Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on brain function
Abstract on brain function essay
Essay on brain function
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essay on brain function
Having always been fascinated by how biological processes occurred, I attended a talk during my GCSE years about neurons and synaptic transmission, which first sparked my interest in neuroscience. I was astounded at how such a seemingly complex process could only take a fraction of a second and how we as incredibly complicated human beings are simply controlled by a network of electrical impulses. I was shocked to say the least and I wanted to discover more about the topic.
It was not until I started reading ‘Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’ that I became engrossed in neuropsychology. One case that particularly intrigued me was the case of ‘the disembodied lady- Christina’. Christina had lost her proprioception (which is considered to be our sixth sense).
…show more content…
Studying maths at AS-Level bettered my problem-solving skills and logical thinking which are necessary to pursue my studies within this field. Biology has improved my knowledge of the structure of the human body and how the different systems in the body work together to keep us alive. Chemistry has developed my understanding of how chemical reactions occur in the body including the ion movements in the nervous system, and has evoked my enthusiasm for neuropharmacology. This has also stemmed for studying how SSRI’s work to treat depression and OCD in psychology. Psychology influenced my fascination with memory and how we retain information. Whilst looking at the models of memory, I was introduced to the case study of Clive Wearing, which captivated my attention. Clive Wearing contracted Herpes Encephalitis, which damaged his hippocampus and therefore his short and long term memory encoding. However he could still remember how to play the piano. I hope that by studying neuroscience I will develop a greater understanding of how such events can
However, extra academic courses helped expand my knowledge in these areas. I was able to take Phycology and Sociology, in High school. The study of why people do what they do really intrigued me because I was nothing like my siblings. Phycology and Sociology expanded my vocabulary and literacies. I looked at history from a different perspective, which interested me. It also introduced me to humanities courses. I pretty much skated by in my English classes. The books we read, I had no interest in, and I did not feel like I was getting anything out of my classes. This was until my senior year. My English teacher taught us how to read. I do not mean the words, but the content. Different methods of active reading, and note taking helped me have a deeper understanding of the content I was reading. The shift in instruction which was historically influenced helped me progress in my literacies (Panther, 2015, presentation). I could relate to the novels we were reading. For the first time in my education, I was reading novels that made me want to keep reading. After this, I began reading for myself, rather than
Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple are all four topics in the book “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales,” by Oliver Sacks. You might not understand what those mean or discuss until you realize who Oliver Sacks is. Oliver Sacks is a Neurologist who has had the chance to take upon these twenty-four case studies and share them in a book. The book is more focused on neurological functions, different forms of the mind, and hallucinations/visions. All of these are related to the first few chapters in our Psychology textbook (Chapters 2,3,6,8,10). Oliver Sacks gives us clear insight into the mind of those that perceive things much differently than most. It is a clear insight to what most of us are curious about but may not fully understand.
Neuroscientists claim that due to unconscious brain activity, we are “biochemical puppets” (Nahmias). Through experiments conducted by neuroscientists like Itzhak Fried, neural activity is shown to occur before a conscious decision is made. Fried concluded that this was a predetermined occurrence
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is an informative book by Oliver Sacks which discusses a wide variety of neurological disorders of his patients. The book is divided into four sections which are Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple. Each section has its own theme and set of stories with different main character. There is no main character throughout the book except for the author who is Dr. Sacks sharing the stories and experiences of his patients. The theme of the section called Losses is the lack of function in the brain through a neurological disorder. Many people have neurologicasl diseases or disorders which causes them the inability of a function of the brain. Some examples which Sacks included were Aphonia,
The novel, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, is a neurological and psychological journal of Dr. Oliver Sacks’s patients. He describes each one of his patients illnesses into twenty-four short stories. These short stories are split into 4 parts: Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple.
Christina loses this sixth sense the day before she was scheduled to go into surgery to remove her gallbladder. She lost tone, muscle, and vocal posture. She was unaware that her body was flailing everywhere. Christina was told that she had to use her eyes to take over for the sense proprioception that was lost. She thus used her vision to control how she moved, talked, and physically held herself. Everything that one does automatically, Christina now has to think about. Christina’s life was made possible, but a great deal of re-learning had to be done so she could conduct
The process in which people interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world is commonly known as perception. According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, there are several components to perception. Professor Jim Davies lists this components as typical sensory modalities. The aim of this essay is to describe the base example of perception used in lecture and explain perceptual problems throughout the novel using target examples. Perception happens through the sensory organs of a human and with that perception comes action via the human body. Dr. Sacks transcribed an altered perception when discussing patients in his first section, Losses.
