The first neural induction in amphibian embryos has given the Nobel Prize in Medicine award to Hans Spemann in 1935 for his “Spemann-Mangold organizer” paper. The discovery with her student Hilde Mangold leads to establishment of a neuroectodermal primordium from where the nervous system arise involving induction of chemicals such as the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and WNT signalling, together with inhibition of bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP) signalling activity to promotes neuron development. Spemann’s study has successfully identified a morphologically distinct cluster of mesodermal cell located in dorsal lip of blastophore known as ‘organizer’ which has the potential in neural induction. BMP will trigger neural induction and are formed during the gastrulation in vertebrate embryo which is secreted by ventral gastrula signalling centre (Spermann H, Mangold H, 1924). In a normal mechanism BMP binds with receptor on ectoderm cell to form epidermis. However, by inhibiting BMP, ectoderm cells will differentiate to form the neurons cells without the presence of neural inducers t...
In the article “Brain Gain: The Underground World of “Neuroenhancing” Drugs” (Yorker 2009) Margaret Talbot discusses the misuse of prescription drugs that enhance academic performance at the college level. First Talbot introduces readers to a young college history major at Harvard University named Alex who receives a description of a demanding, busy life which seems impossible to control without the safety unapproved adopted use of a drug named Adderall. After that Alex’s dependency on the prescription drugs cognitive enhancers is described when he asks his doctor to increase the amount of intake and the listing of his daily routine on using Adderall during a week that required him to write four term papers. Next Talbot describes a personal
Everything that is real is a lie except your thoughts. If someone approached you with this statement you would assume they are insane and you would try to convince them that you are real and the world is real. As you begin to try to prove reality you begin to question yourself, under what circumstances do we understand reality? As we acknowledge what we believe to be realities, we form conclusions and assurances about our own existence and the existence of everything around us. Because our existence is assured through our perception of reality, we believe to be part of an existing real world. The existence of the real world is based upon belief and cannot be proven. The existence of the real world originates from our brains. Reality is dependent of our perception, experiences, senses, and reasoning.
In efforts to find truth, Descartes used only his logic to identify his existence. He also proved that there is some type of knowledge that we are born with. “Some of our ideas seem to be “born with me,” some “invented” by me, whereas others “come from without” (Descartes, 2008, p. 211). Which means Descartes believed that we enter this world with some innate ideas that overtime helps us to develop understanding of our sense (invented by me) and through our experiences (comes from without). Descartes was a dualist; he stated that there existed something outside of our bodies. Descartes suggested that at the “ghost in the machine” theory developed by Gilbert Ryle, which states that there is some mystical being, which we understand is the mind, that is primary to the machine (or the body). Which leads me to believe, innate ideas are active within our minds.
The importance of embryonic stem cells rests in their lack of specialization. These basic cells are present in the earliest stages of developing embryos and are able to develop into virtually any type of cell and tissue in the body. Being self-renewing, they offer a potentially limitless source of cells and tissue. (Tucker)
The neurons or brain cells are shaped like trees. Young brain cells, called soma, resemble an acorn or small seed of a tree. The seed sprouts limbs when stimulated, called dendrites. Further on in development, the cell will grow a trunk like structure called an axon. The axon has an outer shell, like the bark of a tree, called the myelin sheath. Finally, at the base of the cell, there are root-like structures called axon terminal bulbs. Through these bulbs and the dendrite of another cell, cells communicate with each other through electrochemical impulses. These impulses cause the dendrites to
Rippon, H. and Bishop, A. 2004. Embryonic stem cells. Cell Proliferation, 37 (1), pp. 23--34.
...s in these target organs at critical developmental periods would result in defects of these organs (5).
Sperry, R. W. (1963, October 15). Chemoaffinity in the Orderly Growth of Nerve Fiber Patterns and Connection. Natioanl Academy of Science, 50(4), 703-710.
