interesting that something that’s been believed as part of “common sense” can be quantified by a scientific study. I am glad that the study focused on the effects of alcohol and how they endure over time, even after binge drinking habits end. Otherwise, a statement such as “early onset of alcohol use in young teenagers has been linked to memory problems, impulsivity, and an increased risk of alcoholism in adulthood” could be interpreted as confusing correlation with causation. When I first read that statement, I thought, “well, are these teenagers impulsive because they binge drink, or do they binge drink because they’re impulsive?” It is frightening how alcohol exposure can alter brain development. This is also a little ironic, considering that college, the period during which we’re supposed to grow and develop our brains/knowledge, is also the period where most adolescents begin binge-drinking habits. As someone who has refrained from drinking alcohol so far in college, articles like this one make me feel satisfied with my decision.
evaschung · November 2, 2014 at 11:34 pm
I read the article “See glass half empty? Your diet may be in trouble. I never realized how different a tall glass or a wider glass of the same volume could be interpreted as holding different amounts. This reminded me of Thursday’s lecture when we discussed how the male gender has better spatial abilities than females. I wonder if a similar study was done with the data from males and females compared if there would be a bigger difference in women than in men in their ability to see the same volume.
evaschung · November 2, 2014 at 11:47 pm
I read the article “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control”. This makes complete sense having had the lecture discussing myelin sheath and its role in the action potential. The myelin sheath insulates the axon of the neuron, because of the myelin sheath, an action potential is able to be propagated once and carried throughout the axon until it reaches the node of Ranvier. At the node, the action potential must be created again and again in order to make its way down the axon. The myelin sheath allows for a quicker impulse to be sent through the axon, known as the saltatory conduction. And without the myelin sheath, there would be passive conduction which is slower. If the electrical impulse is sent slowly through the neuron, information will be processed as slowly. As alcohol deteriorates the myelin, the signals are not sent as quickly, resulting in a negatively affected prefrontal cortex performance.
ChelsPsychPerkins · November 3, 2014 at 1:22 pm
I read, “Dieting, glass half empty?”, it was a short and sweet article so I am going to keep my response short and sweet. Perception is key! 🙂
sabrinayoukhane · November 3, 2014 at 7:28 pm
I read the article “Pair Bonding Reinforced in the Brain”. I found this article very relateable and accurate. We have had zebra finch birds and parakeets in our family since I can remember. We at one point had about 12 zebra finch (started off from just 1 male and 1 female) and we now have around 20 parakeets as well. I am able to confirm first hand when the article says calls “are mostly associated with a specific purpose as in the case of alarm calls and contact calls”. Often times, fly away parakeets will find their way into our yard by simply hearing our parakeets mingling in their aviary. Before we had dogs to alert us to an interesting bird hanging out around our bird cage, we would recognize that something was off do to the song the birds would sing. When trying to locate one another, the parakeets will chirp a very distinct high pitched chirp that they never otherwise use (contact call). Whenever I hear this chirp, I know that we have a new parakeet that has flown into our yard!
sabrinayoukhane · November 3, 2014 at 7:35 pm
I read the article “Adolescent Binge Drinking Reduces Brain Myelin, Impairs Cognitive and Behavioral Control”. I found this article to be quite concerning due to the high level of drinking in adolescents I have witnessed myself. I think it would be interesting to find out what the exact definition of binge drinking these researchers use is (how many days a week, or how many drinks a week?). Also, at what age does the prefrontal cortex completely mature? Is it the legal drinking age of 21? And doesn’t everyone’s brain mature at different rates, so what of those who mature later than others and aren’t aware of it? When they turn 21 and start legally drinking aren’t they technically legally harming themselves?
rachaeldonahue · November 3, 2014 at 10:09 pm
I read ” Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control” as previously pointed out in lecture we discussed myelination of the brain and the age at which myelination completes. Myelination occurs in a caudal to rostral fashion starting at the occipital lobe and moving forward to the frontal lobe. This means that the frontal cortex which is responsible for most behavioral and higher level thinking is last to myelinate and is the most exposed to alcohol’s effects. It is unfortunate that most teenagers are unaware of the potential life long damage they are doing to their brain and the potential for addiction that they have created.
rachaeldonahue · November 3, 2014 at 10:09 pm
I read ” Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control” as previously pointed out in lecture we discussed myelination of the brain and the age at which myelination completes. Myelination occurs in a caudal to rostral fashion starting at the occipital lobe and moving forward to the frontal lobe. This means that the frontal cortex which is responsible for most behavioral and higher level thinking is last to myelinate and is the most exposed to alcohol’s effects. It is unfortunate that most teenagers are unaware of the potential life long damage they are doing to their brain and the potential for addiction that they have created.
