What was particularly memorable to you? What images or statements were meaningful to you? Why were they memorable? Be specific. The clip that was particularly memorable was the story of both Katie Worrick and Michael Rehbein’s hemispherectomy. From a neurological perspective, it was astounding to watch both these children survive and function without a part of their brain and if that wasn’t enough they were functioning remarkably well from a cognitive point of reference. I did wonder at first why Katie was still not speaking, but realized that her surgery was still recent when the documentary was made. Just like Michael, who took about 2 years after surgery to regain some of his speech after persistently working on it, Katie too could hope for the same. Having said that, I am also aware of Neuroscientist Dana Boatman’s conclusion that results and recovery times vary from child to child. I did try to find out more about the two children featured in this documentary to see how much life had improved, but could not find any documented information except for an answer to a blog about hemispherectomy by Katie’s mom that said, “My name is Janie Warrick and I live in Richmond, VA. My daughter, Katie who is now 17, had a left hemispherectomy Aug. 8, 2000 in Baltimore, Maryland at Johns Hopkins …show more content…
Hospital by Dr. Ben Carson. We have been through it all as well.”1 The story of these two children were very emotional to watch because as a parent, I would find it so hard to take a call on such an invasive operation, that too of the brain where the organ was not getting treated or repaired but cut off!
The parents’ dilemma, the visuals of their anxiety and fears were captured very clearly in this clip. The stills of Michael connected to the breathing tubes, having his head prepped for surgery etc., visually evoked the magnitude of what the parents and the Michael had to go through. However, the recovery and progress was an awesome success story filled with all the elements of an inspirational narrative that not only inspired but educated as
well. The statement that gave me a very clear visual of the plasticity, transient exuberance and pruning that sculpt out pathways in the brain, was that of Helen Neville’s simile of a block of marble being chipped and shaped into form by a sculptor, “Experience is the sculptor; experience determines which of those connections to take away and which to leave. That’s what learning is.” This statement goes in line with the process of myelination where repetition, experience and affordances all assist in aiding a more efficient transmission of impulses benefitting memory essential in learning. We see this clearly in the case of Michael Blankenship, who Neville worked with in her laboratory to decipher what area of difficulty Michael had. Whether it was in speaking, listening or understanding to better help him progress. Neville’s progress and passion for learning like Neville says makes him his own sculpture in shaping his brain. The same can be said in the case of Russell Trian who is working with the Lindamood-Bell program to help with his dyslexia. The case of Russell Train was particularly personal for me because of my experience as a dyslexic. I could identify with his struggles and frustrations and was glad that he was diagnosed early. It was interesting to see the visual of the brain showing how it processes language, where it first focuses on the reading, then changes it into a visual image in another area and then sends it for interpretation in another area to be articulated. To think that any one of these processes can cause a problem would be a challenge to even detect. I realized that the phonetic analysis of language that I learned in my Montessori training helped me improve my language skills and can see why the Lindamood-Bell program that also focuses on phonetic analysis are helping dyslexic children. What questions does the video raise for you? Be sure these are not questions that were answered in your text book. Find at least two internet sources that answer or provide additional information to answer your question. List both the sources and the answers you found on the sites. If more experiences afford more connections is there a limit to how much the brain can cope with? Is it possible for the brain to get overstimulated by too many experiences and can the brain cope with this overload? I ask this because I could never cram for a test, unlike some of my friends. I always had to space out my studying over time, take a lot of breaks, make notes and revise them from time to time, while my friends in school would just read through their entire text in the last week of exams and performed as well as me and sometimes even better. Experientially, I have always felt a heavy headedness when I have tried to cram for a test and eventually I end up going blank unable to recall anything. Edward Hallowell, MD and psychiatrist, who served as an instructor at Harvard Medical School for 20 years, and is the director of the Hallowell Centers in New York City and Sudbury, Massachusetts, in the article titled, “Overload Circuits: Why smart people underperform”, in the Harvard Business Review, describes a condition called ADT (Attention Deficit Trait) which is caused by an overload of the brain, which according to him has become more prevalent over the past decade. ADT in professionals is a result of an overload of multitasking activities plaguing the management world because of huge demands and expectations of managers, leading to distractibility, stress and impatience. Unlike its cousin ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) which is influenced by both nature and nurture, ADT is caused mainly influenced by nurture. When the executive functioning (EF) of the brain in the frontal cortex, that determines planning, decision making and other managerial functions, are taken over by the center for emotional control, survival and fear, it hinders understanding and fluid learning. 