They discover that his hippocampus and some frontal regions of the brain has been damaged by the herpes simplex encephalitis (Dolores, 2013). Therefor, they summarize that the reason of why Clive suffer in the Amnesia are caused by the hippocampus is not effected. The Hippocampus is a structure that located inside in the temporal lobe, and that is a part of the limbic system. The function of Hippocampus is similar to a post office used for encoding, storage and recalling memories, all presenting information would first remain, analysis and encoded in the Hippocampus then transmit them to different areas of the brain. In other word, Clive cannot able to encode memory and held information which is currently aware, and difficult to forming new long-term memory such as explicit and semantic memory in his life. Clive Wearing now 78 years old already, he still cannot recover from the anterograde amnesia, he becomes a man who has the shortest memory in the world. His daily life has been influenced by his memory problem completely, he can remember his wife and play piano, however, he expresses surprise and exciting when his wife leave him about few second. Herpes simplex encephalitis also destroyed his frontal regions, that cause him have a poor emotional processing. He often gets angry and not able to cope with his emotional expression, especially when he senses that he is forgetting something again.
There is a book written by a man named Oliver Sacks called The Mind's Eye. Oliver Sacks speaks about a man named John Hull who lost his vision physically and how his other senses seemed to gain strength to make up for vision loss. Although Sacks speaks of the trying obstacles that Hull had to face, that excerpt sparked a few questions. Must being blind be physical? Other than physical eyesight, there are also three different components of sight that people fail often overlook and these are Hindsight, Foresight, and insight.
The book consists of various neurological clinical cases related to intellectual and perceptual abnormalities. The case studies are directly from Oliver Sacks’ patients and are divided into four sections: losses, excesses, transports and the world of the simple. Section one consists of clinical cases where a loss of a certain function impairs one to go about their day. Section two consists of cases where an excess of something makes or breaks a person. Section three talks about preconscious or the unconscious, which is like transporting to a dream-like state. Lastly section four covers patients
Cognitive psychologists investigate processes using case studies of brain-damaged patients, these are then analysed to build models that represent normal cognitive processes. This essay will examine the contribution case studies have made to the development of cognitive neuropsychology as a discipline in its own right and draw attention to issues surrounding the use of brain damaged patients to infer cognitive functions and processes. At the same time, it will evaluate the contribution that case studies have made to our understanding of cognitive processes.
I have always been inspired by the workings of chemistry and mathematics. My studies of these subjects have developed my understanding and have made me pursue my interest in these two topics. I want to take up chemistry as it involves a large amount of mathematics which I value and understand to be challenging, yet very enjoyable, as there is always an alternative route to obtain the answer. Additionally, I am drawn to the course because it is a mixture of all these exacting subjects, forming a degree that is very demanding and stimulating. Chemists are constantly thinking of new ways to produce viable drugs containing different isomers to improve the pharmaceutical sector using mathematical equations. Chemistry is about innovation, applying information to new areas and how to do things better than they were before, the degree appeals to and fascinates me.
The documentary, “Amazing Secrets About the Human Brain” presented by the History Channel, explains how the brain works to people with little to no academic knowledge on the subject. The brain is “the most complicated device” humans have found, so it is certainly a topic of interest to many. In the past few years, knowledge of the brain has grown significantly. The documentary’s goal is to describe the complexity of the brain and how it influences various human behaviors, such as fear, sexual arousal, sports performance, and psychic mediums. With a minor shortcoming, the documentary does a sufficient job of introducing the complexity and workings of the brain to people with little knowledge of the topic.
It is said, that a good book is a breeze to read. " The man who took his wife for a hat" (1985) written by Olivier Sacks was exactly the opposite, an incredibly hard text. Professor of neurology asks himself - and a reader - what defines the human nature. It is not a book about clinical cases with rare diseases; it is about ordinary people whose life suddenly went wrong and the world around them has changed irreversibly.
I am currently taking Maths, Chemistry and Biology to Advanced Higher, all of which are challenging and stimulating subjects. They have all influenced me in different ways and were integral in my decision to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering. They have also helped me obtain a foundation of core skills and extended knowledge to hopefully prepare me undertaking my desired degree. There is no doubt that Maths and chemistry have helped fine tune and advance my problem solving skills and think in a more logical manner, all of which I believe to be essential for this degree.