Our Awareness

Daniel Bor’s book The Ravenous Brain energetically argues that awareness, or consciousness, is a production of elaborate information processing.  Bor describes the deep evolutionary roots of consciousness.  The very complex human brain with its billions of neurons and connections has roots that can be traced back to the beginnings of life on earth.  Through trial and error, our consciousness evolved to what it is now. 

In the introduction of the book, Bor says: “There is nothing more important to us than our own awareness”.  This statement becomes undeniable when we think about what we consider a meaningful life to be. Brain death rather than cardiac death is what we consider to be the end of a person.  Until recently, it was though consciousness could not be studied because of its complex and seemingly subjective nature.  Bor claims that the scientific study of consciousness is possible because the brain and the way it processes information is what enables our awareness.  Brain damage and mental illnesses often result in a change in consciousness, which supports the argument that our awareness is no more than the functioning of neurons. 

I recently read a book written by a journalist named Susannah Calahan titled Brain on fire: My month of madness.  In this book she describes her experience with a newly discovered neurological disease.  She has no memory of the month she was hospitalized, but since she is a journalist, she created this book by piecing together information she gathered from friends and family.  She experienced hallucinations, mood swings, confusion and seizures.  After having gone to several doctors and having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and alcoholism, she was diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.  It is caused by an autoimmune reaction against NMDA receptors in the brain.  This receptor helps neurons communicate.   

Calahan writes:  “The break between my consciousness and my physical body was now fully complete. In essence, I was gone. . . . This was the beginning of my lost month of madness.”  The harmonious functioning of the brain is what enables consciousness.  Disruptions to these processes can cause inexplicable changes to awareness.  Studying diseases like Calahan’s can better the understanding we have of consciousness and the way our brains produce it.  Bor’s argument that consciousness is nothing more than the functioning of the brain is supported by cases like Calahan’s where awareness is lost because of a disruption to the normal functioning of the brain. 

Bor, D. (2012). The ravenous brain:how the new science of consciousness explains our

insatiable search for meaning. NewYork: Basic Books.

Cahalan, S. (2012). Brain on fire: My month of madness. New York: Free Press.

Lamas, D. J. (2013, 5 27). When the brain is under attack: A new disease at the

crossroads of psychiatry and neurology could help in the understanding of psychosis. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2013/05/26/when-brain-attacks-newly-discovered-disease-can-mimic-psychosis/dyixxnwdHJJIUITsNYJC3O/story.html

Arbaclofen

            The chapter that struck me the most in Daniel Bor’s The Ravenous Brain was chapter 8. In this chapter, Bor discusses autism and the over consciousness.  He points out that “autistics have an overabundance of awareness, and all their symptoms are merely their way of dealing with this supercharged consciousness”(Bor 239).  I thought to myself what it would be like to have a supercharged consciousness and how would I be able to deal with this.  There have not been a lot of successful drugs developed for treating autism. Bor does point out one drug called arbaclofen that seemed to have shown results dealing with the autistics consciousness.

            I came across an article in Time magazine that discussed a study that was done with arbaclofen to see if there would be improvements with common symptoms of autism such as social withdrawal.  So how does this drug work?  “The drug works by acting on the brain’s GABA-B receptors and decreasing elevated activity of a neurotransmitter called glutamate”(Szalavitz). As Bor mentioned autistics have a high level of glutamate flowing through their brain that prevents the gamma-amino butyric acid from firing. You might ask yourself why is this important? If there is an overabundance of glutamate in the brain this can cause tissue damage in the brain, as well as provoke an “overwhelming sense of consciousness”(Bor 242). This over consciousness prevents a lot of autistics from maintaining social interactions with others. The study that was done with arbaclofen showed improvements in the social behaviors of the participants with Fragile X syndrome.  This new drug can help pave the future for those with a supercharged consciousness. 

Resources:

Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.

Szalavitz, Maia, and Maia Szalavitz. "The First Drug That Could Help Social Withdrawal in Autism." Time. Time, n.d. 

