The Prospector In-Depth (November 1, 2010)

Unpuzzling the Brain: One lobe at a time

in-depth

THE PROSP

Your Brain F

Its functions, parts and disorders

rom composing that poignant composition to picking up the Prospector, your brain is the catalyst for all your actions.

The following is an intriguing excursion around the puzzling portions of the brain. We shall peruse that part of the brain that enamors the melody of music. We will inspect the accuracy of your taste sensors. We’ll take a more somber tone and examine the vulnerability of the entire structure. From studying Spanish to computing Calculus, your brain is nature’s tour de force. You haven’t seen the brain until you’ve seen it like this...

The other end of the joint How marijuana and hard drugs harm the body and interpersonal affairs

GUN HO LEE opinions assistant

Nobody pressured him. His friends would offer him a joint or two, but the biggest factor in his decision to try marijuana was curiosity. The pleasure led him to try hard drugs such as LSD and ecstasy. Once a straightA student, he started to fail some classes. Fortunately, he cut most drugs out of his life a year ago, and his features reflect that positive change: a rosy complexion, well-groomed hair, an easy smile. But for Joe Johnson*, the past four years in the world of drugs testify to the physical harm done by these substances and affirm the importance of a support network for the addicted.

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive component of marijuana, swiftly attaches to CB-1 receptors that are densely concentrated in the frontal lobe of the brain. A study conducted in the San Francisco Brain Research Institute concluded that marijuana disrupted attention processes, possibly by activating the CB-1 receptors and scrambling the information filtering action of the brain. Johnson says, “marijuana slows [and] relaxes the person…it basically makes them un-reactive.” How does marijuana feel?

Johnson says, “I can’t compare it to anything. That’s why people get hooked to it—it’s that intense.”

However, the momentary pleasure comes at a steep price. As the body acclimates to the chemical, it demands more to produce the same relaxing effect. In his four years of consuming drugs, Johnson has spent close

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to $5,000 on marijuana alone. He has spent another $5,000 on other drugs.

This major leak in his income could have continued to his adult life had his family not rescued him from spiraling into the harmful and expensive problem of addiction.

“I first got caught [by my parents] in the middle of my sophomore year. They said I was responsible for my own life, but I could tell they were disappointed. They still loved me, but my relationship with my parents would have been a lot better had I not started in the first place,” says Johnson.

His parents asked him when he would stop multiple times. “I knew it was something I wasn’t supposed to do. It was bad for my body…the talks motivated me to stop,” says Johnson.

And, a few months later before entering junior year, he cut most drugs from his life. What used to be a daily smoke session is now a “time-to-time” event.

When asked whether he regrets doing drugs in the first place, Johnson said, “I can’t really regret it because I’ve already done them…They messed up my life. But if I can go back [in a time machine] and tell myself about what drugs did to me, I would.”

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TiK ToK, time’s up, Ke$ha ALYSSA WILLIAMS copy editor

It will never get this good again. Despite my wishes, there’s no turning back as the near future marks the end of a high point in my life. My brain absorbs music; the stimulation that has tickled my temporal lobe for years will disappear into the faint echoes of an old, familiar song, stored by the brain for recollection. The clock is ticking and the music stops for no one--not for the band as we perform our last show, not for the aging rockers who have transfixed fans for decades, not for me.

Years in the Proud Pioneer Band draw to a close within the next few weeks. Four years, four shows, but one love for music has defined my high school career.

Months of performing in pit--a section with more instruments than anyone can count on all their digits-have caused stress, scars and sleep deprivation. We may not march, but the challenges the pit faces are as big as the tympanies we lug onto the field. With every trial, I rely on others while they rely on me as their section leader. In my opinion, there is no harmonious give and take experience that even begins to compare.

Outside of band, I take my music on the go with a scratched-up iPod; I have

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3,000 songs, alphabetically sorted in their respective playlists, from bands that my friends have never heard of. My rock ‘n’ roll mixes are parties of Queen, Pink Floyd, Yes, The Beatles, Styx, Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Lynyrd Skynyrd and more; Kanye West, Ke$ha and the rest of the popular crowd, you’re not invited.

While I find joy in my music, there are complications. I have seen about ten concerts in the past few months as I rush to see all my favorite artists before they... well, die. At every venue it’s been a haze of strobe lights, fancy retro drum sets and head-bangers from multiple generations back.

Among my friends, I am almost alone in my passion for classic rock, leading to confused looks and arched eyebrows when I hum hardcore Led Zeppelin riffs.

Playing and partaking in music stimulate my temporal lobe. Looking in the crowd, I will always be that one flailing girl, generations too young to be alive at the band’s inception, reciting all the words to “Come Sail Away” perfectly. Puzzled, they often toss me a guitar pick and sadly remind me how their fan-base is starved of a younger audience; an obsessive teenage fan is uncommon. But hey, free picks!

