Walking with your puppy is wonderful
heres what we’re reading today:
“Scientists have just revealed that the brain has a network of brain regions involved in advanced mathematics, as well as simpler arithmetic operations. This network is only activated when numbers are seen, in a population of high-level university students including both experts in mathematics and non-mathematicians. These results were obtained using functional MRI on university students specializing in mathematics and other disciplines.”
“The study, published in the American Journal of Stem Cells, suggest both parents contribute to the health status of their offspring — a common sense conclusion which science is only now beginning to demonstrate, says the study’s senior investigator, Joanna Kitlinska, PhD, an associate professor in biochemistry, and molecular and cellular biology.”
“While studying the effects of resveratrol in the diet of rhesus monkeys, Dr. J.P. Hyatt, an associate professor at Georgetown University, and his team of researchers hypothesized that a resveratrol supplement would counteract the negative impact of a high fat/high sugar diet on the hind leg muscles. In previous animal studies, resveratrol has already shown to increase the life span of mice and slow the onset of diabetes. In one study, it mirrored the positive effects of aerobic exercise in mice, which were fed a high fat/high sugar diet.”
“The federal government has confirmed that it will start targeting social media posts by prospective employees as part of its review process for security clearance.
The new policy, which will allow investigators to scan an applicant’s history on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other similar sites, will be adopted soon, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).”
“Imagine if you could film a friend with your phone, as he wanders aimlessly down a road on the edges of a quaint village, then use an app to make it look like your friend was wandering through a Starry Night painting, by Vincent Van Gough? Instant art, right? While that classification might be up to conjecture, it appears the day may be coming when amateur and professional video/movie makers alike may be able to do such things with ease, courtesy of work being done by computer scientists.”
““If replicated, these findings have important implications for screening and treating patients who have been exposed to trauma,” noted Yuval Neria, PhD, professor of medical psychology at CUMC, director of the PTSD Program at NYSPI, and senior author of the paper.”
29 Comments
Bcrowley712 · May 17, 2016 at 7:06 am
In reading the post about social media, it does not surprise me that the federal government is freely looking at Facebook and twitter profiles, and I do think that people put way too personal of information on social media that can be accessed by anyone at anytime. Not enough people realize that what goes on social media or the internet in general will be there forever, and what you put on the internet can come back to bite you.
estrickf · May 17, 2016 at 2:17 pm
RE: Mathematics and the Brain
I am interested in this topic because I am fascinated by the way people are wired. Musicians, writers, athletes, and mathematicians all have a brain wired to their specific expertise. I am not surprised by the research study’s findings support this theory and claim that math may be separate from linguistics. The most profound discovery from this article is probably that “some patients with aphasia can still do calculation and algebra.” I would think that this sort of correlation would be similar to patients that have memory loss but can still play certain songs on the piano perfectly. Math calculations could be a variation of “muscle memory” in our brains.
estrickf · May 17, 2016 at 3:00 pm
RE: Birth Defects and the Father
This article marks another good reminder as to why we should make healthy life decisions for our own benefit and the benefit of others. Although it is not surprising that the father’s “lifestyle, and how old he is, can be reflected in molecules that control gene function” it. Sometimes scientists make it seem that we do not have a real choice when choosing our mates, however I think that we do have a say in it although pheromones and other factors can contribute to it. With this choice, we should be more aware of the lifestyles and habits of a future father before making the decision that could play a great role in another person’s future.
michellesandler · May 18, 2016 at 8:41 pm
Social media is a huge part of our society today. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. are all forms of social media that are commonly used today. The fact that these sites/apps are being checked prior to federal government employment is not shocking to me. A lot of information gets posted on these sites that could lead to the deciding factor for employing an individual. One can get a lot of useful information about a person through social media that they might not be able to get through an interview or standard background check. While freedom of speech may be in question, certain posts can be questionable and may lead to trouble in the future if that person were to be employed. I think checking social media accounts before employing someone is useful and would increase security and protection.
hsaner · May 19, 2016 at 8:42 pm
I think the “Birth defects and the father” article is very important because we typically only hear about all the things potential/current mothers are doing wrong. Women are encouraged to abstain from alcohol if pregnant (for good reason) and to see that paternal alcohol use leads to decreased newborn birth weight, marked reduction in overall brain size and impaired cognitive function, should also convince men to abstain from alcohol (when attempting to conceive). I also found it very sad to think that a newborn could be diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, even though the mother has never consumed alcohol, just because of the genes passed down from the father. Hopefully couples will start to realize that while it’s (usually) pretty easy to make a baby, it takes a little more thought and caution to make a healthy baby.