Is a Permanent Vegetative State Truly Permanent?

After many years of struggling with bulimia, Terri Schiavo's heart had finally had enough. Doctors were able to revive her but she was left with significant brain damage that would leave her in a vegetative state. Facing the decision of removing her feeding tube or leaving it in, Terri's husband and her parents began a seven year long battle. This situation ignited a political, religious, and moral debate across the country, making people question what truly determines a permanent vegetative state.

A vegetative state is when one has "some form of sleep wake cycle, and sometimes opens his eyes, but shows no signs of awareness..." (Bor, 2012). This state is related to damage to the individual's thalamus and connects to the pre-frontal cortex. Bor states that to the grieving family, twitches, smiling, or grinding of one's teeth may seem to be hopeful glimpses of improvement, but are often only reflexes. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between the true consciousness of a person and the reflexes of the individual's body. Several different experiments have been performed in hopes of providing a better way to diagnose a permanent vegetative state, like Terri's, and maybe even predict recovery.

Adrian Owen developed the idea of using an fMRI machine to scan the brain of a vegetative patient (Bor, 2012). The patient listens to four different noises, each testing a different level of consciousness. He then compares the vegetative patient's brain scan to than of a fully conscious person. The extent to which a patient passed also became a reliable predictor of how well they would recover, if at all. This is one of the most simple and reliable ways of gauging an individual's consciousness and awareness without the aid of surgery or other major medical procedures.

This exact experiment was written about by Ellen Zolfagharifard a little over 3 months ago on Mail Online- Science & Tech website. After spending 12 years in a permanent vegetative state, a patient was able to communicate via fMRI scans. When asked yes and no questions, the patient responded mentally and doctors were able to understand his answer by reading his scans (Zolfagharifard, 2013). This shows that he is aware of the world around him and even has a deep mental capacity that may or may not have been present earlier in his condition. Later, by using this technique with many other patients, Owen has also found misdiagnosed vegetative patients.

As Owen continues to improve upon this process, there is greater hope that vegetative patients will be able to communicate with the outside world, giving loved ones and doctors alike hope for recovery. While this is something that many families have dreamed and prayed for, this makes things much more difficult for those who are seriously deliberating the removal of a feeding tube, or those who have already done so. Knowing now that there is new research that can show whether a patient is conscious when all other factors indicate otherwise is sure to make them wonder what might have been.

References:
Bor, D. (2012). The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. (p. 223-231). New York: Basin Books, 2012. Print.

Zolfagharifard, E. (2013). "Locked In His Body for 12 Years but Finally Given a Voice: Man in a Vegetative State Can Speak Thanks to Mind-Reading Computer." Mail Online- Science & Tech, 13 Aug. 2013. Web. Retrieved from: <http://dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2391214/Locked-body-12-years-finally-given-voice-Man-vegetative-state-speak-thanks-mind-reading-computer.html>.

The Fear of Snakes and the Complexity of our Brain's Inner World

In his book, The Ravenous Brain, Daniel Bor spends a good amount of time discussing the history and evolution of the animal brain in relation to it's principle job of perceiving and reacting to important information. To put it more succinctly, "the main purpose of the brain is to sense the outside world and move accordingly." (Bor, pg. 67) In the same vein, Bor brings up the incredible complexity that exists in what he calls the brain's internal environment. Animals, especially humans, have incredibly large and detailed stores of information about the world around us readily available in our minds at all times. This allows us to entertain endless varieties of ideas, test theories, make plans, and react to the world with minimal physical work and remarkable mental ease. As an example, Bor offers his own ability to plan a midnight snack and where it could be procured, all without leaving his bed. This inner world, and the extreme specificity that it contains, is what seems to set animals and humans apart from other organisms that are capable of learning and adapting. While it is a feature that formed relatively early in our own evolutionary spectrum (at least from the viewpoint of someone on a human timeline), there are still many parts of this inner environment of the brain that are being discovered, particularly as it relates to their corresponding physical structures.