PECTOR

NOVEMBER 1, 2010 loss of vision and blockage of naval passages reduce your Question: Would ability to decipher what you were eating?

Think of taste and smell as receptors that perceive certain flavors and fragrances.

When an odor reaches the “ smell” receptor, it sent to the brain for analysis and identification. That is how we differentiate rotten bananas or Old Spice. The same concept goes with the “ taste” receptor, except taste buds can only identify certain textures and salty, bitter, sweet or sour sensations. A person with no sense of smell might be able to identify something that tastes sweet, but he or she would not be able to identify what that food actually is. If you want to taste that Chipotle burrito next time, remember to blow your nose first to prevent your burrito from tasting like Styrofoam.

Enjoy!

Step 1: Cover your eyes JESSE ZHOU

Step 2: Plug your nose

TASTE TEST | Sophomore, Jerry Lo attempts to use just his taste buds to uncover what he is devouring.

Step 3: Consume food

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch

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Dried Mango

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Honey Nut Cheerios

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A vision of strength

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EMILY CHENG

ALYA OMAR news assistant

Take a moment and look around you. Immediately, colors and shapes ambush your vision and factor into your perception. Your eyes exemplify the person next to you eating artificially vibrant Hot Cheetos. They open your mind to the ticking clock on the wall and the homework assignment glaring from your desk.

Now envision this: only a few feet in front of your hands, your world fades into a collection of meaningless blurs. Smears of color drift past you. With so many uncertainties in any life, having to live with your surroundings always being a question is unimaginable. However, softspoken freshman Chris Yoon has an eye condition bilateral microphthalmia, and courageously deals with the challenge of partial blindness every day.

Microphthalmia, a genetic defect in which one or both eyes are abnormally small, is a condition resulting in blindness that affects one’s life in ways not relatable to those who do not experience it. Your retinas see what is in front of you, and use it to “develop” a picture, which then is sent to the brain. However, the retinas of one afflicted with microphthalmia develop an image that is not fully matured, sending a blurry image to his or her brain.

In Yoon’s case, the severity of his symptoms is immense: Yoon is completely blind in one eye and can only see up to ten feet in front

of him with the other. To manage in class, Yoon carries with him a small computer on which he views lessons by magnifying them on his monitor. In fact, most of his homework is completed on his computer, as the screen zoom is vital to his vision.

Even with this support, Yoon must face other hindrances because of his condition.

“It gets frustrating, especially when I’m reading,” Yoon said. “After an hour or two, my eyes gets tired and I can’t read anymore, even if I want to.”

Although Yoon is afflicted with this condition, it would be incorrect to say that he suffers from it. Yoon learns to play the violin by reading enlarged sheet music on a large poster. He manages to maintain a commendable GPA and essentially lives a life like any other high school student, albeit slightly more technological. Documents are enlarged on 11 by 23 papers, and while he learned Braille at a young age, he says he does not use it often, as it has proven to be not of much use. Yoon also affirms the rumor that the loss of one sense causes all others to be heightened, claiming that his hearing is better than most people’s.

While coping with microphthalmia seems to be a lifelong struggle, Yoon remains optimistic. By reminding himself of the pleasant aspects of his life and the love of his friends and family, Yoon persists with a cheerful attitude and a happy outlook.

“You have to stay optimistic and never give up,” said Yoon. “You can easily overcome it. Life isn’t that bad at all.”

in-depth

THE PROSPECTOR

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

DeveLOBEment of the brain

While “tasting the rainbow” may only be candy tagline for many people, it is a very real perception for people with synesthesia. Synesthesia is a psychological anomaly in which different senses in the brain are linked. For example, letters can be associated with colors so that every time a synesthete sees a letter, it is tinted with that particular shade. Senior Wagio Collins has experienced synesthesia her entire life and utilizes it to learn more about herself and other people, even wishing that others could see, taste and feel what she can.

Collins first noticed that she was different when she was nine years old, “I asked my dad one day what colors he saw when he thought about the city of Oakland. He asked, ‘what are you talking about? I don’t see any colors.’” Through this discussion, Collins learned that what she saw was not common and that several family members experienced the phenomenon as well. After that, she began to pay more attention to exactly what she was experiencing.

There are two main theories in the scientific community about the cause of synesthesia. One argues that increased wiring between the different sections of the brain causes more communication, thus blending the senses. The second theory is that all brains have the same amount of wiring, but the average brain has a balance of inhibition and excitation that prevents the excess commu-

nication and synesthetic brains do not.

Both theories agree, however, that synesthesia is heavily biological, hereditary and genetic.

