Biology 202

Colorless Green Ideas- The Phenomenon of Language By: Sasha DeWitt 

As humans we use language everyday to live and communicate. We have created words that give sound and meaning to objects and abstract concepts as well as created grammatical structures to give form to the messages we convey. This paper is a look into the way that language, a uniquely human creation, works.

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find you are not in bed at all, but have a bag full of clothes on your shoulder, car keys at the ready, and your hand on the doorknob to your room. You cannot remember getting out of bed, getting dressed, or packing your bags, but the car keys in your hand are very real, and all you can do is count your lucky stars you woke up before you had a chance to use them. Sound unsettling? This is just one of countless stories of sleepwalking experienced by a friend of mine, and not only is her condition unsettling, but it causes a great disturbance to her sleep schedule. As a college student and busy individual, I often take sleep for granted, but for someone with a sleep disorder such as sleepwalking, a full-night’s rest can seem like a gift from the gods.

           Last spring, I was practicing mindfulness (insight) meditation in Burma with the intent to discipline the mind and understand the relationship between the mind and body. Upon the end of my retreat and onset of the post-bacc program, I unexpectedly felt torn between these two disciplines: modern science and Buddhism. At the same time, I felt I could use medicine as a means to understand the mechanics of the brain and ultimately the mind. Encouragingly, brain research has begun to produce scientific evidence for something Buddhist meditation practitioners have been teaching for centuries: mental discipline can alter the functions, structure and even retard the aging process of the brain. Such an exploration is partnering modern science and Buddhism to understand the laws of nature and the workings of the mind (1). Through MRI imaging, researchers, such as Dr. Sara Lazar at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, are finding insight meditation to increase the thickness of the prefrontal cortex and anterior insula where attention, sensory processing, decision-making, and brain-body interactions occur (2). Dr. Richard Davidson from the University of Wisconsin, Madison is translating the mental states during transcendental meditation into high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony. He and his team have located the left prefrontal cortex (an area behind the left forehead) as the place where brain activity is most intense during meditation (3). Critics point out that these recent findings on brain activity are preliminary and inconclusive, and such types of research may breach the barrier between science and religion (4). As a practitioner, perhaps I am biased to believe that meditation vastly improves cognitive functioning of the brain. Nonetheless, it is exciting to see that researchers are, finally, finding concrete neurobiological evidence on how meditation structurally affects the brain.

As I do several times a day, I sit at my computer screen with the knowledge that I have plenty of school work that could be done but for some reason I have to check my email (all 3 email accounts), check facebook (maybe someone left me a message or wrote on my wall), and check nytimes.com (for any interesting new stories) before I can begin my work. Even after I start working, I can easily be distracted by a song playing across the hall that I must immediately download and while I’m downloading I will check my email, facebook, and nytimes again to see if something has changed. Am I addicted to the internet or do I have the control to stop myself? In a world where we have access to so much at the touch of a keyboard we seem to constantly search for something whether it’s an email, a stock or a message on facebook and yet we cannot stop. Is this addiction or is this normal? For a college student, is this normal or is this too much? Are we constantly on the internet because it is so accessible or is it so accessible because we want to be constantly on it? Would reading a newspaper ritualistically everyday during breakfast be more normal than checking the latest stories online? Has our world become so reliant on the internet that we cannot distinguish if we are addicted to the internet or not? What is internet addiction and how do we define it? Is internet addiction real or is it a fabrication? I think the concept of internet addiction can be argued both ways and therefore further research should be performed to develop stricter guidelines to determine what is internet addiction and how can this be treated.

      Addiction is regarded by most as a social problem to be solved with social solutions, i.e. incarceration. But, scientific evidence argues otherwise: addiction is a brain disease. Interestingly though, this clinical condition has both behavioral and social components that need to be attended to, just as other disorders, such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s are treated. Furthermore, researchers argue that addicts should be viewed as victims, suffering from an altered brain state, just as schizophrenics are viewed (1).

The first time my father told me how everything was energy, I assumed he was embarking on one of his neo-pagan, folk-singing tangents that would wind circles around our original conversation and end with an awkward silence. I didn’t expect it to become a recurring theme in our household, prompting the purchase of various movies and books such as “ What the Bleep do we know about Anything” and “The Secret”. I didn’t expect to be so intrigued by the notion that there may be logic behind the mysteries that puzzled me since I was a child, a link between lucid dreams and extraterrestrials, serendipitous events and the moments when I felt like I had stumbled across a great truth. Controversial as it is, the Holographic Theory of the universe explains how many unexplained phenomenon occur in different disciplines, especially when it comes to understanding the brain.

Autism is a neurological disability which affects the development of the brain as it relates to social interactions.  In recent years, this disorder has gained attention in the American public due to the increase in the frequency of cases (3).  Once considered a rare disorder, it is now found in 5 or 6 per 1000 people compared to one in every 2000 in the 1960s (1).  Little is known about the cause of the disorder, however a myriad of strategies have been tested to mitigate its effects.  One of these methods that has proved to be particularly successful is the use of music therapy.  

According to the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the disorder known as autism has three major groups of symptoms. The first group concerns social relationships; an autistic person may lack interest in social relations, or fail to pick up on nonverbal social cues. The second group encompasses language deficits; some autistic people never learn to speak at all, and those who do may have a limited vocabulary or only repeat what others have said. The final group of symptoms includes rigid routines and interests. One of the best-known symptoms of autism is a narrow or obsessive interest in a certain narrow field, such as trains or maps. In the same vein as these narrow interests, an autistic person may insist on an identical routine every day, or adhere to certain repetitive motions, such as hand-flapping or rocking in place (4).