While scanning the New York Times I happened upon a silly sounding article, proclaiming that humans' (and monkeys') almost innate fear of snakes is the result of a specific group of neurons in a specific brain region. Yes, according to researchers exactly 91 neurons located in the pulvinar are solely responsible for identifying snakes. The pulvinar as a whole is said to be responsible for quickly directing attention to specific objects. Because of the neurons located in it that are specific to recognizing snakes, we have the ability to notice snakes faster than we recognize other objects, contributing to our fear of them (researchers say that people who like snakes are experiencing the same effects, but their experience with snakes resulted in love instead of fear). At one point, this specificity for snakes was almost certainly evolutionarily advantageous, as snakes were a serious threat to the safety of ancient humans and primates.

This ability to single out snakes also speaks to Bor's idea of a highly specific and complex inner concept of the world. Given our ability to imagine and detect so many specific things, it is hardly surprising that part of our brain is solely devoted to snakes, especially given their importance as an age old threat. Our mere ability to conceptualize, identify and respond so many specific things is amazing, and it is even more unbelievable that we can now pinpoint the exact location that allows us to recognize something as specific as a snake. What started out as a seemingly silly article, takes on a much more meaningful tone when examined through the lens of Bor's "inner world."

This blog post refers to the following New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/science/afraid-of-snakes-your-pulvinar-may-be-to-blame.html?ref=science

Locked-in Syndrome

In Daniel Bor’s book The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Neuroscience Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning, Bor touches on a condition called “locked-in syndrome.” Locked-in syndrome is a rare condition where a patient is conscious but physically paralyzed. According to the International Encyclopedia of Rehabilitation, a lesion to the brainstem causes locked-in syndrome. (Beaudoin, 2013) Bor talks about one victim of this frightening condition, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who had a stroke in 1995 while he was the editor of Elle magazine in France. He was in a coma but when he woke up twenty days later he realized his life had completely changed. Bauby was fully aware and conscious, but was unable to move anything except his eyes and his head very minimally. Like most people with locked-in syndrome, Bauby created a code by blinking to communicate. However, Bauby’s code was a little different since he used it to write a book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, about his condition and what it was like living with it. He and an assistant used an alphabet board to determine what letter he wanted to use by blinking his left eye. (Bor, 2012)

In another case, Sandy Nette got locked-in syndrome from her chiropractor. The way her neck was manipulated caused Sandy to have a series of massive strokes and the doctors weren’t even sure she would survive. Although Sandy did not write a book like Bauby did, she was able to make a recovery and walk and talk again. Like Bauby and his assistant. Sandy and her husband came up with a system of blinking to communicate. Slowly as time went on, Sandy was able to start moving other parts of her body, first her toe, then her right hand, then the left, and so on. Since this condition has no treatment and most people don’t recover, the doctors were shocked at this improvement. She began rehabilitation and began using a power wheelchair. After Sandy moved back home with her husband, she was starting to make sounds again and she had surgery on her feet, since the muscles had gone through serious deterioration from not being used. She is now able to speak and stay on her feet for short periods of time. (Reilly, 2013)

The reason this stuck out to me in the book was how amazing it is that people can do so much with such a life altering condition. Although the two cases have completely different outcomes, they are both incredible in their own way.

Beaudoin, N. (2013). Locked-in syndrome. Retrieved from

http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/303/

Bor, D. (2012). The ravenous brain: How the new science of consciousness explains our

insatiable search for meaning. (p. 83). New York: Basin Books.