aflor · November 5, 2014 at 6:15 pm
The article that I found interesting to read was, “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control.” It shocking to read what alcohol can cause for these adolescents. Alcohol use in these young teenagers has been linked to memory problems, impulsive, and risk of being an alcoholic when adults. Living in a college dorm environment, I saw how it was a problem for just first year students to drink. A lot of them drank, but they were risking their lives since they weren’t aware of their limit. This article really opened my eyes that alcohol is also a serious matter for even young teenagers and they need to be educated on this serious issue. This makes me think about the debate of the legal age to drink. If the law reduced it to 18, would it make a huge difference?
zk · November 6, 2014 at 3:50 pm
I read the article regarding the relation between birth defects and recreational drug use during pregnancy. This article was not in the least bit surprising-considering we are not even supposed to drink caffeine when pregnant, these pregnant women must have had some serious mental issues and/or lack of proper education to have been participating in such risky activities. But, with that being said, I thought it was a really cool idea to use hair as a fairly accurate timeline for drug consumption. Although I can see where some accuracy issues may come into play, such as varying hair growth speeds, I think it is is a much more reliable way than if we were to simply trust the honest word of mothers (because I highly doubt any mother wants to admit to having taken drugs while pregnant…). I think it would be interesting to delve deeper into the lives of the studied women-maybe there’s more going on than just drug use? I would think drug use, at least harder drugs than cannabis, would be correlated with a higher-stress lifestyle, which could also be contributing to such birth defects. In addition, there is a possibility that the people with higher drug use tendencies have a certain genetic makeup (making them more likely to do drugs/higher addictive personalities) that could be a contributing underlying factor, versus birth defects as a direct consequence of the drugs themselves.
anneke_bleeker · November 6, 2014 at 5:23 pm
I read the article “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control,” and to be quite honest, I am not very surprised by the findings. The article states that adolescent drinking affects pathways in the prefrontal cortex, in which affects decision making, emotion, and impulsivity. I see how much alcohol is a part of the college culture, and I always worry about what these young adults are doing to their bodies. No one really knows what heavy drinking does to them. Binge drinking is very scary because people don’t know when to stop and can go overboard very easily. Now that I know the affects alcohol has on adolescents, it makes me want to learn more about what college binge drinking has on us young adults.
anneke_bleeker · November 6, 2014 at 5:49 pm
The article “Ancient auditory illusions reflected in prehistoric art” really shattered my preconceived ideas about prehistoric art. I took art 112 Survey of Western Art which covered art from the Neolithic era all the way into the 20th century. As I was reading this article I was remembering the cave drawings I learned about at the beginning of the class. Many of these cave drawings depicted herds of animals on the wall, and the idea of the echoes influencing this art makes me wonder if they truly thought that there were herds of animals in the walls. However, while reading this I started to wonder if this idea is somewhat far-fetched. I also had a hard time understanding what the author meant about the acoustic shadows and stone henge when they said that the listener would have the illusion of a giant circle of rocks. However, with this said, I think this perspective on ancient art is very intriguing and definitely worth considering as possible explanations.
ahoatua · November 6, 2014 at 8:42 pm
I read the article “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control” as I can see many other biological psychology students have. I think this was an article that stood out to everyone because it was a prevalent issue in high school and continues to be now in college. It is important to know these effects because many people have engaged in drinking during adolescence. We may not think anything of it now, but in the long run, repetitive alcohol consumption can have huge, detrimental affects on our brains and bodies. The article uses the term “young teenagers” as the subject of their studies, so I would like to know what exact age that is. If it is an early teen age such as 13 or 14, I would like to know if the same exact findings apply to 19 year olds and above, or if the effects are slightly less daunting since almost 5 more years of developing would have passed.
