Watch your brain!

 

Many parents do not understand why their teenagers occasionally behave in an impulsive, irrational, or dangerous way. At times, it seems like they do not think things through or fully consider the consequences of their actions. However, what these imaging studies show is that the brain may be behind much of this behavior.  To understand why adolescents act a certain way, it is important to understand what is happening in their brain.

As puberty begins, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) also begins to develop at an amazing rate, paralleling brain growth in the first three years of life. Their brains are wired in a way that floods them with emotional responses to external events. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain's rational part, but teens process information with the amygdala, the emotional part. The amygdala is part of the limbic system of the brain, which is fully functioning and utilized by age 13-14 years. The PFC fully develops between the ages of 18-25.

The prefrontal cortex is located in the very front of the brain, just behind the forehead. In charge of abstract thinking and thought analysis, it is also responsible for regulating behavior. This includes making choices between right and wrong, and predicting the probable outcomes of actions or events. This brain area also governs social control, such as suppressing emotional or sexual urges. Additionally, the PFC helps to focus thoughts, which enables people to pay attention, learn, and concentrate on goals.

People with damaged to the PFC have trouble on the delay-response task, in which they see or hear something, and then have to respond it after a delay. Unfortunately, the PFC is one of the brain regions most susceptible to injury. When the pathways between the pathways prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain are damaged or altered, serious personality changes can result. For example, a person who had been formally outgoing can become quiet and withdraw after the injury.  A damaged PFC can negatively affect a person's ability to assess situations or perform tasks. Since social judgments are made in this brain area, people with damage to the PFC are unable to discern appropriate behavior and/or suffer from emotional distress, such as irrational fears, anxiety, euphoria, and irritability.

 

The video below explains how our thoughts and actions are able to change while we grow up. It explains how the prefrontal cortex in adolescence and adults are very different such as making decisions and it's contributions with our actions. In it, you will see an assistant professor explaining a procedure to determine the changes in development in adolescence and adults.

 

 

Synapses and Drugs

 

 

Psychoactive drugs alter behavior, thinking, and mood by acting on the brain. Most psychoactive drugs affect the brain's activity by changing synaptic transmission of a particular neurotransmitter(s). Within seconds of entering the body, drugs cause dramatic changes to synapses in the brain. Drugs modify synaptic transmission, changing the way neurons communicate with each other. A drug that affects dopamine synaptic transmission can increase the dopamine that reaches the receiving neuron by bypassing the five senses and directly activating the brain's reward circuitry fast and hard. This can cause a jolt of intense pleasure. Drugs either facilitate or inhibit transmission at synapses. A drug that blocks a neurotransmitter is an antagonist, whereas a drug that mimics or increases the effects is an agonist.

 

Drugs of abuse affect the brain in such a dramatic way that the brain must try to adapt. One way the brain compensates is to reduce the number of dopamine receptors at the synapse. As a result, after the user has "come down," they will need more of the drug next time they want to get high. This response is commonly referred to as tolerance. As the brain continues to adapt to the presence of the drug, regions outside of the reward pathway are also affected. Brain regions responsible for judgment, learning and memory begin to physically change or become "hard-wired." Once this happens, drug-seeking behavior is driven by habit, almost reflex. This is how a drug user becomes transformed into a drug addict. When a person uses drugs, the brain learns to function in the presence of those drugs. When the person quits using drugs, the brain doesn't immediately start to function the way it did before the drug use.

 

 

 

 

Breaking Through the Barrier

Every day you use your brain to accomplish many tasks. You eat, think, drive a car, work, write emails, and send text messages. While you are doing all these things, you probably do not think about the shield of tightly packed cells, known as the blood-brain barrier, which is protecting your brain from harmful toxins and other substances. The human brain is well protected. The skull obviously shields the brain from outside impacts. Not so well known is the protection "on the inside": a barrier is present between the blood circulation and the brain, the so-called blood-brain barrier (BBB).