Reilly, R. (2013, August 18). 'my chiropractor gave me locked-in syndrome, but i

survived': Astonishing recovery of woman, 46, who beat the odds to walk and talk again. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2383727/My-chiropractor-gave-locked-syndrome-I-survived-Astonishing-recovery-woman-46-beat-odds-walk-talk-again.html

Chunking and Consciousness

Consciousness. Do we know how it works? How can we use it? Dr. Daniel Bor's book, The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains our Insatiable Search for Meaning, dives into explaining what consciousness is through current theories. He claims that, "the main thesis of this book is that consciousness simply is a certain kind of precessing of information, especially information that is useful, that captures some pattern to the world" (Bor 36). He describes how we take in the information around us through our senses, saying that attention is associated with consciousness. Bor mentions the idea of chunking, which is when we take in information through our senses and our surroundings, and then compress it into groups, or chunks. The conscious data we take in is stored in our working memory. Each chunk is stored as a whole, not necessarily including the details. As humans, we break information into chunks making it easier to memorize the information as a whole. Bor gives the example of a young man in a psychology experiment who was able to memorize 80 numbers after months of repeatedly placing numbers that looked familiar to him into chunks, adding more and more until all the numbers were memorized. Chunking isn't only useful for achieving these sorts of tasks, but to find chunks within our conscious in order to use them instinctively and efficiently.

I came across an article in the New York Times entitled, "Chunking," by Ben Zimmer, that talks about children learning languages by chunking words together, rather than memorizing them word by word. He gives the example of his son learning the phrases "Won't you come in?," and "Make yourself at home," and how simpler it is to learn the whole phrase rather than breaking the sentence up into pieces. Zimmer talks about non native English speakers wanting to become fluent in English, and how teachers would rather teach by chunks, instead of individual words. "This is especially so among teachers of English as a second language, since it's mainly the knowledge of chunks that allows non-native speakers to advance toward nativelike fluency" (Zimmer, Ben).  Some critics don't believe this method would help non-native speakers achieve fluency because students would only know phrase-book approaches of speaking and disregard the grammatical system of language. I believe, with practice, chunking would be easier for someone learning a language because of our brains natural inclination to chunk information together; however, a possible combination of the two methods -individual and chunking -might prove beneficial in the end.

The process of chunking could not only help increase our memory, but increase the speed at which we spit out information; the student effectively memorizing a great amount of numbers is just one example. I find it amazing that the young man was able to achieve this! By understanding our conscious, how we learn, and how we group information together, we could potentially master the ability to chunk information and increase our memory span exponentially.

Sources:
Zimmer, Ben. "Chunking." The New York Times, 16 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.    <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19FOB-OnLanguage-Zimmer.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1382061980-1Bf4uGL/wjZoUtHFLf2Dfw>.

Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.

Is the brain more than a computer program?

In The Ravenous Brain, Daniel Bor brings to light the question: "Are we as mental beings nothing more than biological computers, or is there something special about the sensations we experience, and the meaning we attribute to the world, and that could never be captured in software form?" (pg. 4). In his book, Bor argues that there is something special about our brains. John R. Searle also argues this point. According to Searle's article, Is the Brain's Mind a Computer Program?, the answer is that we are much more than just a "biological computer."

In his article, Searle argues against the views of Artificial Intelligence (the view that minds are created by developing the right computer programs using the correct inputs and outputs) (Searle, pg. 26). This view basically believes that thinking is simply just the interpretation of symbols. However, Searle argues that in order to "guarantee cognition, perception, understanding, thinking and so forth" one must not only manipulate the symbols but also attach meaning to the symbols, something that computers cannot do (Searle, pg. 26). He uses an example to illustrate this argument well. He writes that he does not understand the Chinese language and is then placed in a room with a basket of Chinese symbols all of which he obviously does not understand. He then writes that in this room there is a rule book that provides instructions "identifying the symbols entirely by their shapes and does not require him to understand any of them" (Searle, pg. 26). Searle also states that in this example there are people outside the room who do understand Chinese in small groups of symbols. He then wants us the imagine that "the rule book is the 'computer program'. The people who wrote it are 'programmers,' and [he] is the 'computer.' The baskets full of symbols are the 'data base,' the small groups of symbols that are handed in to me are 'questions' and the bunches [he] hands out are the 'answers.'" (Searle, pg. 26). It is after setting up this example that Searle states that even though the answers he provides, via the help of the rule book and the people outside the room, are correct, he still does not actually know what the symbols mean because he has not attached meaning to them. Thus, cognition (a characteristic of the human brain) is not guaranteed through just the manipulation of symbols (a characteristic of computers).