ACapanna · November 7, 2014 at 5:51 pm
Thank you for posting the article “How Better Learning Occurs Through Fun and Games.” I spent several years working with elementary school students as an Instructional Assistant, and inattention was definitely a barrier to learning. FUNtervals sound like a great idea, because it only takes a few minutes, the children are getting some physical and imaginative activity, and their behaviors are more on-task for their academic lessons. I would love to eventually see this regularly implemented in schools. I wonder if less students would be medicated for ADD and ADHD. That would be very beneficial, because, as you know, medications have so many awful side effects. I wonder if the break helps the teachers feel better and teach better as well. A longitudinal study would be interesting, to see the long term benefits. My final thought is that as a student myself, I feel happy after reading this that my kids often interrupt my studying saying “Mom, want to do something fun with me?” I can now expect all of my play breaks to leave me extra focused! By the way, I love your Link costume and Karla’s artwork.
ksomasek · November 8, 2014 at 6:40 am
I read the article “Drug tests on mothers’ hair links recreational drug use to birth defects” and found the experimental method of this study quite interesting. The method employed in this study to measure drug use was hair testing where 9cm samples were sectioned into 3cm, one for conception, first trimester, and second trimester. The concept of using hair to measure drug use seemed like a very novel and interesting procedure to me and it was great to see that valuable data was obtained through this method.
The results obtained from this study however were not too appalling to me personally since I definitely do predict to see negative consequences in offspring when the mother herself is under drug use during the time of pregnancy.
ksomasek · November 8, 2014 at 6:50 am
The article titled “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control” addresses a pressing issue among teenagers today. At a time where under-age drinking is so prevalent in society among younger college kids and even students in high school, the adverse effects of adolescent drinking is an area where more research should be focused on. The article states that adolescence is a time of immense growth in areas such as the prefrontal cortex and alcohol exposure is seen to hinder brain maturity and development. Rats were used as models in this study and the main focus was on the myelin effects in the prefrontal cortex. The adolescent rats were seen to have poor memory demonstrated by decreased performance on working memory tasks after heavy periods of alcohol drinking which serves as evidence that a similar consequence can be seen in human adolescents. This article along with the study confirms that there is in fact a causal role of alcohol consumption and myelin to impaired behavior and cognition. The next step I would predict would be to share these facts of research to the adolescent generation of today.
savannahsperry · November 8, 2014 at 2:53 pm
The article that I read and found very interesting was “Drug tests on mothers’ hair links recreational drug use to birth defects.” I find it extremely profound how the hair serves as a pristine track record of drug use. I felt that a 15% recreational drug use during pregnancy statistic seemed very high. However, we need to take into account that this very large sample of 517 women was taken from an inner city hospital, which could be considered a confounding variable that may affect the percentage of pregnant women who recreationally used drugs during pregnancy. Also, the article didn’t say if the sample was randomly selected. This also was an observational study, not an experiment, because there was not random assignment of the explanatory variable (recreational drug use) and so we cannot conclude a cause-and-effect relationship between recreational drug use during pregnancy and birth defects, only a very strong association. Regardless of the statistical methods used to gather this data, I would still likely conclude a cause-and-effect relationship based off of prior knowledge.
savannahsperry · November 8, 2014 at 3:01 pm
I also read the article “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control.” I find that this area of research has been explored many times, and I’m not sure what new information this article brings to light. It’s long been known that adolescent binge drinking impairs cognitive function. Also I continually question how similar the cognitive function of rodents is to humans and if they serve as an appropriate experimental unit for comparison.
josephdaddabbo · November 8, 2014 at 3:18 pm
I read the article about recreational drug use and how it creates birth defects. In my opinion, this should already be common knowledge. Everything a mother consumes is shared with her baby through the placenta. Especially considering blood is shared. I think its obvious that drugs would affect the baby. Its an abnormality that we weren’t used to, so it will create birth defects.
ahoatua · November 8, 2014 at 7:35 pm
One thing that stood out to me while reading “Dieting, glass half empty?” was the fact that “the human brain perceives height more readily than width.” When I read that, I was reminded of something I learned in my developmental psychology class. In a study, when children of a certain age were shown glasses that hold the exact same amount of liquid, one is tall and skinny and another is short and fat, they almost always said the tall & skinny glass was bigger, because of the height. I think its funny that even though our brains eventually develop into realizing there is no difference, we still tend to lead towards the height aspect.
emilyventimiglia · November 9, 2014 at 4:23 pm
I read “Dieting: glass half empty??” as my article of choice. This article has some good information but it would have been interesting if it expanded on issues that didn’t just concern dieting. For instance, when people take shots of alcohol out of cups that aren’t shot glasses it could be dangerous if a person is consuming more alcohol than they think they are drinking. Those who participate in binge drinking should be careful when using wider cups that do not have measuring indicators. Maybe if people were more aware of these facts, more awareness would go into accurately measuring the amount of alcohol to help one consume a less dangerous amount. This article also makes me wonder what other objects we percieve hight more readily to than width. Could it be true that this reasearch could help explain why taller people are deemed more attractive or why wider people are deemed less attractive?