madelinechae · May 20, 2016 at 11:10 am
It is pretty scary to realize how involved the government is with our personal lives when you remember that they have the power to scan through all of your social media sites. However, it’s almost silly for us to think that we are that protected in the first place just by clicking “private” in our privacy settings. I think it’s actually a good idea that the federal government is going to implement this new policy of investigating applicants’ social media because, quite frankly, the amount of personal and controversial things teens are putting on the internet these days is becoming dangerous. There’s this air of invincibility that young adults have thanks to their privacy settings, but I think it’s time that people became more aware of the legitimate dangers that can arise in the future from past social media posts.
hannahdavis · May 20, 2016 at 11:57 am
The article about birth defects and the father is very interesting and also very important in everyday life. It makes perfect sense that the father’s lifestyle has an impact on the molecules that control gene function. Even if it didn’t have this effect, behaviorally the father’s lifestyle could have similar impacts on the newborn and it’s environment. It’s vital that people are educated on this before they have children in order to ensure a child isn’t born with something like fetal alcohol syndrome and other birth defects. I think the father’s health is often overlooked compared to the mother’s in terms of pregnancy. It is also very important to have children at a younger age to prevent the greater chance of down syndrome, autism, and schizophrenia that is correlated with older parents.
Makayla Riggs · May 22, 2016 at 2:20 pm
I read the article about social media and have seen this coming for a while. I think that using social media as a background check could be effective but that the government agencies in charge of it need to be strictly monitored in order to make sure that they are not infringing on public privacy. I know that I personally have no worries about this but there are plenty of people who I went to school with that may regret their posts to a seemingly innocent social media site. Soon enough social media may be enough to determine who gets security clearance or who gets hired. I think that if something is made public that it should be allowed to be used. If people are truly worried about their privacy with all of this, all they need to do is change their privacy settings to private.
lwickwir · May 22, 2016 at 10:03 pm
I completely agree with what the person commented about social media, that too many people put out way too much information. However, it’s not surprising to me that the government is going to be using this as an asset. There’s a lot you can tell from a person from their social media, like where they were last, what type of person they are, maybe give them clues to passwords they may have, etc. This can be used for various reasons by the government.
hannahdavis · May 24, 2016 at 3:50 pm
I read “Response to PTSD Treatment” and find it really interesting that the larger volume of hippocampus tissue has a better chance of responding to exposure-based therapy for PTSD. This makes sense since the hippocampus is a key feature in distinguishing safety and threats. One thing that would be interesting to study are the sizes of hippocampus’s from veterans vs non veterans and veterans from past wars and current wars. Especially because it is typically expressed that most of cases of PTSD stem from war. Another aspect to look at would be the size we predict in many years if the larger size seems better adapting to an environment with PTSD. Overall it is very important to do research on PTSD and the brain as it is one of the biggest problems are veterans face.
kaylabakhshi · May 24, 2016 at 6:37 pm
RE: Birth Defects and the Father
It is interesting that we are just now doing more research of the effects the father has on his offspring considering we know that half of each parent’s DNA becomes a part of the child. However, it is not surprising that this occurs. Why would most thing the father chooses to do in his daily life not affect his cells and genes? We have been so revolved around every little thing the mother does during pregnancy, we haven’t even offered advice to what the father should be doing before he even has a child with a woman. I hope that more research happens on this topic, and that we infiltrate the message to fathers everywhere.
kaylabakhshi · May 24, 2016 at 7:14 pm
RE: Watch Your Social Media
Although it makes sense why companies/businesses would want to check the social media of people they will be potentially hiring, I do not think it is fair. Social media should be a way that people can express themselves, whether it is public or private, without worrying about the business world. I feel as though as long as a person can separate their social life and work life in a way where they do not interfere, then what they have on social media should not affect whether they are hired or not. However, if that person’s social media is public in a way that affects their ethos, and that person’s name or face needs to representing a company, I understand how that could be a problem. Yet, in circumstances other than those, social media is that person’s “property” and should not really be judged.
michellesandler · May 24, 2016 at 11:52 pm
Birth defects and problems associated with pregnancy and the fetus are usually associated with the mother and the prenatal environment. After reading the article about the fathers effects on a fetus, I realized how the lifestyle of the father causing birth defects isn’t something that is talked about much. What pregnant mothers should/shouldn’t eat, drink or do is usually the only thing that people worry about when it comes to hoping to give birth to a healthy child. While it should be seen as common sense that the father’s sperm plays a major role in the development of a fetus, I feel like many people don’t see it as important as a mother’s health/lifestyle. With scientific evidence now available, I hope that more awareness will be raised on the importance of lifestyle in a fetus’s father and how he can affect the health of his offspring.
