Biopsychology
discussions
minimum 250 words per week
Wk3:
Prepare for this week’s discussion by viewing the Ted Talk video on Facial Recognition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT8qSZ1UkWo
Then, review the information on vision in Biopsychology Chapter 3 in your Week 3 resources, particularly the information on disorders of visual perception. Select one of the five disorders (simultanagnosia, prosopagnosia, ocular apraxia, optic ataxia, or Balint’s syndrome) and research its clinical etiology, symptoms, and treatments. Think about its symptoms and problems commonly experienced by people diagnosed with it and its impact on important areas of life functioning, including work, relationships, and leisure time. Locate an APUS Online Library research article or other scientifically grounded information about this disorder and report the etiology, symptoms, treatments, and areas of the brain responsible for it and specific behaviors it affects. What would you expect to be the must challenging aspects of the disorder for you if you had it?
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Wk5:
Several of the most fascinating biopsychology research questions about memory have to do with the connection between human consciousness and the location in the brain and function of memory processes. What makes memories feel so real is that the neurobiological process of recollecting an experience is in some ways identical to the process of experiencing it in the first place.After viewing the two videos below, imagine what it would be like if your memory only had a 30 second maximum capacity; that is, if in a half-minute or less you forgot everything you just experienced, including information received from your environment and its accompanying feelings? What do imagine your greatest challenges in everyday living would be? What about positives? If you had to come up with some what would they be?
Learning & Memory https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15791973
Clive Wearing – The Man with No Short-term Memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwigmktix2Y
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Wk6:
Most of us at one time or another have experienced a change in schedule that has contributed to both sleep deprivation and an upsetting of our circadian rhythms. In this discussion we will explore the effects of such changes. After watching the video Rhythm and Snooze – Circadian Genes, respond to the listed questions.
1. How were you affected the last time you experienced multiple instances of having to get up unusually early, stay up much later than you are accustomed to or experienced some other change in sleeping patterns? 2. Are you an “owl” or a “lark”? Have you always been owl-ish or lark-ish or were you different in prior periods of your life?3. How well does your owl-ness or lark-ness match the wake/sleep schedule you are currently experiencing, which can vary widely between individuals and be governed by a number of daily life demands, from non-optional work shifts, to being a new parent with an infant not concerned with your desire to sleep through the night, to your choice of leisure activities? What do this week’s readings tell you about the potential positive or negative impacts of your particular matching or non-matching wake/sleep schedule? How well do the impacts, for better or worse, suggested in the readings align with your actual experience (e.g. if you are a lark whose schedule requires you to work a late evening shift or an owl who has to rise very early to get children to school, do you find yourself running low on energy during times of the day or night when you normally don’t or having trouble concentrating)?
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Wk7:
Substance abuse and addiction are difficult conditions to successfully treat. For example, the 12-month relapse rate among alcoholics is more than 60%, and it is nearly 75% for smokers and heroin users. One possible reason for treatment failure is the powerful way in which addictive substances affect the brain. Most addictive drugs appear to tap into the brain’s reward circuit, so that any behavior (taking a drug) preceding the psychological experience of reward is strongly reinforced. If addiction is a product of brain activity, it is logical that the treatment also must involve some change in brain activity. In fact, there are several forms of biologically-based drug treatments, including the use of agonist drugs that mimic some of the addictive drugs’ effects (e.g. methadone for heroin addiction), as well as other substances that alter activity in the reward system (such as Baclofen).
Watch this TEDMED Talk by Neuroscientist Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the NIH, on why our brains get addicted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnd2-al4LCU
Then answer the questions below.
- Provide an analysis of the extent to which addiction to psychoactive drugs is a biological versus a psychological phenomenon.
- Support or refute the practice of using drug therapies for treating addiction. Be sure you are including current supportive research for your reply.
- Include in your argument above, discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on drug therapy to treat addiction
