Showing posts with label hemisphere. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hemisphere. Show all posts

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Autism and Genius


Everyone has Autism to some degree

With every negative side there will always be a positive. Its the same with psychological disorders. Having Autism and Aspergers can make living everyday life hard for some people that have the disorder to a higher degree, but Autism can make that particular individual more creative and focused.

I don't like to say the word disorder

And that's with everything. I mean just because they have a different way of looking at the world (which is what it is) doesn't mean they are wrong, does it? In fact looking at the world differently to everyone else is where new idea's are generated from, example's are; Albert Einstein, George Orwell, H G Wells, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Hans Christian Andersen and Immanuel Kant. Of course these dude's died before Autism and Aspergers became an available ''condition''.

 

The link between Genius

Autism and Aspergers produce people who are;
  • Highly focused
  • Don't integrate into the school system very well 
  • Have poor social relationships and eye contact. (which is probably why they are so focused)
  • Can be paranoid and oppositional but are usually highly moral and ethical.
This doesn't sound so bad. And these are the qualities that make a genius. All they need is an empathic Adult/Parent/Friend to understand them and they can thrive in whatever they want to. In fact we as humans always tell our children 'do what makes you happy' and 'dont care what others think' which is what many people who have what our society deems as 'problems' most likely wouldn't be so unhappy if we just accepted them for who they are. Of course there will always be a few hiccups in the road called life but thats with everyone isn't it?


 


If you have an Autistic relative or child your doing a great job, you should be really proud of yourself and your relative, and if you can both understand eachother it can be one of the most rewarding relationship you can ever have. Keep in mind what's been said in this post and find a way that allows both the Autistic and yourself to thrive as everyone is unique and there will never be just one way.

 

It's not a problem if you don't allow it to be.




Saturday, 18 August 2012

The Science behind Addiction

 Different Addictions



Some people are even unfortunately addicted to coloring
When I talk about addiction in this blog post I am not just limiting addiction to drugs because you can be addicted to other stuff besides drugs. So lets just get this clear; you can be addicted to anything. Some people become addicted to gambling, reading, eating, exercise, love, looking in the mirror, anything! I myself had Arithomania (an addiction to counting) a couple years ago where I would associate people with numbers for instance; I would associate my English teacher with the number 1.618 (if you are aware of the divine proportion you will realise the significance of this number and know its actually quite an endearing number) and I would count all the cars on the road. I would also recite the Fibonacci sequence whilst I went asleep aloud which drove my siblings crazy!
So now the point that you can be addicted to anything, even counting numbers, has been made

What make's us addicted to these things?

 
The little red mark is the Nucleas Accumbens

Well, you see it's not actually your fault that you get addicted to something (unless you stupidly inject yourself with heroin then that is your fucking fault), its to do with the brain chemistry. Every living thing on this earth has a reward system implemented into the brain through years of evolution and it is this reward system that has kept you alive for as long as you have been. Without a reward system we wouldn't eat, sleep or drink water. Which is the vital things that keep you alive, unless your a woman, then you need to eat, sleep, drink water and hear compliments. And what produces this 'reward system' is the part of the brain called the Nucleas Accumbens. It is located underneath the Cerebral hemisphere and once a creature performs an action that fulfils something like eating to stop hunger, dopamine is released to the cluster of nerves to encourage this behaviour and you feel good. So next time your hungry you'll know to eat something so you don't feel the pain of hunger and you also get a little rush of dopamine to continue encouraging this behaviour. This is what can make you addicted to the craziest things! Such as coloring ;)

I'm not saying everyone is addicted to sleeping,eating and drinking water. As addiction is when you become very OCD about what your addiction is and it's when it gets out of 'control'. I mean most people don't have a compulsive desire to sleep 24/7 do they? (Unless of course they suffer from a medical disorder or are just fucking lazy.) Whereas someone can have a compulsive desire to looking in the mirror 24/7.

Are some people more at risk of having an addiction than others?


Yes. Just like some people are more likely of getting the flu than other people. But in this case it has nothing to do with the immune system it has to do with the amount of dopamine receptors in the brain. Research conducted by Cambridge university shows that people who had fewer dopamine receptors in a certain region of the brain are more at risk of having an addiction.

I theorise its because of the low amount of receptors in the brain of whatever particular animal or person that makes them want to seek out how to amplify that amount of dopamine that is being released by having an addiction. Of course they are not doing it consciously (unless they are making the ridiculous conscious choice of whether to have that snort of cocaine), many addictions are accidental as I'm sure no one really want to get addicted to eating plaster off the wall, as I saw on an advert for the TV show 'my weird addictions'.

Whats the cure for addiction?


 







Monday, 13 August 2012

How does Classical music enhance brain activity?



The Joy of Classical music


I love classical music. Being I nerd, I don't have a choice, otherwise I am no longer allowed in the nerd circle at school. And its not like I'll be welcome to any other cliche's in the school yard. Anyway,other day, one of my non-nerd friends asked ''does Classical music actually make you, like, cleverer?'' (Her word's not mine)

I don't know as all studies conducted on this subject all seem to contradict each other. But if it were to
enhance brain activity and make you ''cleverer'' so to speak, then I imagine it would be because of the following reason. So Jenna, my buddy, this is answering your question ;)


In classical music the instruments do not always play at the same time and at the same note. And it is this pattern of stimuli that requires the brain to logically process this different note playing at different times stuff. And the brain loves it! Without stimulation the brain tissue would die even if you were to preserve it with the nutrition and temperature, which is why when people are locked in an empty room without social stimulation they go slightly crazy. (Which is what my family does to me quite often) :/

And because classical music is a harmony of  beautiful, and genius mathematical precision when the brain detects this it consequently stimulates both hemispheres of the brain and causes to begin to fire in sequence of the particular piece you are listening to.


Damn if the neurons begin to fire to the sequence of the music your listening to, imagine how fast there firing when your listening to this!