Why Do We Dream?

The week we saw a video that informed us about dreaming and sleep.
Are dreaming are considered to reveal so much about who we are that sharing your dreams is considered as practically giving out personal informations and details of our life. Across the globe and in different culture dreams are considered meaningful, like they give a message. It is believed that when we dream are conscience is active so they express are true feelings or thoughts that would be otherwise ignored or forgotten. Nightmares however has the purpose of preparing us for bad events we might have to face later in life. In a way the prepare us from having a total breakdown and traumatic experience in which we couldn't ever recover, so we dream and our brain prepares our body for the probable event.
We dream in a stage called REM (rapid eye movement). This is a stage where our muscle tone goes down to zero so we cant act out our dreams. Nevertheless, there is some people who suffer REM Sleep Disorder, where the brain stem doesn't paralyzes the muscles during REM. With this scientist where able to see what we dream off and learn from these people.
The reason the majority o f dreams are negative is because of the closeness to the amigdula (a part of the brain that deals with intense fear, anger and aggression). In an experiment, the person that was waken up during REM had negative emotions.
One of the most interesting facts I learned from this video is that if we want to remember our dreams , we just have to say "I want to remember my dream" before falling asleep and you probably will. I personally have done that three times and all three time I have woken up and can remember somewhat what I dreamt.

Alone

In this video, a team a scientist conduct an experiment where the people are going to be left alone (some in pitch black room, while others with there no noise, googles so they can't see and restraining devices so they can touch or feel) for 48 hours. However they are going to be able to get water, protein bar and bring a portable toilet so they can go do there business.
The purpose of this experiment is to discover the impact of sensory depravation as it was use as a weapon in many countries especially now that the us is in a war on terror.
This method was first used in the Korean War where many us and Canadians where put in solitary and it seems as they where brain washed.
During there time in solitary, the people would start to pace around the room for hours at a time. They would get very anxious and desperate , waking up in the middle of sleep. One subject said that he would become doubtful of everything, Are there people out there? even , Am I alive?
It became clear that the brain started to slow down.
The results of the test where really bad. In the Visual Memory test, the people struggled to remember and concentrate . It was said that there memory capacity went down 36%. In the Information test, the one where the subject were ask to say the color of the word instead of what it said. The people had a lot of difficulty controlling there urges to say the color written. It took them 69% percent longer and they made 6 times many more mistakes.
It conclusion, we need sensory stimulation to me able to function properly. It is never good to be left completely Alone.

Synesthesia

#1 Synesthesia: it is a condition where one sense such as seeing is leads to the occurring impression of another sense like taste. Synesthesia can involve any of the senses however it is rare that it involves three or more senses. Although the true reason behind however scientists believe that it happens because some neurons are "crossed-wired" and the neurons that are suppose to be connected to one sense are connected to another. 

There is no establish method to diagnosis it however some characteristic of synesthesia are: it is involuntary, projected( ex. you see the color rather than imagine it), consistent (it happens every time)and memorable ( ex. it is always color brown to the number 4). [Neuroscience for Kids]

#2 Grapheme-color Synesthesia: It is a form of synesthesia where a particular color is seen when seeing a letter, word or number(referred to as grapheme).[Pubmd.gov]

#3 Ordinal-Linguistic Personification: when people link animate qualities like personality and gender to linguistic units like letters, numerals, days and months.[MITpress]

#4 Number-Form Synesthesia:in this form of synesthesia a persons imagines diagrams when they see numbers. The diagrams vary from person to person but are sometimes similar. 

The people that have this type of condition can go to be math geniuses, but only if they understand it. Because of this ability they are able to do very complex mental arithmetic. However, it would be impossible for them to explain the process.[babycentre]

#5 Sound-Color Synesthesia: In this type of synesthesia that when they hear something the person sees color shapes (called photisms).[Elizabethtown College]

#6 Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia: is a form of synesthesia that the person relates a word's meaning to a certain taste. The curious thing is that the word's meaning not the sound or spelling that triggers the taste , studies shown.[Live Science]

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19302164

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn.2007.19.4.694?journalCode=jocn

http://community.babycentre.co.uk/post/a11638125/number-form_synesthesia

http://www.etown.edu/CETL.aspx?topic=An+fMRI+Study+of+Sound-Color+Synesthesia

http://www.livescience.com/1141-insight-people-taste-words.html

Mental Abilities: Savant, Genius and Autism

1. Explain in detail what "savant syndrome" means.

Savant Syndrom is a condition where a person has mental disabillity and might even have autism, however theres one area where they exceed. Savant skills exist only in a narrow range of activites like : music, mathematics, memory,  art, calander calculating and  mechanital/spartial skills (the abillity to measure distances exactly). Despite there amazing ability in one area, they are cosidered retarted in other areas of study and can't take care of themselves. ( Treffert, Donald A. MD)

2. What does genius mean?  Explain the difference between genius and savant.

Genius is defined as  "an extraordinarily intelligent person who breaks new ground with discoveries, inventions or works of art." A genius work changes people's perspective of the world or their specific field . In short, a genius must be intelligent and also be able to use there intelligence in a productive or impressive way. (Wilson, Tracy V.)

The diffrence between genius and savant is that a genius is capable of being average or above averga in all areas of there lives however sa savant is retarted in all areas of his life except one in which is exceeds.

3. What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?

According to dictionary.com "a stroke is a blockage or hemorrhage of a blood veesel leading to the braun, causing inadequate oxygen supply and, depending on the extent and location of the abnormality, such symptoms as weakness, paralysis of parts of the body, speech difficulties, and, if severe, loss of consciousness or death. "

The effect it could have in your mental functioning are : problems using language, vision and perception problems, problems with memory, thinking, attention, learning, depression , and other mental activities.this could happen because of the injury the brian recived from the stroke.(National Caregivers Library)

4. What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?

An MRI or a magnetic resonance imaging is a noninvasive diagnostic procedure done to obtain detailed sectional images of the internal structure of the body. (dictionary.com)

It help us understand brian activity by letting us see the anatomy of the brian better and helping us determine precisely which part of the brain is handling critical functions such as thought, speech, movement and sensation, which is called brain mapping.(RadiologyInfo.org)
5. What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?
It is a band of nerve fibers located deep in the brain that connects the two halves (hemispheres) of the brain. The corpus callosum helps the hemispheres share information. (webmd.com)

6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?
Epilepsy is a neurological condition, which affects the nervous system. Epilepsy is also known as a seizure disorder. The seizures in epilepsy may be related to a brain injury or a family tendency, but most of the time the cause is unknown.
People with epilepsy commonly report having problems with their memory. It also may affect language, thinking and Executive functions. (epilepsy.com)
7. What is autism?
Autisim is  a developmental disorder of children, characterized by impaired communication, excessive rigidity, and emotional detachment. (dictionay.com)

8. What is Asperger's Syndrome?

 Asperger's Syndrom is similar to autism. It is  characterized by poor social interactions, obsessions, odd speech patterns, and other peculiar mannerisms.(kidshealth.org)

Treffert, David."The savant syndrome: an extrordinary. A synopsis: past, present, future" Wisconsin Medical Society.http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/system/files/savant_article.pdf

Wilson, Tracy V. "How Genius Work" http://people.howstuffworks.com/genius.htm

http://www.caregiverslibrary.org/Default.aspx?tabid=623

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=fmribrain

http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/guide/glossary-terms-epilepsy

http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/thinking_memory_epilepsy

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/asperger.html