emilyventimiglia · November 9, 2014 at 4:42 pm
I read the article titled “Fun and Games Make for Better Learners.” I really liked this article becasue it stresses the importance of physical exercise. While learning and focusing on problems mostly takes mental activity, it would only make sense that giving that part your brain a rest and focusing on a physical activity would “restart” your brain to allow for a fresh new start to learning. I know high school PE is required for freshmen, but for the other 3 grades do not require any physical activity. Sports and other activities take place after school gets out so students are not receiving this helpful physical benefit in the middle of learning, just after. I think that having short breaks where teachers require students to do jumping jacks, dance, or run in place a few minutes a day could aid in helping students improve their performance in multiple aspects of their lives. This could even be implemented in the college classroom. I think this article also shows how important exercise is even in adult life as well. Even though adults don’t necessarily learn new information all the time, going to the gym or pretty much any physical activity can help adults focus better in the work place and allow them to give the full undivided attention to tasks.
cmc4 · November 9, 2014 at 8:50 pm
I found the article “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control” to very informative. It is a known fact that too much alcohol has negative side effects on the body and I liked how this article shed light on some specifics of the harm that alcohol can do. It was very interesting to read that researchers have actually sourced the damages specifically to the prefrontal cortex. The studies were done on rats in early adolescence since that is the time that the prefrontal cortex matures. It showed that damage was done to that part of the brain and that would lead to future problems and disorders as adults. In class, we learned what alcohol does in the brain and it is a difficult, but possible, path to recovery. I think the fact that the researchers are going to use their findings to help lead to new ways to treat alcohol use disorder and for families to work with teenagers who may be struggling with alcoholism will be very beneficial.
cmc4 · November 9, 2014 at 9:57 pm
The article “Pair bonding reinforced in the brain: Zebra finches use their specialized song system for simple communication” was very intriguing. Conceptually, I think this is a very fascinating subject to research. I was most compelled by the amount of care and detail that was put in to succeed in these studies. Researchers have been measuring the brain activity of zebra finches and how it correlates to the birdcalls they have. The studies have shown that over the course of evolution, most calls are innate. However, it was interesting to read that the same parts of the brain that are active for innate calls are also active for the use of simple communication calls and even learning new calls. I would think that learning new calls would activate different parts of the brain or at least increase the activity. Researchers found in their studies that certain calls were specifically used for bonding pairs of male and female birds, and I was intrigued by the depth of analysis done to figure out how that system worked.
dbbermancalpoly · November 10, 2014 at 10:04 pm
I read the article about adolescent binge drinking. I think this is very important line of study especially to our demographic, college-age students. I would say most freshman have at least one experience with binge drinking and I really don’t think many people know that just one incidence can have these long-term effects. I think it is common knowledge that adolescent drinking can lead to adult alcoholism but not because of the direct neurological toll you’re taking on your brain each time.
dbbermancalpoly · November 10, 2014 at 10:14 pm
I read the article about mothers who took drugs while carrying there babies. I thought it was pretty obvious that there were higher percentages of birth defects in women who did more drugs. I’m surprised that there haven’t been more studies with larger samples in this area of study because it seems like a very important topic. The hair-testing method was interesting and seems like a step in the right direction for this line of research since they don’t have to rely on self-reported data anymore.
michelle.georgette · November 12, 2014 at 5:09 pm
After reading the article on the topic of adolescent binge drinking, I feel it is absolutely crucial to warn teens about the potential impairments that not only affect the night of drinking but also interfere with abilities later in life. AS we learned in class, the brain does not stop developing until early adulthood and during your teenage and young adulthood years, there is a high risk of getting involved in binge drinking. The reduction of brain myelin can be dangerous not only because it can affect behaviors but also decision making and judgment. This article is extremely relevant to life on a college campus. Young adults typically believe that drinking only disrupts normal body functions during the night of consumption. However, it can do more to the brain then the common drinker believes. In my opinion, it is essential to provide young adults with this knowledge so that next time they are engaging in binge drinking they can think twice.
michelle.georgette · November 12, 2014 at 5:22 pm
When reading the article on the relationship between dieting and seeing the glass half empty, I couldn’t not help but think of children and their lack of conservation skills. It is interesting to see that even as adults out mind can play games and lead us to believe that two glasses hold different quantities when in reality they hold the same amount. People tend to drink less from a skinnier cup. However, it is hard to believe that it could accurately be used as a dieting trick.