Given that so many of the behaviors that autism affects, especially speech and perception, are associated with the nervous system, researchers have been working to understand the neurological bases of autism for years. Despite intensive research, however, no exact neurological or physiological cause or causes of autism have been precisely identified. Some researchers suggest that mirror neurons, which register associations between actions performed by the self and another person, are less active in autistic people, which may account for some of their difficulties with social interactions (2) Some suggest that mercury, both from the environment and from the preservative thimerosal, formerly used in the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine, can serve as a catalyst for the disorder (9), although this theory is controversial and has been discredited in many larger-scale epidemiologal studies (7). But many people, noting the diverse array of symptoms that most autistic people present, do not believe that any one theory can explain the condition. Instead, they believe that a number of factors, working together in complex and unpredictable ways, bring about the condition; to try to find a single cause, they say, is a tough, if not altogether fruitless, goal (8).
Since the exact sources of autism are so elusive, physicians and therapists who work with autistic people cannot attack its neurological or physiological root causes directly. Instead, they often focus on changing the autistic person's behavior in childhood, encouraging actions like language use and eye contact and discouraging actions like self-injuring behavior which may affect quality of life later. The most common technique for changing these actions is Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA. The specific behaviors targeted with ABA differ from child to child, but the basic principles and techniques are similar across cases. The technique, in its most basic form, involves reinforcement for acquisition of "normal" behaviors (such as grammatical speech or eye contact), lack of reinforcement for more "abnormal" or "stereotypically autistic" behaviors (such as repetitive motions or temper tantrums following a disruption of routine). Gradually, reinforcement for the positive behaviors is reduced, and eventually it stops entirely; at this point, it is hoped that the positive behaviors will carry over into other areas of the child's life, outside of therapy sessions (1).
Many autistic people, however, question both the effectiveness and the ethical integrity of ABA (6). One especially vocal opponent of the therapy is an autistic woman named Michelle Dawson. Consider the following claims from her 2004 piece "The Misbehaviour of Behaviourists" (3).

Imagine the following situation. You're standing in a crowded checkout line at the grocery store when your eye catches sight of the magazine rack. Each magazine is filled with glossy photos of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, and other equally attractive and famous celebrities. You pick up a copy of The National Enquirer and start casually flipping through it, only to realize that you could easily move to another checkout line which has just opened up. But for some reason, you don't move. You would rather wait in line looking through your tabloid than move to an open line and therefore leave the grocery store sooner. Why is this? Is it simply because you like to look at pretty people? Is it perhaps your predilection for gossip? Or is it something else?

Addiction a brain disease or moral condition?

What is it that makes some of us become addicted to particular substances? We know it's bad for us, yet we repeatedly go back to it time after time, subjecting our body to drugs that have no survival or nutritional value. The act of addiction has brought countless debates onto the table of neurobiology: When does addiction become detrimental to the human body and damage the brain?
" All addictive drugs exert pharmacological effects that cause release of dopamine. Moreover, the effects of addictive drugs on dopamine release are quantitatively greater than that produced by natural rewards under almost all circumstances." 1
Though normally a learning signal for the brain, dopamine becomes more intense to the drug addict when drugs come into use. Normally, dopamine is released when something new comes unexpectedly into a world where everything seems orderly and circumstances are mundane. The pharmacological action in addictive drugs increases the synaptic dopamine, causing the normal controls of the brain to be cut off. This enables the dopamine in the addictive drugs to send excessively " better than expected" signals to the addict. Being bombarded by these pleasant signals, the circuits in the neural system go into overdrive and soak up an unhealthy and extreme amount of dopamine signals. When this occurs, the neural system starts to crave for the " better than" sensations caused by the drugs. What is considered a normal amount of dopamine release becomes trivial to the drug addict and in the course of such a superfluous amount of dopamine signal, drugs become glorified above all matters in life.
Even if an addict attempts to terminate the use of drugs, the changes in the synaptic structure and weight of the brain will have been fixed deep into the neuro-system, causing a long-lasting altercation in the biology of the brain, leading to relapses that are persistent and cannot be rid of. Drug addiction becomes embedded into the addict's brain, leaving him helpless against the cravings for the " better than" feelings. Drugs become an integral part of life for the user, even though its effects are detrimental in the long run. Though the user knows this, he continues on with the drug use, subjecting himself to greater dangers the dopamine will cause to his brain. When does drug use become a disease rather than a moral condition?
"Those who argue for the disease model not only believe it is justified by empirical data, but also see virtue in the possibility that a disease model decreases the stigmatization of addicted people and increases their access to medical treatments. Those who argue that addiction is best conceptualized as a moral condition are struck by the observation that drug seeking and drug taking involve a series of voluntary acts that often require planning and flexible responses to changing conditions - not simply impulsive or robotic acts." 2
Though both arguments are completely logical and deliver assurance, it is fine line that can easily be crossed. For addiction to become a brain disease, the addict would have to administer multiple drug usages for the structure of the brain to change and develop a thirst for a greater synaptic dopamine dosage. Each time the addict uses means a greater chance for the brain to reroute itself. However, each time the addict uses, he is fully and consciously aware of the consequences of his actions. Being well aware would mean he is morally performing an act that would without doubt damage the body. Whether it is a moral condition or a brain disease, both are paths that the addict will walk. Though clinical tests can prove the elements of a disease, it is the addict's choice to open himself to such elements, leaving it to be a moral problem. The fine line between whether it is addiction is a disease or a moral condition may never be cleared and given an accurate definition, however, addiction comes with a price: morally and neurologically losing one's soul and mind.