As the human body goes through different experiences, the brain grows, develops, and changes according to the environmental situations it has been exposed to. Some of these factors include drugs, stress, hormones, diets, and sensory stimuli. [1] Neuroplasticity can be defined as the ability of the nervous system to respond to natural and abnormal stimuli experienced by the human body. The nervous system then reorganizes the brain’s structure and changes some of its function to theoretically repair itself by forming new neurons. [2] Neuroplasticity can occur during and in response to many different situations that occur throughout life. Some examples of these situations are learning, diseases, and going through therapy after an injury.
Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) was instituted in the early 1980s as a distinctive field of study to characterise the new synthesis of evolution hypothesis (Müller, 2007). Evo-devo is regarded as a new rule in evolutionary biology and a complement to neo-Darwinian theories. It has formed from the combination of molecular developmental biology and evolutionary molecular genetics; their integration has helped greatly to understand both of these fields. Evo-devo as a discipline has been exploring the role of the process of individual development and the changes in evolutionary phenotype, meaning the developmental procedure by which single-celled zygotes grow to be multicellular organisms. Alterations in the developmental program frequently cause differences in adult morphology. When these alterations are helpful, they grow to be fixed in a population and can result in the evolution of new phyla. Evo-devo seeks to figure out how new groups happen by understanding how the method of development has evolved in different lineages. In other word, evo-devo explains the interaction between phenotype and genotype (Hall, 2007). Explanation of morphological novelty of evolutionary origins is one of the middle challenges in current evolutionary biology, and is intertwined with energetic discussion regarding how to connect developmental biology to standard perspectives from the theory of evolution (Laubichler, 2010). A large amount of theoretical and experiential effort is being devoted to novelties that have challenged biologists for more than one hundred years, for instance, the basis of fins in fish, the fin-to-limb change and the evolution of feathers. The biology of development promises to formulate a main contribution to these...
Formation of germ layers is the first step towards multicellular organisms. It establishes division of tissue types. Diploblastic organisms, such as coelenterates, have two germ layers (ectoderm and endoderm), whereas triploblastic organisms, which include all higher animals, have three germ layers (ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm). These germ layers are often termed as leaves with ectoderm being the outer leaf, mesoderm being the middle leaf...
Throughout the course of history many people in time had no idea that many creatures of life had brains. With remarkable breakthroughs in technology and through human ability to take pictures of the human brain through head scans, scientists have discovered and mapped out the human brain. As neuroscientists understand how the brain works, discovery of brain-based learning has been a growing field ever since. Education is extremely important for human beings because the more educated we are as a society the better we contribute to society. Knowledge is extremely powerful and as a future educator, understanding how the brain works and developing lesson plans surrounding the inner workings of the brain will allow learning to manifest in the classroom.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (B.F. Skinner) was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinner most notably was known for his work such as: Project Pigeon, The Baby Tender, Walden Two, and lastly he generated better methods of teaching for learning children including those with autism. Skinner gave an emotional speech at the American Psychological Association (APA) convention just ten days before his death. He died due to leukemia on August 18, 1990. At this convention, he received an unprecedented Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology, the only person to receive this type of an award in the history of APA. During his career, Skinner received other honors and awards, including serving as William James Lecturer
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) was developed in the 1970s by a linguist John Grinder and by a mathematician Richard Bandler. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a therapy that deals with one’s perceptions of the world by their experiences, beliefs, values, assumptions, and sensory systems. NLP was developed by studying and examining the modeling pattern of human internal and external behaviors of the world. According to NLP website, “NLP investigates the inner functions of the human mind: how we think, how we develop our desires, goals and fears and how we motivate ourselves, make connections, and give meaning to our experiences” (NLP Comprehensive, 2013). NLP entails various collections of psychological practices that target to improve peoples’ lives. Mainly, it is a therapy of motivating the conscious mind by acting upon the unconscious mind; the experience is subjective to the person.
Learning is defined as a “process of change that occurs as a result of an individual’s experience” (Mazure, 2006). Researchers assume that the process of learning follows certain general principles, which were developed, into the general process learning theories. These include operant conditioning and classical conditioning which has been put forward by leading psychologists like Pavlov, B.F.Skinner and Thorndike. However, in learning, operant and classical conditoning are opposed by biological constraints that state that there are limitations to the theories. Some of these biological constraints on learning will be discussed below.