Teach the Brain Forums

March 13, 2005

Good Morning

Beyond The Trauma Vortex: The Media's Role in Healing Fear, Terror, and Violence by Gina Ross and Foreword by Dr. Peter A. Levine, Author of Waking the Tiger is an excellent book. Quoted from the back cover of the book are the following: The power of this book lies in its passionate appeal to news and entertainment media for their help in turning the horrors of history into healing and peace. Beyond the Trauma Vortex clarifies how reactions to trauma can influence reporting in ways that distort news coverage for readers and viewers, adding to their confusion and helplessness rather than informing and moving them to constructive action
_____Migael M Scherer
Journalist, teacher , and author of Still Loved by the /Sun: A Rape Survior's Journal.

Author Gina Ross says under heading THE MEDIA's CHALLENGE: Clearly, the media has the power to stir up passions. It has long been used as a vehicle to mobilize people around an issue, be it the German media rallying Nazi sympathizers to the Third Reich, American newreels rallying concerned citizens during World War II, or Al Jazeera rallying Muslums around the world. The media is one of the most powerful forces in shaping the world in the twenty-first century. It is more influential than ever as information is now instantly accessible to the entire world, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. The capacity to televise anything live from anywhere has changed the impact of information. Critical though this change may be, we may not have slowed down long enough to analyze this shift or evaluate its effects.

The media's challenge in the new millennium is as follows: If coverage of trauma helps to " normalize" violence, then the coverage of our collective healing capacity could normalize harmony. Members of the press can and increasingly do take on leadership roles that support the best values of our society in unprecedented ways. The media determines what the general public will see, and it knows how to use the power of suggestion. It can reflect society in ways that foster well being by covering tragic everts in the context of the healing vortex. This has been a direct quote from Gina Ross's book....good book recommend reading.
Be well,
Rob

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March 15, 2006

Good Morning,

Every book, journal article, newpaper etc. that I have read is grounded in prior learning [a physical change in the brain]. When we learn things in isolation for no particular reason than the dearth of motivation of nonrelevancy comes in to play. An example of this could be the the study of biology. When I took biology in college many years ago, I was doing the memorizing thing....not the understanding thing because there did not at that time seem to be any compelling reason to understand it. Now the new science of learning tends to point out relationships that make biology much more relevant.

Eric Kandel points out in his book In search of memory: The emergence of a new science of the mind that the importance of understanding is fundamental to learning and memory. Along with Harry Grundfest (1904-1983) Dr. Kandel's professor at Columbia University, Kandel was encouraged to realize the importance of understanding how nerve cells function and Dr. Grundfest's resolve on a "cellular approach to brain funtion was critical to the emergence of the new science of the mind".
Kandel points out that the biology of nerve cells (neurons) is grounded in three principles...that we have come in contact before yet, this puts it in real perspective for me. These three principles seem to form the core of our understanding of the brain's functional organiation.

l. Remember the neuron doctrine (the cell theory as it applies to the brain). We went into detain on this form regarding the fact that each neuron is a separate entity delineated with dendrite receptors et al. to axon terminals....there is a synapse between each receiving neuron. The neuron doctrine was formulated by Spanish antomist, Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934). The neuron doctrine again the cell theory as it applies to the brain states that the "nerve cell, or neuron, is the fundamental building block and elementary signaling unit of the brain."

2. The second principle of the ionic hypothesis focuses on the transmission of information within the nerve cell. This is where individual nerve cells generate electrical signals, called action potential that travel the length of the individual
neuron. This I suppose could be said is intraneuronal travel until it gets to the axon terminal...right before the synapse that divides indivual neurons from one another.

3. The chemical theory of synaptic transmission focuses on the transmission of information BETWEEN the nerve cells. It describes how one nerve cell COMMUNICATES with another nerve cell by releasing a chemical signal called a neurotransmitter, the second cell recognizes the signal and responds by means of a specific molecule in the surface membrane called a receptor. "All three concepts focus on individual nerve cells.

Principles number one, two and three were quoted and/or paraphrased from the writing in Eric R. Kandel book In search of memory. [2006]

A very good read...
Be well,
Rob

March 18, 2006

Good Evening,

New book out January 2006....Have not read it yet, but could be good. It is called The NEURON BOOK by Nicholas T. Carnevale - Yale University and Michael L. Hines - Yale University ISBN-10: 0521843219
Be well,
Rob

March 20, 2006

Good Morning

Retrieved this morning from the internet an interesting url: http://www.hhmi.org/news/schuman20060316.html

Be well,
Rob

March 23, 2006

Good Morning,

Yes, it takes good healthy neurons to communicate to other good healthy neurons.....The Glia cell retrieved today from the internet explains some important things that transpire. URL: http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/diamond_einstein.htm
Best,
Rob

April 10, 2006
Good Morning,
The major nerve cell in the brain is the neuron and it conforms to the neuron theory [neurons are separated by synapes, and conduct their own internal and external communications] Actually the neurons would have difficulty communicating and staying still long enough to function efficiently if it were not for the sticky cells called glial cells. Of course there is circa 10 to 1 ratio of glial cells to neuron cells. But the most important cells in the brain without a doubt are the neurons....
Best,
Rob

April 11, 2006
Good Morning,

Do neurons really communicate? Turn on your computer speakers and refer to BrainsRule.Com >
for you to retrieve on the internet:

http://www.brainsrule.com/kids/games/ne.htm
Best,
Rob

April 14, 2006

Good Morning,

Actually I found a good read url at http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/b...index.html

Can be used for lots of things....reflection, prior learning etc......
Rob

Good Morning,

There were even arguments over the Neuron Theory. Take a look at the url retrieved via this hyperlink: http://almaz.com/nobel/medicine/1906b.html
Best
Rob

May 19, 2006

Good morning

Well, we have learned a great deal about neurons and glial cells....[for starters] yet there is a plethora of granule cells in the brain that are also referred to as small neurons.....I am trying to get a clear construct of their function. Can anyone assists? Also is it also true that while granule cells are forming that they can differentiate into glial cells or neuron cells or is this fiction...?????
Be well
Rob

segarama Wrote:May 19, 2006

Good morning

Well, we have learned a great deal about neurons and glial cells....[for starters] yet there is a plethora of granule cells in the brain that are also referred to as small neurons.....I am trying to get a clear construct of their function. Can anyone assists? Also is it also true that while granule cells are forming that they can differentiate into glial cells or neuron cells or is this fiction...?????
Be well
Rob

_______________________________
June 13, 2006
Good Morning
Well, it had to be done! I added Glia to our title....just think when this thread began a great deal of work was being done by scientists and has really begun to reach the print media at the turn of the century.
Be well,
Rob

July 2, 2006

Good Morning,

With the profound competition on finalizing the Neuron Theory and defending it, the neuron has been researched a great deal and found to be the main communicative mechanism in the brain. The history of the neuron placed glial cells which account for about ten times the number of neurons in the brain on the back burner along with granule cells. This is correct and as it should be. Now it is really time to look closely at the tremendous research being done on the glial cell and what this cell has to offer and what this cell can be like when angry. Granule Cells make up the last of the salient triade of brain cells that has not been greatly explored...but in neurodegenerative diseases, this is now a must. This will be unchartered waters so to speak, but ten years ago glia cells were known really as "just" the supportive cell of the neuron.
Let us see where this goes......
Be well,
Rob

Good graphic....neurons and communication url retrieved today: URL:http://www.neurogenesis.com/Neuroscience...ations.php
URL:http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/neu..._intro.php
URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...115201.htm
URL:http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/mod...modGUI=232
Be well,
Rob aka segarama:yes: