Sunday, April 29, 2012

I'm going to pump you up



No not that way.



When I first saw this as a thumbnail I thought it was Lady Gaga's newest fashion statement, but the article deals with the brain. A complicated subject if there ever was one. There's been some interesting shifts in thinking about psychiatry and psychology over the last 50 years. Sigmund Freud appears to have everything wrong on the influences of mommy and daddy in how we turn out. Yes you may pick up a habit or two from them along the way but what makes us the unique folks we are is more based on brain chemistry and how we adapt to daily problem solving. I had written a paper some 40 years ago about the subject with the premise that who we are is based on genetics relative to our environment. I see now that it was only partially true. Some years later studies of twins separated at birth concluded similar characteristics even when raised by different families. Now come to find out that our brains are malleable and capable of great changes or rewiring if you will with changes to our situations. That would follow logically as we evolve and adapt to our surroundings. Interesting to note that it can now be determined with great accuracy whether an individual will land up in jail based on little more than a brain CAT scan. Certain parts of the brain can be exposed showing underdevelopment or a destruction from injury that could never be examined before. This may lead to better treatments of many neurological problems. However we have a long road to go considering the side effects of so many medications on the market right now. Repairing psychosis may be one thing but when the liver is destroyed in the process I don't think the patient will go for the trade off.

Neuroplasticity is the latest term meaning the brains' ability to rewire. Whether this can be done through therapy or drugs or a combination of both we'll have to wait and see. And you always though you were stuck in your own ways. I have a theory about that too. We reach a point as we age where we regress back to our beginnings. It's back to the smart ass teenager because will you really care what you say when you're 80 or 90? But then we get to the point where someone needs to change our diapers again.

Read on pump up your brain

4 comments:

BBC said...

I contend that society has a bigger influence on how kids develop than parents do. That would help explain why things are getting worse.

I note with interest that many of the past greats did mind altering drugs to get where they got.

Tom Harper said...

I'm almost old enough to start being a smartass teenager again. Can't wait 'til the next stage when I'm lying there in my wet bed, screaming and wailing for someone to come in and change me.

Demeur said...

You're probably right Billy. I understand Hitler was a vegetarian. Can't trust those natural types.

Tom with your luck it would be the lovely 350 lb. nurse Kratchit with hairy knuckles and a mustache.

Randal Graves said...

The best part about discoveries such as this is guessing just how much they'll be used for supervillainy.