There are more than twenty types of synesthesia, and most synesthestes have more than one type. The strongest form of synesthesia Collins has is colors-tosounds, which is when the brain links certain sounds to visual ‘blossoms’ or ‘mists’ of color. She also has smells-tofeelings, where she will smell certain flavors whenever she feels a certain way, and tastes-to-feelings, where a side effect of specific feelings are tastes.

“For example, when I’m meditating, the smell of strawberries will just overcome me and I’ll realize that I’m hopeful. Strawberries are hopeful,” Collins expanded, “Frustration is sour and sadness is a very dull sort of sweet.”

A rarer form that she has is associating people with colors. Collins notes that she sees ‘auras’ around people. Each person has a three-toned aura that reflects his or her personality. Her brain links personalities with shades of colors; lighter colors denote extroversion and darker colors indicate introversion.

“People who have interesting views on the world have vibrant colors, and people who are more logical have cooler colors like green or blue. I like it when I see red- it almost always means that the person’s going to be interesting,” said Collins. “I’d love to see a gold or a silver.

They’re really moral, but not in an arrogant way.”

This also applies to the characters she plays onstage. Through extensive char-

acter work, her roles begin to develop their own auras. Collins mentions that when acting, she is enveloped in the colors and can sometimes barely see anything else.

“They’re like blobs [of color]. If I zone in on one of them, that’s more of the emotion or character. Tituba [from The Crucible] is actually a forest green.

She’s a very dark green- almost black.”

While it may seem unrealistic, what Collins experiences is not totally separate from what the average brain perceives. Scientists hypothesize that all people have some elements of synesthesia. When given two shapes, one angular and one smoother, and two names, ‘bouba’ and ‘kiki’, 95 to 98 percent of non-synesthetes choose ‘kiki’ for the angular shape and ‘bouba’ for the smooth shape. These “synesthesialike mappings” suggest that Collins’ associations are not entirely arbitrary, which explains why most synesthetes associate similar sounds and colors to similar letters and feelings.

Scientists have even begun using this new information to try to help people.

By using synesthetes to learn more about how the brain interacts with itself, scientists hope to create ‘synthetic synesthesia’ to artificially map sights-tosounds or feelings to help the visually impaired. The limits of Collins’ uncommon perceptions and the full nature of the psychological anomaly is unknown to scientists, but extensive research is being conducted to explore this fascinating brain function.

Fact #1: Physical and emotional stress are often responsible for causing headaches, and even if such headaches are persistent, the appropriate medications can typically cure them.

Furthermore, they can be managed even if they cannot be cured.

Myth: Consuming a cold substance too quickly can result in a painful sensation within the brain.

Fact: This sensation, commonly known as brain-freeze but scientifically referred to as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, is actually a type of headache that occurs when a cold substance is ingested too rapidly. The simultaneous cooling and warming of blood vessels on the roof of the mouth cause a brain-freeze.

This agitation is a reference pain, meaning that it does not literally take place within the brain, but the muscles near the brain still experience discomfort.

By the age of fourteen, a brain will have already reached its adult weight. As the brain prunes through necessary and unnecessary neuron connections made years ago, adolescents’ skills in insight, social conscience, and judgment increase.

The frontal lobe, which grows during this period, is responsible for this ability to reason.

ARTWORK BY ANTHONY KAO AND JAMIN SHIH

Busting common misconceptions about the brain and its functions Myth: Recurring headaches signify a permanent psychological problem.

During a child’s youth, the brain makes its most important neuron connections, creating the major cause of increase in a child’s brain size. By age four, the child’s brain has already grown to 80% of its adult weight. The massive amounts of neuron’s connections, known as synapses, are mainly non-essential.

To save space, the brain eventually prunes away those that are not used.

In these years, the brain strengthens connections in languages, but loses this ability over time.

Myth: We only use ten percent of our brains.

Fact: This is impossible, because the brain contains many types of cells that are always active and in use. Damaging small portions of the brain can have painful and even fatal results, which means that people use far more than a mere ten percent at any given moment.

ADULT LIFE

JAMIN SHIH copy editor

BIRTH

The confusion of sense brightens one student’s outlook on life

EARLY & MID. CHILDHOOD

Synesthesia:

At birth, the brain already has 100 billion neurons, and from there begins a period of rapid growth. Neurons in all parts of the brain make trillions of connections, controlling hearing and vision.

ADOLESCENCE

Tracking brain growth and development throughout life

Even through adulthood, the brain continues to grow. However, its rate of forming connections between neurons is much slower than in childhood.

Keeping the brain healthy and active is key in maintaining a keen mind. Adults can work on crossword puzzles, read, or have conversations in order for their synapses to not be pruned.