Pathways for information processing

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Neuroimaging techniques, such as PET, enable scientists to visualize and measure brain activity. Specifically, this type of scan reveals which brain areas are being used for different cognitive tasks. When the various images are pieced together, one can see the pathways for information processing. For example, if someone is processing a visual image while in a PET scanner, a scientist can see the flow of the information sent to the primary visual cortex, and then he or she can view the general pathways as the image is identified and as it moves on to higher-order processing.
Answer the following questions:

  • How does PET scan work? State how they are different from MRI and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Why is radioactively labeled glucose often used as a metabolic tracer? What does it mean if glucose is being absorbed or used in one area more than another?
  • What are neural networks, and how do neural networks relate to localized and global brain functioning? What does our knowledge of neural networks tell us about how the brain processes information? How do PET scans and fMRI allow us to see the flow of information throughout networks?
  • Do people only use a small percentage of their brain? Use what you know about neural networks and functional imaging scans to address this belief. Do you believe that we only use 10 percent of our brain capacity? Would someone be able to demonstrate via various cognitive tasks that no part of the brain sits in the cranium unused?

Respond to at least two of your classmates

To support your work, make sure to utilize your course and text readings. When asked, also utilize outside sources. As in all assignments, make sure to cite your sources in your work and provide references for those citations utilizing APA format.

Treatment for a disorder or injury

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Disorders and Treatment

Each disorder or injury on the topic list in Week 1 Assignment 3 involves some process of brain damage or chemical alteration. When a person is diagnosed with such a disorder, the focus is to find an effective treatment. The ideal treatment for a disorder or injury would involve a medicine that would stop or reverse the process that is causing damage or reset the chemical imbalance. In some cases, that is possible, such as when a person who has epilepsy is given a drug that stops the seizures. In other cases, such as with Alzheimer’s disease, the drug treatment involves symptom management because there is no effective way of slowing the brain damage that is occurring.

Assignment Specifics

Your goal for this assignment will be to research and find at least one medicine that is used for treatment or symptom management for your selected disorder or injury. Regardless of whether your treatment is a cure or a method of symptom management, you need to determine how the medicine works. Note that you do not need to be able to describe the specific mechanisms; however, you should be able to state the process in simplistic terms. For example, you might find that the medication does not alter the process of cell damage; however, it enables the neurotransmitters in the cells that remain to be used more effectively. After establishing how the treatment works, determine how effective the treatment is and how long the treatment will last. Will the person have to take the medicine for the rest of his or her life, or is it given during a brief time period? In some cases, the timing of medication application must be considered, for example, a clot-dissolving drug given in the early stages of clot formation in an ischemic stroke is more effective and leads to a better prognosis than when the drug is given later in the process.

Health Sciences Personal Statement

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Barbara Maclure

Personal Statement

Keiser University online

 

Barbara Maclure

Ph.D. Health Sciences Personal Statement

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam:

I have loved working with people and having been actively engaged in working within a healthcare facility. Within healthcare facilities, I have worked with children as well as adults with various sicknesses. The goal of helping other people especially elderly individuals and children to regain their well-being or health has been my personal reasons for the past formal and informal education in bachelors’ degree in health science and master’s in public health. The Ph.D. in health science will provide me with the final tools needed to meet the challenges in healthcare while trying to help patients or clients meets their objectives in health. I will be able to face the challenges ahead and be a stronger advocate. This Ph.D. in health sciences will greatly assist me as I plan to work towards my goals. Find my personal statement below:

Education and Professional Goals

My objective is to ensure that I complete my Ph.D. in health sciences to ensure that I have the skills necessary towards ensuring that clients are provided with quality healthcare services in a clean and healthy environment with a reduction in healthcare-acquired infections. Currently, I am conducting research on water and the roles played by the communities towards ensuring that there are preservation and protection of freshwater resources. I have completed my bachelors in health science and masters in public health.

Responsibilities

Following the completion of my bachelors in health science and masters in public health, I have been working within a community healthcare facility. My role in this facility is to ensure that there is a clean environment and that patients are free from healthcare acquired infections. I have been advocating for change in the manner in which this healthcare facility is practicing its waste segregation and improvement of quality healthcare with regard to their conduct in controlling nosocomial infections and improvement in procedures and protocols of healthy environmental practices. I have also been educating patients on how to report any unhealthy behavior by the staffs and the observation of the cleanliness, especially proper sanitation to help in improving their health status. I have been walking within the local schools to educate children on some of the clean practices with regard to the preservation of the natural water resources.

Relevant experience

I have experience when it comes to proper hygienic practices, preservation of the water resources, and skills in educating on environmental preservation and protection. I have experience in solving problems, a good communicator, I am flexible and have the ability to work proactively to keep a track record of the present developments in the field and adapting to change in an uncomplicated way. I am a team leader and always love working in groups.