2 Another link emphasized the importance of pacing oneself quantitatively and qualitatively when trying to efficiently memories information to make the best use of our brain functioning that aligned with what I have been following without the awareness of these beneficial implications. That being the case, I can only hypothesize the amount of potential that went undiscovered if my friends followed the method of “spaced repetition” with longer intervals of revision. They could have achieved great grades, excelled academically and made the most of their brain capacity. According to this article “spaced repetition” with increasing intervals, increase long term and efficient memory.3 How does the information provided in the video tie in with what you have learned from your text? Be specific. In studying the building blocks of language in children, i.e the vowels and consonants used to make words, by neuroscientist Pat Kuhl, of the University of Washington, experiments were done on babies to see how their brain processed their native language as opposed to a foreign language, the brain’s function was monitored when the child heard the “she she” sound and the “t-chi, t-chi” sound in Chinese Mandarin. To the adult, both sounds appeared the same, but the babies were able to distinguish the two when their brain waves were tracked. This keen ability to hear distinct sounds is the result of their heightened sensorimotor intelligence. The Secondary Circular Reactions, where infants are beginning to respond to their environments and other people. The affordances they experience, enables pruning and mapping to occur in a dense network of brain pathways. These abilities of the child in this stage of development would enable them the skills to distinguish between languages more easily and use the more dominant left hemisphere of the brain for both languages because they are “citizens of the world” and not influenced by culture or become “culture -bound listeners”. According to the text, “Both languages are located in the same side of the brain with no impact on the cortex structure” (Klein et al., 2014) But they found that by the time babies were 11 months, and had started mapping sounds found in their native language and could not distinguish the difference between the “she” and “t-chi” sounds because by this age all the sounds they were hearing were filtered through the sounds found in their native language, as they became “culture- bound listeners” just like adults. Did the video change your mind about anything? There seems to be a common theme throughout the video that suggest experience, repetition and hard work were instrumental in memory, learning, and even conditioning unconventional areas of the brain to take over the function of a damaged or severed part of the brain. Being dyslexic, I have always looked for easier and more efficient methods to improve memory and learning, but even methods like the “Memory Palace”, which I found very effective, still requires commitment, time and effort. As a result, I have decided to revert to the age-old advice of “ practice makes perfect ” and “ hard work pays off ” in learning and memory. The experiences of Neville and Michael were an inspiration to watch and an example of not just the plasticity of the brain but the perseverance and determination of human behavior. Did you learn anything you did not know? What? The fact that individuals could walk and talk with part of their brains missing was fictitious to me. Not only were they able to function at a basic level, they were able to cognitively get back to their pre-hemispherectomy functioning of their brain. I also realized the importance of getting a hemespherectomy done sooner than later to prevent damage to the neural system because of prolonged multiple seizures, like in the case of Katie that could make recovery more challenging. As I identify with Katie’s parents in hesitating to do the surgery till they had exhausted all forms of drugs, I wonder if they had made the decision for surgery 4 years earlier, would the outcome have been significantly better and damage significantly less from the drugs and seizures. The complexity of how the different parts of the brain overlap to enable learning a language and the limitless ability of a child’s brain to apply and form new sentences on his own is a quandary in itself. The ability of the brain to take over functions that a conventional part is unable to do and the resilience to grasp more than one language and know when to use what and where is a mystery that I have taken for granted and will be more conscious off after seeing this video.
Unless you despise babies or children, there is a huge audience for this movie. The intended audience is not just those who have fostered a child, but those who are interested in what it means to be a human, discover new things, and witness miracle after miracle. Thomas made the documentary without a narrator, without subtitles, and without interference, letting the images he filmed sp...
The night before his operation, Terry read an article about an amputee who had competed in the New York Marathon. Indirectly that story, along with Terry's observations of the intense suffering of cancer patients, set the stage for what would ultimately become the most important decision of his young life.
Reaching the arsenal was a relieved sight. holding a musket for the first time was a great experience and a moment that i will never forget. no more farming was to take place for the next several months. i became a regular with Marion and we ended up flustering all of the british generals with our surprise attacks. seeing the red coats crossing the North Carolina border only put the boys and I into a commending spirit. a big rally was held in Charleston that night, but what made it so amazing was seeing my mother and her beautiful smile.