svanhoose · November 13, 2014 at 2:43 pm
“Fun and games make for better learners” definitely rang true to me. My favorite part of any 2-hour class is the break where I can get up and move around for a few minutes. It drives me a little crazy to be sitting for so long. (I’ve definitely developed a preference for hour-long classes instead! Professor Freberg, that’s you!) And after years of fighting having to exercise, I’ve found only recently that exercise is one of my only non-detrimental outlets for stress-relief. I now regularly exercise as a means of self-care; especially in between study sessions so that I can wake my brain up and calm my body down (relieve any fidgetiness I’ve accumulated whilst sitting down for a long period of time). I definitely advocate for the use of “FUNtervals” in schools!
svanhoose · November 13, 2014 at 2:49 pm
I loved the findings in “Adolescent binge drinking reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavioral control”. I don’t drink and don’t plan on drinking anytime in my life. Alcoholism runs in my family and I’ve seen firsthand it’s horrible effects. I think, especially for adolescents, it should be avoided at all costs. This new research only further backs up my decision to abstain.
eengelsgaard · November 14, 2014 at 3:48 pm
I enjoyed reading the article “Fun and games make for better learners” I think that breaking up learning throughout the day with “FUNtervals” is a wonderful idea to learn. I find that when I am doing school work throughout the day if I take a short movement break, in which I am actively doing a task, when I come back to my school work, I am much more focused. I have a hard time with procrastination, as with many kids today, so I definitely think having “FUNtervals” works to the learners advantage. All that needs to happen now is seeing it incorporated in the school system. Hopefully schools will take this initiative and see too that students will actively learn better if they are given a chance for a fun and active break.
eengelsgaard · November 14, 2014 at 4:01 pm
I read “Ancient Auditory Illusions” and I found this article to be super interesting. Being a history Major I love hearing about new discoveries of the ancient world and learning more about why people did what they did. It was interesting to find in the article that ancient people thought the sounds of their own voices echoing through the cave were in fact coming from within the rocks themselves by their ancestors or gods. I have been to a few caves and have seen cave drawings like the ones mentioned and now I have a new perception to those drawings. I used to just think that they were drawing what they saw or encountered. Now I know that it is also what they heard too with the auditory illusions that they were experiencing. This article really brings ancient cave drawings and art into perspective.
savannahsperry · November 15, 2014 at 9:58 pm
I read “Fun and games make for better learners.” I found the article to be very interesting because it goes against common current day classroom teaching practices. Students are expected so sit in a classroom and learn for seven hours a day and it simply doesn’t work because bodies need physical stimulation in order to function best. It seems that school personnel could learn a thing or two about optimizing learning potential from a solid lesson in psychology.
savannahsperry · November 15, 2014 at 10:03 pm
I enjoyed the findings reported in “Ancient auditory illusions reflected in prehistoric art?” The idea that prehistoric pieces of art may have been inspired by “the behaviors of sound waves being misinterpreted as “supernatural,” is very intriguing. It is very interesting to think about how far we have come as a species in terms of how we interpret and understand our environment, and how much we may still have to learn.
allisonstoner2 · November 16, 2014 at 9:21 pm
I read “Recreational Drugs and Birth Defects.” Frankly, I felt the article was fairly obvious. I was surprised that it was a 22% increase when recreational drugs were used. Also, I was surprised that women were willing to admit they used recreational drugs while pregnant. I would be interested to hear further what constitutes recreational drugs in this study, and if different drugs produced different birth defects.
ksomasek · November 17, 2014 at 9:41 am
The article “See glass half empty? Your diet may be in trouble” was a very interesting article that offered a unique perspective to the idea of dieting. The study published by PLOS ONE stated that the dimensions of drinking glasses played a significant role in how people drink. I found it expected that there was a visual bias among people when asked to pour lemonade equivalent to a shot into a slender glass versus a wider glass. However, it was interesting that this same bias was present when asked to leave a space at the top of the glass. Ultimately, it was interesting to find out that we tend to overestimate in thin, tall glasses and it made me reconsider before I pour myself any type of drink into a glass of any shape!
evaschung · November 17, 2014 at 1:58 pm
I read the article “Herpes simplex infection and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease—A nested case-control study”. Although I was unable to read the full article, I found this interesting because I never would have imagined these two diseases being linked. However, this could make sense as to how they are correlated. HIV attacks the persons body and immune system, this weakens it significantly and possibly allows for Alzheimer’s to occur. It is strange, however, that the significance of correlation between Alzheimer’s disease and HIV occurs after the 6.6 year mark. I wonder what the significance of that specific number is on both the diseases.
