Nervous System Power Hour Reading

Why everyone (else) is a hypocrite: evolution and the modular mind
By Robert Kurzban
Consistently Inconsistent
In this book, Kurzban aims to convince the reader that the brain is made up of "modules" which are different parts of the brain that as a whole, shape human behavior. He argues that the human mind is made up of many different mental processes that do not always align. For example, split brain patients. In an experiment by two neuroscientists, they showed that one hemisphere could see something that the other hemisphere couldn't. A simpler example Kurzban used is the phantom arm example where people with amputated arms and legs say that they can still feel those missing limbs. Kurzban argues that this is because some of the nervous system truly believes that the limb is still there. Another one of Kurzvan's arguments is that people should not believe everything that comes out of a person's mouth because the "talking portion" of the brain is not connected to everything else. In other words, the "talking portion" does not accurately portray what the rest of the modules believe; this is the reason for apparent contradictions, why everyone else is a hypocrite and you're not. kurzban's entire book rests on his argument that there are different modules which is why we have inconsistencies, specifically moral hypocrisy.
Kurzban's introduction began with the argument that "Being ignorant, wrong, irrational, and hypocritical can make you much better off than being knowledgable, correct, reasonable, and consisten. As long as you're ignorant, wrong, irrational, and hypocritical in the right ways." In later chapters he discusses how knowing more information can just be disadvantageous, especially to a person's moral compass but that does not make his previous claim any more believable or credible  That is, unless a person wants to stay ignorant, wrong, irrational, and hypocritical. However through his examples, I can see how a person's brain has different modules that either work together or separately.
On a side note, his "wit" and "sometimes hilarious" personality, is not obvious in this book.

20 Time Blog #3: Shifting Directions?

I have been trying to research more about color, but I find that my research has taken me in a direction I did not plan for- subconscious cues. My original topic came about through an article with underlying information on subconscious cues as well but at the time I chose the color aspect. However, now I am finding increased interest in these "cues" as well as that my experimentation takes time and money, both of which are not easily available to me right now. Like we said in class, I think I went for a too ambitious experiment. Much of the information I have come across is backed up by research and experiments which have hundreds of people behind them, showing me just how many resources I would require. However much of what I have studied will be useful as well. Therefore, I am thinking, but not sure yet, of turning my 20 Time project in a different direction, one that I hope will be able to more significantly impact other people. (Advice on this would be much appreciated!)

Unit 7 Reflection

In this unit we learned about directional terms and joint movements, muscle fibers, performance enhancers, and of course, the muscular system! Projects that we did interspersed between lectures really helped bring together and highlight the ways our body works together (such as in our Muscle Contraction Skit Video). This skit depicted the specific steps of contraction in an easy and thorough way since we were able to apply what we learned and not just read it off a piece paper. In addition, the dissection of a chicken that we did helped solidify my understanding and knowledge of the muscles and how they work with tendons and bones to move (Chicken Dissection). I would like to learn more about different muscle diseases and how they affect the person with that disease and the muscles themselves. Learning about the Performance Enhancers touched on that subject but I would like to go a bit more in depth with natural consequences as well.  In regards to my New Years' resolutions, the anabolic steroids 'ad' let me research more about it, as did the chicken dissection. I would say that I am following it sometimes but since it takes more time for me because I like going into more depth, I would like to modify my resolutions to be at least once a unit.

• 
  

Performance Enhancement Advertisement: Anabolic Steroids

Performance enhancements can range from amino acids to hormone stimulants but all can hold potential danger for the users. People take anabolic steroids or performance-enhancing substances to boost athletic performance, build muscle, increase body mass, or lose body fat but many of these substances are not regulated and illegal, especially when used in athletic competitions. Some health risks include severe acne, stunted growth, high blood pressure, strokes, and even liver cancer. Some stimulants are seemingly harmless such as caffeine or protein diets, but others such as anabolic steroid, androstenedione, and gene doping have extreme risks.

Chicken Dissection Lab Analysis

In this lab, I dissected a chicken (pre-plucked, with no head or feet) to become more familiar with the different muscles and how movements correspond with muscles. For example, we would pull on the wing to see different muscles move as those would be the muscles that normally contract to cause that action such as pulling the wing up to exercise the pectoralis major which is responsible for flight in birds. In addition, the biceps brachii works to bend the wing in chickens, and is connected to the humerus. The origin is proximal to the body; for example, with the latissimus dorsi, it is attached to the arm. The insertion is where the muscle is attached to the bone or tendon and is distal to the body. In chicken muscles, the pectoralis major are much larger than those of humans since chickens must use those breast muscles to fly. Another comparison between chicken muscles and human muscles can be seen in their function such as with the triceps humeralis where in chickens it straightens the wing and in humans it is used for reverse curls. The flexor carpi ulnaris is a connected to a chicken's thumb and flexes it while in humans, the hand can be flexed using all five fingers.

The pectoralis major is the breast muscle of the bird and pulls the wing up, powering flight in chickens.

The pectoralis minor lifts the wing dorsally and pulls the shoulder down and forward.

The trapezius helps to shrug the shoulders, running perpendicular from the backbone to the shoulder.

The latissimus dorsus runs from the spine into the arm pit/wing, extending the wing/arm.

The deltoid raises the upper arm/wing and is on the center top of the shoulder. 

The triceps humeralis straightens the wing/arm. The biceps brachii flexes/bends the wing/arm.

The brachioradialis pulls the hand back and the flexor carpi ulnaris flexes the hand.

The gastrocnemius is attached to the achilles tendon and extends the foot and flexes the lower leg. The Peroneus longus extends the foot. The tibialis anterior flexes the foot.