As we can see through Searle's article our brains are much more than just "biological computers." Due to the fact that computers cannot attach meaning to the symbols that they manipulate there is no way to ensure that computers have cognitive abilities like humans do (Searle, pg. 26).

Citations:
Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print.
Searle, John R. "Is the Brain's Mind a Computer Program?" Scientific American (1990): 26-31. Print.

Train that Brain!

If this were an alcoholics anonymous type situation, I would introduce myself with the following: "Hi, my name is Kat and I'm terrified of aging". Getting old sucks! I pulled out my first grey hair two weeks ago, at the ripe age of 21. And with grey hairs come rent payments, funerals, dealing with health insurance, and soon, student loan debt. Take me back to the days where my only responsibilities were taking naps and reading Judy Blume.

In reality, getting older isn't terrible, although I would definitely consider picking up Superfudge again. I hated being a kid and being told what to do. And even though I'm slathering on sunscreen like crazy to keep my skin young and unwrinkled (seriously guys, wear your sunscreen!), I'll take debt and having to make real, big-person decisions over Rocket Power every afternoon and having an allowance. One decision that I'm making is to live a healthier life and be conscious of what I put in my body for "Future Kat". Eating healthy and eating red meat sparingly to avoid high cholesterol, avoiding unprotected sun-exposure, and staying away from cigarettes and unhealthy amounts of alcohol are a good way to start. I loved tanning beds when I was younger, and even though being whiter than Casper the ghost sucks, I'll take the pale over cancer.

I'm getting off topic. Basically, I'm working on aging gracefully, and taking care of your mind is naturally an important aspect of that. Most of the women in my family have lived into their 80's or beyond, so this is something that could actually make a difference in my own life. People are living longer, but are they living 'better'? Some would look at the rising rates of Alzheimer's and Dementia and probably say that our society is not living better or aging gracefully. Last year in Neuroscience Seminar, Dr. Morrison presented his findings on "Super Agers", which immediately piqued my interest. These individuals were older adults who retained the cognitive abilities and memories of a much younger person. Unfortunately, I had to leave early for work (Sorry Dr. Morrison) and was unable to ask the question that was burning a hole in my head: What did these individuals do when they were younger that allowed them to retain their cognitive capacities? Were they just freaks of nature or are there preventative measures for memory and cognitive decline?

Huffington Post published an article regarding Super Agers in August entitled "Meet The 'Super Agers' Who Could Unlock The Mystery of Aging". This article discussed the research of Emily Rogalski at Northwestern University's cognitive neurology and Alzheimer's disease center in Chicago. Her and her team of researchers discovered that the anterior cingulate of 'Super Agers' is far larger than that of normal controls. As we discussed in class, the cingulate gyrus plays a key role in executive function, and the anterior portion of the cortex has implications in a variety of cognitive functions as well. The article also cited another study at Northwestern in which 'Super Agers's' brains had less accumulated tau protein tangles (I would assume they would have less accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques as well). However, the article didn't really cite any information regarding preventative measures or how one can become a 'Super Ager' themselves, other than having a "positive attitude on life".

Since I'm always thinking about myself, I wanted to look more into the cognitive implications of "Brain Training" and aging. Brain Training is discussed very briefly in the end of Daniel Bohr's The Ravenous Brain, within the context of treating children with ADHD and increasing working memory ability. Bohr references two such studies. In the first, Torkel Klingberg and his colleagues found increases in working memory and IQ levels in children after they had the participants practice memory tasks (Bohr 2012, 255). A study by Joni Holmes and colleagues found similar results when pitting working memory tasks against medication. In the Klingberg study, participants had greater activation within the prefrontal parietal network, and the Holmes study found that their tasks improved working memory for six months after training had ceased. These cognitive training tasks clearly have large implications, especially as more and more children receive an ADHD diagnosis than ever before. Cognitive training and working memory tasks were able to help schizophrenic patients as well! However, Bohr states that popular "Brain Training" games (Lumosity comes to mind here) do not lead to working memory improvements for non-elderly adult patients, or populations outside of clinical studies.