evaschung · November 17, 2014 at 2:06 pm
I read the article “Fun and games make for better learners”. I like the idea of a FUNterval. The presence of a break, I believe, in its self can do wonders for a student. For example, in my lectures that run 1.5 hours to 2 hours long, when given a break halfway-through I feel refreshed and ready learn. However, when the lecture go on for the whole 2 hours with no break, I tend to lose focus and draw my attention towards my phone. I think that the FUNterval technique should start being used in schools because many of our children nowadays are being diagnosed with attention disorders and this can help with their learning and willingness to focus. I would highly suggest elementary schools to adopt this technique for a few years to see if there are improved scores on tests. A better idea would be for the same researchers to continue to carry out this study, but to distribute the same test to each group and see if there is a difference in test scores. I think that the outcome of that study will prove the significance or insignificance of the FUNterval.
ChelsPsychPerkins · November 17, 2014 at 2:27 pm
“How Better Learning Occurs Through Fun and Games” was a fun article. I feel like I should practice this even as college student. Breaks are important and the finer the better. I try to give myself a break while studying so that I don’t fry my brain. If I don’t take a break after a while I get fidgety, my brain starts to wonder or tired. Physical stimulation is important for your brain to effectively function and retain information. I hope that one day this becomes a widely used teaching practice in classroom settings, especially for young children who have shorter attention spans.
savannamurphy · November 17, 2014 at 10:51 pm
I read the article regarding adolescence and the effects of binge drinking and I found it really interesting. It only peaked my interest for information in regards to this topic given that I am a college student. Specifically if there is a difference in ages for the amount of myelination that is lost, and when this ability to loss myelination ends, perhaps when the brain is done completely forming in early adulthood near the age of 25, or if drinking at 21 is less harmful than it would be at 18 than it would be at 15. This information is very important and should be more available to people in this age group, without understanding the effects that their choices have they could potentially make decisions that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Overall very interesting information, and I hope more research in conducted in this area.
susannayu · November 18, 2014 at 1:46 am
I read the article “Fun and games make for better learners,” and even though it was centered on kids in primary school, I believe that similar treatment is needed for college students as well. I don’t think humans are meant to be sat down for hours in a lecture or at a desk doing homework. Our brains instinctively adapt to a situation when it’s monotonous or constant, so I think having an active break would definitely help us get less distracted. When I’m confined to a desk for long periods of time, personally I feel myself craving some new stimulation–therefore I get distracted and end up being unproductive in my work. However, when I allocate “free time” in my hours of work, I find myself focusing better while studying because I relieved the restlessness, and I feel obligated to dedicate the non-free time to studying.
IsabellaLazzareschi · November 18, 2014 at 1:12 pm
I read “Sad effects of adolescent alcohol brings on their brains,” as I felt that it was an important matter, especially for my generation. The article mentions that periodic binge drinking at a young age can stunt the growth of myelin sheaths in the frontal cortex, later leading to problems in working memory and judgement in adult life. This brought back to me the study Phineas Gage, when his frontal lobe was severely damaged his “memory and reason were in tact” but he was “profane and irritable” (p. 45 of Discovering Biological Psychology). This article mentioned nothing about an alteration in personality- is this just because the damage from drinking isn’t nearly as drastic as the injury Gage experienced, or because Gage had already developed the myelin throughout his frontal lobe? Maybe these two cases are too distant and different to be connected, but it was the first thing this study brought to mind.
josephdaddabbo · November 18, 2014 at 6:43 pm
I read about the effects that alcohol has on the developing brain. I can’t say I am not surprised. I noticed while in the dorms there was on guy in a fraternity that just seemed dull. The way he talked, the way he formed his opinions, he seemed dull. And he had been drinking since he was 14. SO i can easily see this being true. I wonder when at what age your brain is “safe” from development critical period and one could drink a lot without having their brain be very affected.
ChelsPsychPerkins · November 19, 2014 at 11:49 am
I read “Recreational Drugs and Birth Defects”, as I read this article I felt a spurt of anger. I will never understand why a woman would use drugs during pregnancy. The negative effects drugs have on our brain and body is known facts and the idea that a woman would put a fetus through these effects is astonishing. You are not even giving your baby a chance before they leave your womb. I would be interested to see if there is different birth defects caused from different drugs. I think it’s important to keep studying this because it is so detrimental to future generations and its scary how readily accessible drugs are today.