A network of closely sealed endothelial cells in the brain’s capillaries forms the blood-brain barrier. It expresses a high level of proteins that pump foreign molecules away from the brain, while allowing others (such as glucose and insulin) that are necessary for the brain cells to function to cross the barrier.  The BBB is a highly sophisticated organ that acts as a computer firewall. It selectively allows nutrients into the brain, while keeping out harmful components. However, in its task of protecting the chemistry of the brain, the BBB also betrays it by barricading many compounds that might help in diagnosis or treatment.
 

The BBB is essential to health.  It plays a critical role in your health, but many have asked, “Why would teams of researchers and physicians want to break through it?” Yes, the BBB is known to protect us from harmful components, but by breaking through the BBB, it can help people who are fighting cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other serious neurologic diseases.   While protecting the brain from potentially harmful chemicals, the BBB also keeps medications out. Scientists have spent decades searching for ways to breach the barrier just long enough for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or antitumor drugs to slip through the defenses. Now, researchers say they finally have a breakthrough known as microbubbles.

Microbubbles are only the latest and most promising in a string of recent projects aimed at solving the blood-brain barrier problem. These include running a catheter into the brain capillaries and designing a whole suite of drugs that would trick the brain into letting them cross. Although the new results might offer a viable way to sneak medicines past the blood-brain barrier, such an approach would need to be thoroughly tested for each disease and drug. Although the road seems promising, there is still a long way to go.

This video is based on microbubbles and how it helps the blood-brain barrier. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Animal Reseach: The advantages and disadvantages!

 

Animal research plays a crucial role in scientists’ understanding of diseases and the developmental of effective medical treatment.  As of right now, millions or even billions of rats, mice, rabbits, cats and other animals are locked inside cold, barren cages in laboratories across the world. They languish with pain, ache with loneliness, and long to roam free and use their minds. Instead, all they can do is sit in their cold cages and wait in fear for the next terrifying and painful procedure that will be performed to them.  From toothpaste to shampoo that we use to the charities we support, our lives are full or opportunities to stand against animal experiments against animals.

Every year, cosmetics companies kill millions of animals to test their products. These companies claim they test on animals to establish the safety of their products and ingredients for consumers. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require animal testing for cosmetics, and alternative testing methods are widely available and lead to results that are more reliable. Product testing is commonly performed on animals to measure the levels of skin irritancy, eye tissue damage, and toxicity caused by various substances used in the manufacture of cosmetics.

Most of today’s prescribed medication or over-the-counter medications have come from animal research. Although some people such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) think animal research is wrong, other organizations believe that it is helpful in the world. Medical research has saved and improved millions of people. Today’s medicine and surgical techniques could not have been discovered without better understanding of the disease and the way the body and mind works.

 I, like many people across the world, believe that animal research should be range considerably in degrees. I guess you can consider me as a “minimalist.” Minimalists tolerate certain kinds of animal research but prohibit others depending on the probable value of the research, the amount of distress to the animal, and the type of animal.  I believe that animal research should be used effectively when it comes to science or the findings methods to treat or prevent AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and many other disorders. In many areas of medicine and biological psychology, research would progress slowly or not at all without animals.

 Animal research has contributed too many of the medical advances we now take for granted. We have probably all benefited from vaccines and antibiotics to prevent and treat infections, and anesthetics used in all forms of surgery. Medicines can now overcome serious conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure. According to PETA, the best way to stop companies, universities and charities from using animals is to refuse to purchase their products or give them donations and to write and tell them that you won't support them until they stop testing on animals.

The good news is that many companies are now citing 'no testing on animals' in terms of their ethical stance on cosmetics. Ironically, those companies who do not test cosmetics on animals are still benefiting from previous data that was conducted on animals. People need to realize that you can help without hurting!

I've inserted a video about animal research. This video describes the effects towards animal research and how it can help everyone across the world understand the concept better. Enjoy!