Susan Mcconnell Theories Baby's Brain Wider Than the Sky

Programme i
"The Infant'southward Brain: Wider than the Sky" examines how the brain builds itself from conception through the first yr of life. The mystery begins in the womb -- only 4 weeks into gestation the starting time brain cells, the neurons, are already forming at an amazing charge per unit: 500,000 every infinitesimal. Billions of encephalon cells volition forge links with billions of other brain cells and eventually in that location will be trillions and trillions of connections between cells, pulsing with electricity. Eventually, every prison cell will observe its place; every link between cells will be carefully organized. How does it become this manner? Neurobiologists Susan McConnell and Carla Shatz are working to detect out past studying the intricate relationship between genes and the environment on development.

What happens if this carefully orchestrated process is interrupted? How vulnerable is the brain to an contradistinct environment? Ten-day-old Elizabeth, born almost iii months premature, is part of a study by developmental psychologist Heidelise Als. Als wants to know if the difficulties preemies have paying attention and learning subsequently in life can be overcome by providing a special surroundings which mimics the womb. Will MRI images reveal that Elizabeth'due south encephalon has adult differently than other premature babies treated in the standard way?

Programme 2
"The Child's Brain: Syllable from Sound" traces normal development from the toddler through puberty. During childhood, the brain is a magnificent engine for learning, and nowhere is learning more dramatic than in the way a child learns language. Nearly children larn to speak equally hands as a bird learns to sing, but Michael B. did not. At five, by the fourth dimension most children have mastered grammer, Michael has trouble speaking in consummate sentences. How is his encephalon different from other children his age? What can Michael teach u.s. about the brain's capacity for language? How does the brain brand this smashing bound that is nothing short of a phenomenon?

In well-nigh all adults, the language middle of the brain resides in the left hemisphere, simply in children the brain is less specialized. Neuroscientists Helen Neville and Debbie Mills have demonstrated that until babies reach about a year old, they respond to language with their entire brains, but then, gradually, linguistic communication shifts to the left hemisphere, driven by the conquering of language itself.

If the left hemisphere becomes the language eye for virtually adults, what happens if, during childhood, it is compromised by affliction? At three, Michael R.began having encephalon seizures; by the time he was 7, he was having hundreds a solar day. Doctors diagnosed a rare brain disease for which the cure was radical: the left hemisphere of his brain would have to be surgically removed. Today, Michael bowls improve than most children and races stock cars. Although he speaks with some difficulty, he understands well, even though the left side of his encephalon is missing. Dana Boatman, at Johns Hopkins University, has been testing Michael always since his operation. She wants to know how the correct side of his encephalon has compensated.

For most of us, while speaking is as natural and inevitable equally walking, reading is more like a high wire balancing act, a functioning by the brain that demands the most sophisticated coordination of many of its parts. But reading is a gift that not everyone receives. Millions, like seven yr onetime Russell, are dyslexic, painfully unable to interpret the squiggles on the page into sound and significant, in spite of capable minds. At Georgetown University, Guinivere Eden is scanning the brains of dyslexic children to understand how their brains are different.

Program 3
"The Teenage Brain: A World of Their Own" explores how the normal encephalon matures during the teenage years. New inquiry has shown that during puberty, merely equally the brain begins teeming with hormones, the prefrontal cortex, the center of reasoning and impulse control, is still a work in progress. For the first time, scientists can offer an explanation for what parents already know � adolescence is a time of roiling emotions and poor judgment. Equally the encephalon matures, teenagers as well face special risks � from addictive drugs and booze that tin can hijack the encephalon to the chaos of schizophrenia that strikes almost oft during adolescence. Eighteen-year-old Courtney was a star educatee in high school when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia which crippled his ability to think, reason and feel. Dr. Nancy Andreasen at the University of Iowa is studying Courtney and other schizophrenics, searching to find which areas of the encephalon are affected and how to treat the debilitating symptoms. Courtney responds to new medications that do not cure the disease but permit him to function on a daily basis. Other teenagers, notwithstanding, have a more resistant class of the disease. 14-year-old Sabrina experienced her kickoff psychotic suspension at age twelve and has been unable to detect a medication that volition control her psychotic symptoms.