hannahdavis · May 28, 2016 at 1:40 pm
This idea of personal privacy is a very controversial issue in today’s society especially with the new effects of social media. I think it is fair for employers to search someone’s social media as long as they are aware of the process. Most social media is very public to begin with. It’s the emails, messages, and photos that are typically more private and make it difficult to draw the line. For example, the CIA wanted entry into one of the suspects of the San Bernardino’s shootings phone to discover more information about the tragedy, however Apple denied this access as to protect the suspect’s right into having private information stored. Although the suspect has the right to this privacy, it’s scary that valuable information that could potentially protect us from more harm could be on that phone. I think in cases of government policies and especially crimes like these there should be exceptions on what can and cannot be searched and these laws should be defined in terms today’s new technological world.
hsaner · May 28, 2016 at 8:00 pm
The “PTSD and the Hippocampus” article brings up an interesting dilemma; should new recruits for military service may be scanned before an assignment to determine whether they have an increased hippocampus and therefore a higher risk of developing PTSD? The results from the study has found that PTSD patients with a larger hippocampus are more likely to respond to exposure-based therapy for post traumatic stress disorder, which gives hope that soldiers with severe cases of PTSD can be helped. This disorder affects many soldiers, so any news of developing better/more efficient treatments is important to monitor.
michellesandler · May 30, 2016 at 4:21 pm
PTSD is common among war veterans. After risking their lives for their country, they come back traumatized and are unable to return to their normal lives. With the hippocampus being responsible in the determination of PTSD, the findings discussed in the article could help alleviate the pain and suffering these veterans return with. As stated in the article, a larger hippocampus could allow for greater success in treatments for PTSD. I think it would be a good idea to screen potential new recruits before joining military services. If their hippocampus has a larger volume, they are more likely to recover from the stress and trauma caused by war and have a greater shot at living a normal life after serving. This could protect the health of many people and decrease the number of war veterans that return with PTSD.
Chan.Jayme · May 30, 2016 at 9:11 pm
RE: watch your social media
I can see how the federal government would be concerned about their workers social media. However, I think it’s an invasion of privacy that they need to go through that. The federal government already goes through background checks and now they’re trying to go further into their workers personal lives. If they do this then what does that worker have that’s their own. Yes, it can be solved by them not posting but they should still have the freedom to
Chan.Jayme · May 30, 2016 at 9:50 pm
RE: Birth Defects and father
This research uncovering the truth about the father’s effects on newborns is really interesting. Future parents seem to overlook the fact that it is not just about how the mother takes care of herself during the 9 months but there are external factors to getting a normal and healthy baby. Therefore, it is important that these future parents are educated on all of this so they are aware.
bailey_arthur · May 30, 2016 at 11:47 pm
In the article for PTSD treatment and the size of hippocampus, the correlation between responsiveness to treatment to PTSD and the volume of the hippocampus is very interesting. The larger the hippocampus the more responsive people are to treatment the person is because the hippocampus seems to be involved in detecting safety and threat. The treatment that this article referring to it extensive therapy. Even though this is valuable knowledge, it leaves the question of which treatment is best for those who do not have a large hippocampus. Like in the article, hopefully there are more experiments and case studies that help find ways to treat those with small hippocampi. However, knowing that people with larger hippocampi respond to therapy can help therapists provide that treatment whereas those with small hippocampi can look towards alternative treatments. This wastes less time focusing on ineffective treatments and uses more time to help those with PTSD.
annahempill · May 31, 2016 at 2:41 pm
RE: Watch Your Social Media
I read the article about how the federal government is going to start reviewing social media accounts. I believe that this would be effective, but could also potentially be used in the wrong manner. I think that social media can be very telling of what a person is like, what their interests are, where they have been, who they have been around, etc. However, I also think that there should be limitations or regulations on the review process. For example, some people get their accounts hacked and have posts that did not come from them or do not follow their beliefs suddenly become associated with them and permanently put in their social media history even after deleted. Within reason I think reviewing social media is beneficial.
jaoliva@calpoly.edu · June 1, 2016 at 9:59 am
After reading the article about social media I found myself unsure if I am completely against the government potentially looking at what people post on social media. When I think of those people that are very vocal about their political opinions, I would be in favor of the government having that power. However, personally I would feel like my rights would be violated since I do not post anything that could be alarming to the government [atleast I don’t think I do]. Ultimately, it seems like allowing the government to have access to our social media is a slippery slope and it reminds me so much of big brother.
RyanRobertson · June 2, 2016 at 4:16 pm
RE: painting, video and your neural networks
I was thinking about this topic recently. It seems as though people with little or no experience are able to create professional-grade photos/videos with computer programs that are available to most everybody with a computer. On one hand, this is very cool that any average person can create high quality pictures/videos with such ease. On the other hand however, it is unfortunate that this could possibly be eliminating photography and videography as stable career choices.