2. Which of the above were most meaningful/memorable and why? List and describe up to 3.
The surgery will usually take place once the baby has had a chance to adjust to its new environment, and can take place anywhere from within a few days to a few months after birth. The timing of the surgery is dependent upon the size and location of the encephalocele, the associated anomalies, and whether the deficit is skin—covered. The surgery will be performed sooner if there is: no skin covering over the defect, bleeding, airway obstruction, and/or vision impairment. The operation performed is called a ‘craniotomy’ and it involves the neurosurgeon cutting and removing a piece of bone from the child’s skull and then cutting through the membrane that protects the brain. This is necessary because the neurosurgeon has to replace the brain tissue, membranes, and/or fluids that have protruded from the gap in the skull, and remove the sac that was surrounding it. The neurosurgeon will finish the surgery by closing the dura mater and closing the skull with the same piece of bone that they had initially removed. Sometimes it may be necessary for a neurosurgeon to use an artificial plate to repair the skull if there is still a large
In The Blind Side, Michael experienced an array of challenges, but thanks to the support from his community, he was successfully able to overcome his previous trauma. A major challenge that Michael was exposed to was his community in the projects and poverty. The individuals there were involved in high risk behavior that Michael could have easily used as a coping mechanism. Fortunately, he did not feel like he belonged and did not take part in the activities, such as drinking. He did not have a good relationship with his biological mother, who engaged in substance use, as they have not seen each other in a very long time. This traumatic separation from his family, lead Michael to feel both a physical and emotional abandonment. Throughout
I’m not the only one who experienced these feelings, as I talked to other attendees I got a sense that they gained courage, optimism and a set of cognitive tools to
The case of patient H.M. or Henry Molaison is a very interesting one. Henry Molaison was born on February 26th, 1926 and suffered from epilepsy most likely caused from a bike accident he had when he was young, although it is disputed his actual age of when the accident happened. Henry suffered from partial seizures up until he was 16 when he began to experience several grand mal seizures, a seizure that affects the whole brain. In 1953 Henry was referred to Dr. William Beecher Scoville, a neurosurgeon at Hartford Hospital for treatment. To treat Henry’s seizures Dr. Scoville suggested surgical removal of Henry’s right and left medial temporal lobes. On September 1st, 1953, Dr. Scoville operated on a 27 year old Henry Molaison, removing Henry’s
All of this had been circulating through Michael’s head while he was sitting in the front seat of his father’s car. Then he looked in a hand mirror. What he saw, was a boy with neatly combed blonde hair. He slowly gulped Then he unsteadily got out of the car. Since he had become accustomed to .all the dark colors his father had draped everywhere around their home, he winced when he saw the bright sunny air. He quickly walked through the gravel driveway. He hastily...
Finally the bus made it to the Superdome. It was bigger than I had imagined. I was in awe. So was everyone else. We went inside. Less people were there than I had thought there would be. Suddenly I remembered we were the only ones who knew Hurricane Katrina was coming.
My most memorable day was when I came to Job Corps, September 1, 2015. On my way to here I was scared and nervous. I was on the phone with my mom all the way here. I was asking her what if everybody was mean, what if I didn’t like the place. So many questions went through my head. I started crying.
Michael Oher was an under privileged teenager who bounced from foster house to foster house and ended up at his mom’s house who was a drug addict. Shortly after he moved in with her she passed away. Michael was enrolled into a private school called Briarcrest Christian school. He was barely able to read and write when he began at the school. Michael met the Tuohy family and they took it as a blessing. They invited him to stay the night, but this turned in to much more. The Tuohy’s started treating him like their own. Michael was given his own bedroom, was purchased new clothes, and was set up for a better life. The Tuohy’s were a huge football family and couldn’t let Michaels size, speed, and strength go to waste. He was the perfect person
The next few days were a blur. All of my extended family from New Jersey and South Carolina, immediately packed into their cars and made their way to Michigan. Our house was flooded with over thirty guests. Cars filled the entire block, and stretched into a few of our neighbors driveways. It was a bittersweet reunion. I didn't have much alone time to collect my thoughts, and truly process that what had happened, was real.
...oing on. However, the one thing I do remember is my Cousin Chris’ acclamation of the memories he shared growing up with my mom. Although it was astounding, despite being completely spontaneous, that is not why it didn’t go unnoticed. Right in the middle of his eulogy, my uncle’s cell phone went off. It was the aggravating and unsuitable theme from The Walking Dead. I was so upset with him for leaving the room to answer the awfully timed phone call from his buddy who needed help repairing a truck.
I was smacked in the face by a gust of hot, humid Texas air as I found my way off the bus. The once brisk morning was getting hotter by the second. My friend Kristi and I looked towards our left and there she was, the Norwegian Sea. The cruise liner that we would be on for the next week. It was the biggest ship I had ever seen up close. Ten stories high and nearly 1000 feet long. It had an intimidating presence that took one's breath away.