In spite of that, Bohr does state in a footnote that there is some research indicating that cognitive training could help elderly patients avoid dementia as they age. I wanted to find more research for the cognitive implications of training games in older populations, and found an article published by NPR last month entitled "Multitasking After 60: Video Game Boosts Focus, Mental Agility" by Jon Hamilton. In a study by Adam Gazzaley at University of California, San Francisco, 46 participants ages 60 to 85 were recruited to test out 'NeuroRacer', a multi-tasking game developed by Gazzaley's lab and video game developers. The game works by having "players perform two tasks simultaneously...to use a joystick to navigate on this winding road that's going left and right and up and down. The second task is to hit a button whenever the player sees a road sign in the form of a green circle" (NPR, 2013). The participants first had their initial evaluation in the lab, and played the game while the researchers monitored their neural activity (the article did not state the methods used for this, but further research said that they used EEG as I initially assumed). The participants then went home and played the game on their laptops for three times a week over the course of a month. The participants apparently found dramatic improvements in memory and attention after the course of the month.

According to Gazzaley, the EEG patterns associated with decision-making and multitasking. Further information about the methods can be found in the published content via Nature, but the researchers assessed midline frontal theta to examine working memory and attention (Nature, 2013). These findings also persisted for six-months after ceasing training, and participants reported higher quality of attention and memory. I think the next task for researchers would be to examine whether these neuro-training methods have any implications for early Dementia or Alzheimer's patients. And even though these 'Brain Training' games have minimal effect on populations under the age of 65, the article does go on to say that exercise and strenuous mental activities are another great way of staving off aging and keeping your brain young. Lucky for me!


References:
Anguera, J.A., Boccanfuso, J., Rintoul, J.L., Al-Hashimi, F., Faraji, J., Janowich, E., Kong, Y., Larraburo, C., Rolle, E., Johnston, E., & Gazzaley, A. (2013). Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults. Nature, 501. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v501/n7465/full/nature12486.html.

Bohr, D. (2012). The Ravenous Brain. New York, Basic Books.

Emling, S. (2013). Meet the 'Super Agers' who could unlock the mystery of aging. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/super-agers_n_3804213.html.

Hamilton, J. (2013). Multitasking after 60: video game boosts focus, mental agility. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/10/218892225/multitasking-after-60-video-game-boosts-focus-mental-agility.

Anesthetically Induced Unconsciousness

               Daniel Bor explores consciousness in The Ravenous Brain, but you can learn a great deal about consciousness by observing unconsciousness. Bor touches on this in The Tip of the Iceberg chapter section Unconscious Neurons Marching in Step. He describes neurons of a conscious mind like busy tourists and the neurons of an unconscious mind like soldiers in the army to illustrate the difference between neural activity in a conscious and unconscious mind. However he does not spend time describing how the tourists became soldiers, i.e. how conscious neural activity changes to unconscious neural activity. The mechanism of how anesthetics cause the loss of consciousness is not understood well.  The brain has been studied many times while under the influence of anesthesia, therefore the molecular system of the steady state of unconsciousness is understood. But, what remains a mystery is how neuronal activity is altered during the transition into unconsciousness. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and MIT have identified a pattern of brain activity that appears to signal exactly when patients lose consciousness under general anesthesia, specifically propofol, one of the most common general anesthetics used today.

                Propofol works by increasing GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.  We have observed that when GABA has put a damper on our brains and we are unconscious the firing of neurons becomes more uniform and develops a slow rhythmic pattern. These patterns are observed regularly, however we have not traced the transition into unconsciousness. The researchers observed simultaneously single unit local field potentials as well as intracranial electrocorticograms. This way they were able to make spatial observations with temporal resolution. They also had the patient preform a behavioral task, like the classic count backwards from ten task which one is familiar with if you’ve experienced general anesthesia, to help them determine precisely when the patient lost consciousness.