Sincerely

Barbara Maclure

Principles of ope-rant conditioning

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What do parents do, at a fast food restaurant, to encourage desirable behaviors and discourage undesirable behaviors? Are the principles of operant conditioning being used? You are to visit any fast food restaurant (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, etc) and observe how parents use the principles of operant conditioning, where they misuse them, and where they fail to use them but should. You can observe in the main dining area or the play area, if they have one, or both. You may not include any drive thru observations. Then briefly describe one outstanding example for any three of the following four categories. You can use three different subjects or use one subject for more than one example. You only need one OUTSTANDING (clear, definite) example for each of the three principles you choose.

Then, you will post your findings in the assignment dropbox.

FORMAT: Standard title page. There will be three paragraphs in your post.

Paragraph 1 – Description of restaurant (including if it has a play area), date and time of observation.

Paragraph 2 – Three observations. Each observation labeled with the observed principle of operant conditioning at the beginning. Description of observed individuals (adults and children) including age, gender, race. What did you observe that demonstrated the principle being discussed? How

effective was the technique?

Paragraph 3 – Comments, including misuse or failure to use, questions that came up, surprises. Do not combine sections into an observation.

PRINCIPLES: Any three of the following four.

1. Positive reinforcement of DESIRED behaviors.

2. Negative reinforcement for failing to show DESIRED behaviors.

3. Punishment for UNDESIRED behaviors.

4. Extinction of UNDESIRED behaviors by withdrawing attention or reinforcing stimuli.

Major concepts of biological psychology

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Choosing what area of biological psychology begins with examining the following areas related to the course competencies. Choose 3 areas from the list below. One thing to remember this is a course on psychology so the r esearch should relate to biological psychology  and less on purely the medical issues related to the disorders and conditions that may be part of your r esearch:

  1. Major concepts of biological psychology.
  2. Biological systems and operations (e.g., vision, hearing, cognition, immunity, and nervousness).
  3. Connection between bodily systems.
  4. Chemical and electrical influences on bodily operations.
  5. Biological systems on mental health and daily patterns (e.g., the sleep-wake cycle).
  6. Influence of external sources of stress on the regulation or dysregulation of bodily systems.
  7. Impact of biology on learning.
  8. Historical influences on contemporary aspects of culture resulting in identified mental health phenomena.
  9. Modern influences on biological psychology through an exploration of the literature and culture.

Using the  Online Library database (ProQuest or EBSCOHOST) only, find 2 journal articles related each of the chosen areas. The types of articles that you need to find are research articles located in scholarly journals. What cannot be used for this assignment are web pages, magazines, newspapers, text books, and other books. Finally, current research for our purposes is an article that was published within the last 5 to 6 years.

  • Write a summary for each of the journal articles found.
  • Write an analysis and evaluation for each of the journal articles found.

Discriminating between subtle differences

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As we age, our sensory abilities change in predictable ways. Unfortunately, during our geriatric years, much of the change in sensation is associated with a decrement or loss in ability. With old age, our senses become less acute, and we have trouble discriminating between subtle differences and sensing details. For example, our sense of smell decreases, and this partially contributes to the loss of taste.

Answer the following questions:

  • What is the normal range of human hearing, and how does this range change with age? Why is it that younger people can hear high-pitched ringtones but older people cannot? How is this used to the advantage of younger people (e.g., when choosing cell phone ringtones)?
  • What happens to the human eye as a person gets older? Consider what happens to the ability to perceive images at different distances when the lens becomes more rigid. How might a person with myopia benefit from changes with time?
  • How do the changes in smell and taste interact? Discuss the different types of taste. Are there any specific tastes that are relatively preserved with age? Do food preferences change with one’s ability to taste different things? How does this impact food choice?

As in all assignments, make sure to cite your sources in your work and provide references for those citations utilizing APA format.

Different stages of sleep

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Have you ever thought about why people sleep or what purpose sleep serves? This is something that many have wondered for years. Studying what happens when the average person sleeps, how long that person sleeps, and how he or she feels after sleep has taught us a great deal about sleep. Case studies of individuals who have abnormal sleep patterns or sleep needs have also been considered. Some people called nonsomniacs need very little sleep to feel restored. In addition to studying the amount of sleep each person needs, scientists have considered the possible reasons we have different stages of sleep. Scientists have pondered many other things, such as why the amount of time that people spend in different stages of sleep changes over a lifetime.

