The Teenage Brain

What I learned and think about the teenage brain is that their brain passing through a process of making what the teen will be in the future. During this stage, teens want to make risky actions, and also to make insane and hobbies only youth people would do, like skating. They also don’t obey and get tired of rules set by their elders. Teens also face an ambitious habit of wanting all things, like the newest electronic device or the best thing to happen to them. For a moment they think and rather believe that the world is spinning around them, when that is not the case. During the ages 15 and 16 years old, teens can’t make decisions well. Sometimes it happens to me, but I of course don’t choose a really awful decision. The thing is that I make a decision, and suddenly I regret of making it and wanting the other that I got proposed. This makes me think that I should always think more than twice before making the decision. It really makes me uncomfortable when these situations show up to me. I also think that adults sometimes they don’t take heed towards teens and sometimes they say things that show that they didn’t knew in their teenage phase what they faced. Some adults do and comprehend, but also teens should take in consideration an adult’s advices towards them, since they have more life experience.



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How Our Brains Work

1. What does the word "hemisphere" refer to when talking about the brain?

The word "hemishpere" means divided into two when referring to the brain. There is the right and the left hemisphere.

2. What are the major differences between the left and right sides of the brain?

The left side of the brain is the one of analytical thought, logic, math or science stuff,etc. The right part is the holistic one, focusing on intuiton, creativity, art and music, etc.

3. What is the corpus collasum?

Fibres that connect both sides of the brain. They carry messages for both sides to coordinate both sides' functions.

4. Explain the study performed by Paul Broca in which he discovered "Broca's Area."

Broca studied cases from people with speech problems, where he later saw that a part of the brain focuses on that area.

5. Explain the study conducted by Roger Sperry in regard to "split brain."

Sperry saw that some people have certain problems related to the brain. His study then arrived to the idea that there are people who don't have coordination on both sides of the brain. Patients could no communicate from one hemisphere to the other.

6. Explain the study conducted by Karl Wernicke which led to the discovery of Wernicke's Area."

Wernicke's study gave him the idea that all speech and language problems were not all because of damage on Broca's area. He found out that another part was focus on language comprehension.

7. Which lobe is most responsible for vision?

Occipital Lobe.

8. Which lobe is most responsible for hearing and language?

Temporal Lobe.

9. Which lobe is most responsible for performing math calculations?

Parietal Lobe.

10. Which lobe is most responsible for judgment, reasoning and impulse control?
Frontal Lobe.

Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage was a foreman who contructed railroads. He is famous later when he died because of the tremendous accident he survived. He was with an iron rod pushing soil to dynamite inside of a rock so that there was more pressure to make sure the dynamite breaks the rock into pieces. As he was with the rod, it sparkled by having contact with the dynamite's lit, causing an explosion that pushed the rod away, and Gage was on its way. The rod passed through Gage's left brain side, causing loss of the left eye and brain damage on part of the brain. As a result, Gage was now an angry man that could not work with others. This means that his behavior and personality changed dramatically, even though he didn't look like when the accident happened. This abiding mood made others not to work, even talk, with Phineas Gage.

Brain Localization is the term used to say that a specific part of the brain is for a specific function. We can see the vision function is at the occipital lobe, the auditory function is at the top part of the temporal lobe, the speech production is at the Broca area, and the rest of the parts have a respective function.

Brain Lateralization is the term that talks about the left and right part of the brain. The left part of the brain is the one that controls your right side of the body, and is the one that focuses on knowledge, reasoning, planning, etc. Basically is analytical the part in which is all of our education system process. In the other hand, the right part of the brain controls the left side of our body, and the side in which develops creativity, intuition, emotions, etc. Basically it is a holistic way of perception.

Works Cited

http://www.deakin.edu.au/hmnbs/psychology/gagepage/

http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~bbrown/psyc1501/brain/loclat.htm
http://www.theorderoftime.com/politics/cemetery/stout/h/brain-la.htm#What

Athletes: Born to Succeed? Or Developed to Thrive?

When we talk about athletic ability, if it is nature or nurture, it is difficult to determine whether it is biological or it is made up in the environment. Why some athletes are taller than others? That is because of nature and biological traits. Why are some athletes stronger or more technical than others? Here is where it comes from the environment the athlete comes from. I believe that athletic ability of a person has both nature and nurture. We can never say that it is completely one, since analyzing deeply would change our perspective.

We talk about biological characteristics, where we might say it is about the parent’s traits passed to their offspring. Javier Hernandez is a Mexican football player, who is young and with a great caliber. His father was a good football player also. Here we think that this topic could be biological one.  Also we can see that traits like height are a major factor in athletic ability. That is for certain nature side. Psychologists have done twin studies to determine not also personality or behavior, but also athletic ability. We can see results that one is a good athlete and the other might not be. Could that be because the one who isn’t didn’t inherit the proper genes we must have had? Well, twin studies aren’t like proper studies to study athletic ability. The only thing nature has to contribute to athletic ability are characteristics such as height.

On the other hand, studies on athletes are shown to have the major factor of the environment. We can see that when it comes to swimming, an African man would hardly win the competition. The reason is because their environment in which they grew, which is the African continent, had less resources to develop a strong and well-toned body to render more effort on the competition. Therefore, they cannot compete fairly against someone stronger since their bones and muscles are pretty weak compared to the rest of the swimmers who grew on a comfortable environment. Now think about sprinting. We can see on tracks that the black people win without any doubt. The reason could be since they had a childhood where they ran a lot. That is why they have a better capability to break records when it comes to running.  We can see that the environment is a powerful cause to make athletes the way there are and be better. Football player Lionel Messi had leg problems since little. Now we see he is a top football player in the whole world. So, why there are good athletes when their family aren’t very agile in sports? It is because of the environment in which they develop, in other words, nurture.

As a conclusion, we can say that nurture contributes more than nature. We can say that nature is about 30% and nurture could be approximately on the 70% of athletic ability. The most logical reason could be that nurture is throughout peoples’ lives, while nature is just the moment you were born. As final comment, nurture is the dominant side of this topic and throughout the athlete’s life, it makes him used to a certain environment and much capable on the sport he/she dedicates to.

Works Cited

-expertfootball.com/training/naturevsnurture

-www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=91

-http://www.badders.com/news/item/524/are-athletes-born-or-madeor-engineered.html

-www.athleticsnews.net/nature-vs-nurture/