                What the researchers observed was that the transition into unconsciousness was marked by the slow oscillation of the local field potentials. Spikes in neural activity occur, however they are short intervals with longer periods of suppression in between, inhibiting the processing of information. Also these spikes in activity do not happen simultaneously throughout the brain, meaning that neural activity is disjointed both spatially and temporally. This disconnects the processing of information within a brain region and between brain regions. So the connections are still functioning and in use during unconsciousness, but they are fragmented.  Therefore the hypothesis that general anesthetics cause unconsciousness by breaking down cortical communication is supported by this research.  

Diagram A shows the increase in slow oscillation power after the patient lost consciousness. 

Diagram B shows the spike rate decrease directly after the patient lost consciousness, and then how the spike rates normalize and rise to pre loss of consciousness rates.

                     

                 This is the first study to match the onset of unconsciousness with the slow oscillation pattern. However there are some limitations to this research.  For instance they only tested the general anesthetic propofol, and their only patients were epileptics due to the invasive research method. This makes this research difficult to generalize and apply to every type of loss of consciousness for every individual.  Regardless this research is important because it suggests a specific mechanism for how anesthetics cause the loss of consciousness. Also current anesthetic brain monitors are inaccurate due to the fact that brain wave patterns are inaccurate in determining unconsciousness. This research could lead to better ways of monitoring individuals under anesthetics undergoing an operation. This could allow for better accuracy in determining anesthetic dosage and decrease the likelihood that patients regain consciousness during an operation. This research allows us to better understand how consciousness operates by analyzing how unconsciousness operates.

Resources:

Laura D. Lewis et al. Rapid fragmentation of neuronal networks at the onset of propofol-induced unconsciousness. (November 5, 2012).PNAS Journal article. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3523833/?report=classic

Sociopaths; Can We Stop it Before it Starts?

Neuroscience in the court, too late, too early on time?

Dr. Gur, enthusiastic to say the least, gave a very interesting presentation of how neuroscience is presented in the courtroom. Although much of Dr. Gur’s presentation was a review to those in the room, it was clear that this man was passionate about neuroscience. In the midst of his talk however he may have overlooked answering the question he posed at the beginning of his lecture through design or error this open ended presentation gave me the opportunity to discuss it in a variety of ways.

In Dr. Gur’s career he has diagnosed a few patients but most notably was the infamous letter bomber who Dr. Gur concluded suffered from schizophrenia. But what drives a person to become a serial killer or a psychopath and how can we catch it. More importantly once we do catch it, what exactly do we do with this knowledge? Many believe that psychopathy is a genetic disorder that could possibly be detected almost as easily as Autism. But once we have this information do we end the problem at the source or do we take the chance and see how the child turns out; it is hard to tackle the question without falling into eugenic like practices.

So you say your child is a psychopath?

  In an article by Jennifer Kahn in the New York Times entitled “Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?” we track the development and symptoms of Michael who after a battery of tests and misdiagnosis is believed to be a child psychopath. Michael’s mood often turns on a dime and his response to irritating stimuli is eccentric and violent but very goal oriented. The article discusses other examples of child psychopathology emphasizing the apparent lack of empathy and fear of repercussions. In theory we can observe the brains of these children and see deficiencies in the amygdala and other related areas of the brain that cause the children to exhibit an absence of empathy. However no official diagnosis is available for childhood psychopathy because it is not easy to distinguish developing brains from those of mentally ill patients and even harder to distinguish between questionable behaviors in adolescences.

So what is next?

First off it is important to note that psychopathy in children does not exist what does exist is referred to as “callous-unemotional” and although not full blown psychopaths they do exhibit characteristics like a lack of affect, remorse or empathy which puts them at risk for becoming psychopaths and had been determined to be 80% heritable.  But the question still remains how can we help these children develop into functioning members of society? Dan Waschbusch, a researcher at Florida International University, has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to understanding the patterns of development in callous-unemotional children. He hopes that treatment could be used to help these children avoid becoming psychopaths. Researchers have linked these abnormal behaviors to low levels of cortisol and amygdala deficiencies, as well as deformities in the portion of the brain that are responsible for fear and shame. “The desire to avoid those unpleasant feelings, Waschbusch notes, is part of what motivates young children to behave.”  These children however do not feel this remorse and so act very manipulatively without consideration for others wellbeing and this is what makes them extremely difficult to treat.