Xviii-year-onetime Jessie is struggling with a brain disorder of another kind, a self-inflicted disorder that can easily destroy a young life � drug addiction. She and other teenagers at the Caron Foundation, a handling program in Eastern Pennsylvania, fight to beat out their addictions while learning how drugs and booze have disrupted their encephalon chemistry to hijack behavior and desire. Dr. Anna Rose Childress at the University of Pennsylvania has identified where craving occurs in the brain and is at present testing new medications that may control it.

Plan 4
"The Adult Brain: To Think By Feeling" explores the critical coaction between reason and emotion and what happens when the residuum between these two brain regions goes awry. Marvin is an example of how emotion is intertwined with reason, and how damage to 1 influences the other. Marvin suffered a stroke that damaged a portion of his encephalon that cut him off from his power to get aware of what he is feeling. Today, he is a changed homo: he has lost the power to connect with other people, fifty-fifty his married woman and children, and has difficulty making even unproblematic, everyday decisions.

Marvin feels likewise lilliputian. Johny feels as well much. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), constantly reliving a car accident that happened a year ago. Day and night, memories of the accident ship him into a panic, his centre racing. Fright is a normal, necessary emotion that protects us from danger, but in PTSD, fright and panic race out of control. Roger Pitman at Harvard is studying a drug that, if administered in time, might be able to prevent PTSD in victims of trauma. For author and psychologist Lauren Slater, an extreme sensitivity to feet and the stress it produces may help explain her life-long boxing with depression. Lauren is function of a family line �riddled with mental illness.� Added to that genetic predisposition was the abuse she suffered as a kid. Charles Nemeroff at Emory University has shown that childhood abuse may actually change the encephalon's power to experience stress unremarkably and may be a cause of depression after in life. There is no cure for low, just scientists have developed effective medications that, especially in combination with talk therapy, tin help people with low live productive lives. Treated for depression twelve years ago, Lauren is at present married and has a two-year-onetime daughter. She has drawn from her experiences as a patient and psychologist to write three highly acclaimed books. At a public health clinic in Boston, she counsels patients, using her ain experience to help others suffering from depression.

Program five
"The Crumbling Encephalon: Through Many Lives." At the age of 95, Stanley Kunitz was named poet laureate of the United States. Still writing new poems, yet reading to live audiences, he stands as an inspiring example of the encephalon'due south ability to stay vital in the terminal years of our lives. The fifth hour of THE Underground LIFE OF THE BRAIN draws on the latest discoveries of neuroscience to present a new view of how the brain ages.

The longstanding belief that we lose vast numbers of brain cells as we abound older turns out to exist wrong. The normal aging process leaves almost mental functions intact, and may fifty-fifty provide the brain with unique advantages that form the ground for wisdom. The crumbling encephalon is also far more than resilient than was previously believed. At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, neuroscientist Edward Taub has adult an innovative course of therapy that helps stroke patients like Kent overcome years of paralysis by reviving the damaged circuits in their brains.

Overturning decades of dogma, scientists recently discovered that even into our seventies, our brains continue producing new neurons. Might it one day be possible to use these new neurons to replace those killed past disorders of the aging encephalon, similar Parkinson's Affliction? At Harvard Medical School, neurologist Jeffrey Macklis is trying to find out by trying to decipher the chemical signals that cause new neurons to be built-in. In St. Louis, 69-year-sometime Chuck has just been told he has Alzheimer's Illness, which slowly destroys the brain's ability to retrieve and to think. But Chuck is not without hope because neuroscientists take made enormous progress in identifying the likely causes of the disease: microscopic molecules that can be lethal to the encephalon's neurons. In California, scientist Dale Schenk has just developed an experimental vaccine that may aid the brain to defend itself. After decades of frustration, scientists believe they are finally closing in on the first constructive treatments for this devastating disorder that afflicts millions of Americans.

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Source: https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/brain/outreach/series_desc.html

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