The sartorius flexes the thigh and allows crossing of the legs. The iliotibialis or tensor fasciae latae, gluteus maximus and iliotibial tract extends the thigh and flexes the leg.

The biceps femoris flexes the leg and helps make up the hamstring group. The quadriceps femoris or vastus lateralis, intermedius and medialis and rectus femoris flexes the thigh and extends the lower leg. This is also known as the quadricep.

The semimembranousus extends the thigh and the semitendinosus extends the thigh as well but is anterior and medial to the semimembranosus.

20 Time Blog #2: More Research...

When doing research about emotions or human reactions, it often begins with figuring out what portion of the brain this reaction occurs in. I've found that since the hippocampus deals with long term memory, a person's subconscious reaction to color is most likely due to what a person can recall in his or her memory about what experiences or events were connected with that color. However, Mr.Orre gave a comment on my previous post about looking into blind and double blind studies. I knew I already wanted to use the likert scale for the questionnaire but the double blind study seems to fit well as well. Although it seems like it would be useful for making my results more accurate, I am struggling with finding a way with having the participant and the experimenter not know who belongs to the test group and who belongs to the control group. I could try having both wear colored shirts but the colored shirts and the questions would give away the subject of the experiment. 

In the meantime, I have come up with a few set questions and am preparing more in varying degrees of subtlety to ask if I want to incorporate the double blind experiment as well. In addition, there are already assumptions about different colors and what emotions or reactions they can result in. However through this experiment I would like to expand it to refer to clothing and since much of this is assumption and not based on evidence (because this is extremely difficult to accurately study I'm finding), I aim to find more solid proof.

"What Happens When You Stretch"

"What Happens When You Stretch" Bradford D. Appleton 1993

This article discusses what happens when a person stretches. According to Appleton, when a person stretches their muscle fiber, it begins with the sarcomere which stretches, decreasing an area of overlap and allowing the muscle fiber to elongate, also helping realign disorganized fibers. The length of a stretched muscle is the number of fibers that were stretched. When a person stretches quickly, the nerves causing the contraction and relaxation of the muscles fire rapidly as well, increasing muscle length. The lengthening reaction causes muscles to relax and is controlled by the golgi tendon organ, preventing muscle, tendons, and ligaments from injury. Reciprocal inhibition is a bit like the lengthening reaction as they both inhibit things from contracting. Stretching also has dynamic and static parts: static occurs when the muscle is being stretched and dynamic occurs quickly in response to the increase in muscle length. This relates to my Monday Wellness project first semester since I did my subject on stretching and how it is beneficial. I also went into the physical components of stretching and muscle fibers during my presentation and it was interesting to go in depth regarding the reactions that are immediate results of stretching muscle fibers.

"Another reason for holding a stretch for a prolonged period of time is to allow this lengthening reaction to occur, thus helping the stretched muscles to relax. It is easier to stretch, or lengthen, a muscle when it is not trying to contract" I like this quote because it seems odd that a person would want to stop contracting muscles as that is what makes them stronger but that the lengthening reaction actually helps relax the muscles. Since the contraction stretches them originally, the lengthening reaction makes it easier to stretch.

"You also want to relax any muscles used as synergists by the muscle you are trying to stretch." I think this is helpful information since they work as opposites and it is not something that is commonly thought of. For example, if a person is stretching their calf, they want to contract the shin muscles, or the hamstrings use the calves as synergists and relax them.

"Triggers" This word was used quite often in the articles, such as when it mentioned triggering the lengthening reaction or reciprocal inhibition or the stretch reflex. The word "trigger" helps embody how the body works since, to maintain homeostasis, the body and hormones and reactions must continue and send out signals to keep the body in balance. Thus, reactions are triggered by hormones or other signals sent throughout the body.

Unit 6 Reflection

This unit was all about the bones in the human body- the skeletal system. We discussed the microscopic and macroscopic characteristics of the skeletal system such as the types of bones, compact and spongy, and what those bones are made of. In addition, it was about the different types of joints that connect those bones and how they all work together to make up the function and structure of the skeletal system. To help with this, we had labs looking at the human skeleton and bone cells, and even a lab dissecting an owl pellet to organize the skeleton of a rat in the Owl Pellet Lab. I would like to learn more in depth about the differences between different animal skeletons to be able to understand the evolution of some species and I would like to learn more about the functions of less known bones in the human skeleton. I think I have gotten more advanced so to speak when doing my labs since now I try to inquire further as to details in the lab rather than just answering the questions I am required to answer. I have been a little sloppy in maintaining my New Year's goal to research further but I have looked up minor details.

20 Time Blog #1: Does Yellow Make You Happy?

Does yellow make people happy? Oftentimes when a person is asked his or her favorite color and why, he or she will say: because it's pretty, because it calms me, because it reminds me of family and so forth. But how much of an effect does this color have on a person? For me, during 20 Time,I hope to find out, in more depth, how the color of one's shirt affects a person's perception.  20 Time is where we get 20% of our class time to work on a pet project of ours, whether it is to raise awareness of a cause or to discover the answer to a question.I chose this project simply out of curiosity since I had just read an article on how the color of a person's plate can affect how much they consume. For this project, I will form an experiment with carefully formed questions to determine the reaction of the person the test subject, person wearing the different colored shirts, interacts with. Using the Likert Scale, I will record the responses to be able to compile data that will indicate if and how people feel differently towards different colors. Most significantly, my progress will be measured by the completeness of the questionnaire which I feel must ask the right questions so to speak. My goal at the end of this is to be able to determine how people perceive color and the effect it has, whether or not I get a chance to finish my experimentation. I have begun a drafted list of questions and will continue to perfect them in the weeks coming.