Biology 202

In metaphysics, time is a fundamental condition of human experience. Immanuel Kant begins The Critique of Pure Reason by exploring the nature of time, identifying it as the most essential element for human experience.(1) Humans are able to recognize the central role which time plays in experience, but still experience difficulty in grasping the essence of time. One of the most difficult attributes of time to understand is the rate at which it moves, since we have no way to measure time objectively. Time moves for everyone, but depending on the situation, time can be a subjective experience. Humans attempt to eliminate the subjectivity of time by using the Earth’s rotation around the sun to dictate years and days and furthermore dividing up these days into arbitrary units of hours, minutes and seconds. But for anything that moves there must be a rate at which it moves. However it is superfluous to measure the rate of time as 60 second per 1 minute. So then, where is it that humans conceive of the nature of time? By looking at two key examples, we can identify aspects of the brain that may in fact provide hints toward not only the human dependence on time, but the nature of time itself.

The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien… is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear… To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty… this knowledge, this feeling… that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men. --Albert Einstein (1)

Our brains play a large part in making us who we are. We have neurons that interact with the outside world, and we have neurons that interact within our bodies. These neurons create action potentials, and these action potentials make up our thoughts. We interact with the world around us by thinking and speaking and acting. Our thought processes are seemingly quite different, as no two people seem to think exactly alike, nor can most people (with the exception of the claims of seers and the such) read flawlessly other’s thoughts. New, controversial technology has been found to do what seemed the impossible- to predict people’s intentions- it’s scientific mind reading, with a scan to show the results. As huge a step as this is in the scheme of advancing knowledge of the brain, it’s important to consider just how complete this study is, and how dangerous this potentially could be.

Article Previously Submitted

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, approximately 250,000 to 400,000 individuals in the United States have spinal cord injuries. Every year, approximately 11,000 people sustain new spinal cord injuries – that’s thirty new injuries every day. The injury comes from damage to the spinal cord that results in a loss of function such as mobility and feeling, and is usually a result of a trauma or disease. (1) One of the most obvious negative effects of a spinal cord injury is the difficulty in walking, forcing many patients to use wheelchairs in order to achieve locomotion. Over the past decade considerable effort has been directed at promoting the recovery of walking and finding effective treatments. The two treatments that are currently considered to be the most effective are rehabilitation and regeneration. Both methods consider a different way the Central Nervous System has of ‘fixing’ itself; regeneration aims to restore a functioning set of connections similar or identical to those present originally, whereas rehabilitation aims for the restoration of function by compensatory mechanisms. In this essay, we will analyze the rehabilitative and regenerative methods of intense training on a treadmill and promoting regeneration of axons in the spinal cord. Which method is more effective in treating spinal cord injuries (SPI)? In order to answer this question it is important to analyze the dynamics of the CNS itself, as well as the concepts or regeneration and rehabilitation and their effectiveness in case studies.

There are multiple DSM categories of Anxiety Disorders, which each affect individuals in various ways (1). However, most people whose lives are influenced by Anxiety Disorders are able to recognize their symptoms. As soon as panic sets in, individuals with Anxiety Disorders are generally able to predict what will happen next. Such anxious individuals will become inconsolably and seemingly irrationally worried and flustered. Their intense fear may be accompanied by physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, or tension headaches. Thus, because sufferers know how painful situations like this can be, individuals with Anxiety Disorders tend to do everything possible to avoid triggers (2).

It is widely accepted that addiction is the result of not only environmental and genetic factors, but also chemical imbalances in the brain. Certain activities such as smoking, drug use, alcohol consumption, and gambling can alter the neurobiology of the brain resulting in addiction. Interestingly, some of these activities cause unnatural additions and some cause natural addictions but both types have the same effect on reward pathways in the brain. Reward pathways in many cases determine human behavior. Many of the choices we make are guided by our reward pathways. Reward pathways are, therefore, arguably a component of the I-function which gives humans the ability to make choices and to act freely. This paper will argue that addiction, which has been described as a brain disease (Leshner 1997 and Wise 2000), is also an inhibition of the I-function.

I. Introduction:

Based on the premise that a significant perturbation of a interconnection pattern of neurons can reconfigure particular neurons and neuron connections (i.e. behavior), I argue that there are two methods of changing sexual desire more effectively than medicinal treatment due to their effect on significantly altering the pattern of one’s behavior in possibly permanent ways. These methods are the conscious performance of drills on a regular basis and what I term charismatic acts.

Congenital analgesia is a rare condition in which children, usually from birth, do not sense physical pain coming in from outside stimuli. Children with this rare condition often times break bones, lose teeth, get many cuts, bruises and bites without the body even knowing, and this can potentially dangerous, for the obvious reasons. Those who experience congenital analgesia can still feel touch, sensation, and normal body-to-body contact, which tells us that the brain can receive some information filtered through the nervous system; however, when it comes to extreme temperature changes, or any bodily damage that signals the body to react in an emergency fashion, the body instead does not respond. (1) This is a scary thought indeed, for only a very small percentage of our neural connections actually deals with communicating with the outside world, and because there are so few it seems as if we would need all of them! In the case of those with congenital analgesia, the input is either not being perceived or the input is being perceived, but the body knows no matching output.

How Do We Lie?

Tiffany Ngan

What’s in a lie? That which we might present as truth our brains would show just as false. A horrible horrible pun on Shakespeare, however it brings us to the subject: lying as a variable function of the brain.