 Callous-unemotional children respond to treatment much like sociopaths do, in that they do not take punishment well but show signs of improvement if rewards are given for good behavior. However the tendency to manipulate the system is high and often actions escalate in a premeditated fashion if the child decides to not participate any longer. So although no clear method for treating these at risk children exists Waschbusch states that “People are worried about labeling, but if we can identify these kids, at least we have a chance to help them...And if we miss that chance, we might not get another one.” However much like other researchers he believes that developing treatments for these children is possible and considering that C.U. children have a 50/50 shot of developing into full blown psychopaths some sort of treatment is a must.  Frick another researcher believes “If treatment is begun early enough… it may be possible to rewire the brain so that even C.U. children might develop greater empathy”. Considering the plasticity of the developing brain it seems likely that environmental influences like “ warm, affectionate parenting seems to reduce callousness in C.U. kids over time”

Works cited

Kahn, Jennifer. "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?" New York Times Magazine. New York TImes, 11 May 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?pagewanted=all&_r=4&>.

Child Psychopath: Helpful or Harmful Diagnosis?

In her article "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?" for The New York Times, Jennifer Kahn explores what are known as Callous-unemotional traits in children. She focuses on Michael, a 9-year-old boy who was for many years a behavioral mystery. His "periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment" since early childhood have created a less than perfect environment at home. What is interesting about Callous-unemotional (or C.U.) children like Michael is that their traits are very similar to those of psychopathic adults. C.U. children often seem unable to understand how their actions influence others’; they are often extremely manipulative and unrepentant. They will do practically anything within their means to get what they want, even at the expense of someone else's happiness. However, psychologists across the board are hesitant to diagnose or label children as psychopathic due to the extensive changes occurring in the brain during development.  

I find Michael's case to be particularly interesting when compared alongside Dr. Neuman's Perspectives on Psychopathy. In his lecture, Neuman offered many widely accepted hypothesis of psychopathy including Dr. Lykken's "Low Fear" Hypothesis that suggests low fear in psychopathic individuals leads to poor fear conditioning and eventually poor passive avoidance. Neuman's own research however has led him to observe a common thread among psychopathic individuals. He asserts that once focused on a goal orienting behavior, psychopaths have a hard time taking into consideration outside information. His Instructed Fear Conditioning task that reveals that when focused, a psychopath's fear response is normal. However, when a psychopath's attention is diverted slightly, there is a significant fear deficit. 

When dealing with development, Neuman recognizes that self-regulation of aggression requires inhibiting a violent response to an aggressor, which requires executive functioning. For 9-year-old Michael, that aggressor could be something as simple as his younger brother Allan sitting near him while watching his Pokémon shows. Simple triggers can send Michael into a violent rage. Exhausting many other treatments, his parents decide to send him to a "summer camp" run by Dan Waschbusch, a researcher who has been studying Callous-unemotional children for 10 years. The camp focuses on the idea that C.U. children, like psychopaths, respond better comparatively to reward than punishment. As it turns out, "Waschbusch’s analysis of the reward-versus-punishment strategies showed little consistency" in his first summer camp. Given Neuman’s ideas that psychopaths do not learn from experience because they do not pause to think about their mistakes, this is not wholly surprising. Also, it is important to note that since violence inhibition requires higher executive functioning, perhaps frontal lobe development in children is a contributing factor. I would be interested to know if Neuman's treatment plans for psychopaths including emphasis on plasticity and attention learning would be as effective when applied to Callous-unemotional children. 

Kahn, J. (2012,  May 11). Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath? The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?smid=pl-share