Answer the following questions:

  • Recent studies indicate that the brain takes mini naps when a person is sleep deprived. What role does sleep play in restoring one’s mind? Consider the cognitive changes that a person experiences when sleep deprived. What is it about nonsomniacs that seems to contradict what most believe about the role of sleep?
  • What is REM sleep, and what role does it play in memory consolidation? Is the hippocampus, a structure known to play a role in the consolidation of memories, active during REM sleep? Might REM-related dreams be related to one’s actual experiences?
  • Why does the amount of time that infants spend sleeping differ from adults? Does REM sleep play a role in the neural development of a young brain? Compare the amount of time people spend in sleep stages over a lifetime. How does slow-wave sleep change over the life span?

Current diseases and disorders

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Research scientists postulate that we imagine ourselves acting out or mirroring movements that we see. This ability seems to be genetic or hardwired since infants can imitate the movements of others. It is possible that mirroring actions is adaptive and may play a role in learning how to do things, and it may facilitate social interactions. More interesting than the actions is the thought that we may have special neurons in our brains that help facilitate imitation. These neurons have been named mirror neurons, and they can be found not only in human beings but also in nonhuman animals.

Answer the following questions:

  • Mirror neurons have a distinctive shape and a specific location in the brain. What are the morphology (shape) and location of mirror neurons? Does their location seem to make sense, given that the neurons are thought to play a role in imitation?
  • Some nonhuman animals have mirror neurons in their brains. Which other species have mirror neurons? Are these animals more social than animals that do not seem to have mirror neurons?
  • When there is a relatively new discovery in the brain, that discovery is often used to explain current diseases and disorders. What are the applied research trends for mirror neurons in the scientific literature? Are there any particular disorders that are being connected to mirror neurons? What is it about these disorders that make people connect them to mirror neurons?

Criticisms of protective personality tests

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The following table lists some of the criticisms of projective personality tests along with rebuttals of those criticisms:

to view the table “look at attachment”

Referring to the above table, answer the following questions:

  • Explain which side seems to be more convincing and why?
  • Would you use projective tests? Why or why not?

One problem with biographical data is that it can be tempting to ask questions that are too personal or otherwise inappropriate because they are predictive of something interesting (e.g., job performance).

  • What is a test maker’s or test user’s responsibility regarding such items?
  • If these items are shown to be related to the criterion of interest but they are socially objectionable, should they be included in an assessment? Why or why not?

Observation is the most common method of personality assessment used by the populace and practitioners.

  • What are the aspects of an individual that you notice the most when you are introduced for the first time?
  • What do these aspects tell you about that individual’s personality?
  • Can you share an instance when your observation led to a faulty conclusion about someone’s personality?

Endorsement of civil rights organization

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinions – but not their own facts.” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan, cited in Vanity Fair, 2010, para. 2)

We form opinions – and make our judgments – based on facts we observe and values we hold. Our judgments are also influenced by the opinions of others. In the section “An Expert on Hate in America” in Chapter 6, one of the authors, Dr. Peter Facione, renders an opinion on a non-profit civil rights organization: Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Dr. Facione is a leading advocate and one of the most influential voices in the field of critical thinking.

His endorsement of the civil rights organization is unqualified. It is also transparent: Dr. Facione reveals that he is a financial supporter of the organization and has arranged speaking engagements for its founder. This is Dr. Facione’s invitation to you, the reader:

Knowing where you can learn more about the SPLC for yourself, and knowing about Dr. Facione’s endorsement and support of the Center’s work, evaluate this claim made by Dr. Facione: “The SPLC is an expert on hate in America” (p. 124).

The endorsement of the SPLC is contained in the most current edition of the text, whose copyright date is 2016. Since that time Morris Dees, co-founder and former chief trial counsel, has been fired (Hassan, Zraick & Blinder, 2019). Previously, there has been controversy about groups and individuals that are listed by the SPLC as “hate groups” (Graham, 2016; Price, 2018). The organization, which has nearly a half-billion dollars in assets, has also been criticized for how it spends these funds (Robinson, 2019).

Self-Assessment Question
Before you submit your initial post, make sure to read the assigned chapter. Then, ask yourself the following: Did the article in Chapter 6 of the text seem credible and reliable? Why? Be very specific:

  • Was it because it is in a textbook?
  • Because it was written by a learned and respected person?
  • Because of content in the article?
  • Because of your previous knowledge of the SPLC?

Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, address the following:

  • Conduct additional research on the SPLC. Did your opinion alter in any way? Why?

Only after you have done some responsible research should you begin to respond to the discussion prompt. The discussion is not about the SPLC; it is not about Dr. Facione. It is about what you have learned about forming opinions.

Your post must answer this question:

  • How do you define the term “expert”?

Your post must also discuss of the following questions:

  • How important are facts in the process of forming an opinion? Explain what you believe to be the purpose or function of facts in making a judgment.
  • How did you respond to the self-assessment question? Since doing further research, have you re-thought the way in which you assess credibility and reliability? What is the importance of factoring the recency of a reference or opinion (i.e., how old is it?) into an assessment of credibility and reliability?