Chan.Jayme · June 2, 2016 at 8:02 pm
RE: Painting, video, and neural networks
I think its absolutely amazing that people have found waves to create art in this way. However, I still think that is more raw and authentic that people still hand paint. There’s a beauty to digital art and there’s a beauty to hand made art. I just don’t think it should be interconnected as in one is better than the other because like many things that exist it has its pros and cons for each specific thing. Again, really cool that they have discovered how to do this!
annahempill · June 3, 2016 at 1:09 pm
RE: Birth Defects and the Father
I read this article about what paternal factors are involved in affecting the health of a baby during a mother’s pregnancy. It is obvious to me how genetic factors play a role in determining a child’s health, but I was shocked to read some of the not so obvious factors that also played a role. For example, the article mentioned how a father consuming alcohol preconception can have serious affects on the baby. 75% of children with FASD came from alcoholic fathers. Also, having an older father can contribute to a higher likelihood of schizophrenia, autism, and birth defects in the child. I think we tend to focus on the mother’s diet and health during pregnancy, but need to also be reminded that paternal health, diet, and stress can also cause birth defects in children.
annahempill · June 3, 2016 at 2:14 pm
RE: PTSD and the Hippocampus
I read this article about how a bigger hippocampal volume can contribute to a better response to PTSD treatment. The hippocampus helps assess safety and threat, so the therapy helps them learn to determine real vs. imagined threats/trauma. Since a larger hippocampus has a better response to therapy, this information could be used to understand which people re more susceptible to PTSD and their likelihood to respond well to therapy. One example I can think of this is in the military. It could be beneficial for people enlisting in the army to see how susceptible they are to developing PTSD or how well they will be able to respond to treatment in the future.
arklipp · June 5, 2016 at 11:01 am
RE: Birth Defects and Father
It makes complete sense that the physical and psychological additions of the father would affect the outcome of offspring considering that they are, in fact, contributing half of the genetic material. It’s refreshing to see that there are some studies that take FASD responsibility away from the mother. I don’t mean to say that she can relax in her responsibility, but she is definitely not the only one to take responsibility for any diseases that an offspring experiences.
arklipp · June 5, 2016 at 11:09 am
RE: PTSD and the hippocampus
As a military daughter, I really enjoyed reading this finding. It is great to see that there are advances in understanding about what is affected by PTSD and evaluating the situation before it occurs to decrease people’s emotional pain and suffering. Although people may not be too keen about the idea of brain scanning for PTSD probability when they are trying to serve the country, in order to preserve their wellbeing, I believe this is a positive advance in military technology. Even if people serve regardless of the results, at least the test will give them more information about potential risks which is important ethically in consenting to serving.
RachelSemple · November 28, 2016 at 11:50 am
The article “PTSD and the hippocampus” describes the new found relationship between hippocampus size and an individual’s success in exposure therapy. The research found that those with a larger hippocampal volume responded better to 10 weeks of PTSD exposure therapy then those with smaller hippocampuses. This finding runs parallel to the already known research that indicates a small hippocampus puts one at a higher risk for developing PTSD. I believe this is an important study and have many medical implications. The article mentioned the possibility of screening individuals to determine hippocampal volume before admitting people into the military to see if they can “handle it”. While I do not believe that one should not be allowed to join the military due to their hippocampal volume, I believe it is beneficial for military personal to be screened for hippocampal volume in order to develop preventative measures to protect those most at risk for developing PTSD. If i remember correctly, there is medicine available that can prevent PTSD if taken before a traumatic event. Medicines such as these and extensive cognitive/ emotional therapy can be used to tery to compensate one’s risk for developing PTSD. Preventative measures are more effective and beneficial that reactionary treatment, and this study can be a useful first step in developing PTSD preventative measures.
rachelcarlson · March 14, 2017 at 9:54 am
RE: Watch your social media.
I have been thinking a lot about how social media can affect employment with the widespread popularization of social media. Recently, Facebook has become much more like a blog: a place to share opinions, tag friends, and crack jokes. Can employers see posts you have been tagged in by friends in the comments? These types of social media interactions are not at all personal and certainly viewed by Facebook users as harmless, but could they reflect negatively on a job candidate’s interests?
Additionally, there is a recent trend in creating a Finsta, or “Fake Insta” account. This is an account where people can ‘privately’ post funny, embarrassing, or otherwise NSFW pictures that they wouldn’t put on their regular, more public accounts. But are these accounts as private as users think? I believe that there are precautions that should be taken should you choose to participate in these social media outlets.