Why Physical Activity is Good for the Brain

Axons and dendrites continue to modify their structure throughout your life. When we are learning, more and more neurons grow. Physical Activity can enhance the growth of more neurons. How? Well many researchers have had a hard time pin pointing the reason as to how this works at a cellular level. However, there have been many studies on rats. In one recent study scientist manipulated the bone-morphogenetic protein or BMP in the brains of these lab rats by reducing it. These proteins, inhibited by Noggin, allowed for more stem cells become more active and divide. Stem cells division is important especially in old age because when they are inactive the brain process become slower. They suggest that during exercise the process of enhanced stem cell division is acquiring in the brain giving us enhanced learning and memory processes. I do have a problem with remembering little things here and there so after reading this part of the article I thought to myself, if this is true I need to become more active. It later states that doing any kind of minimal activity is good for the growth of new neurons, but the results were from the activity of rats. 

I want to know the certain exercises that can improve them even more. I have always been told that exercise was good for the brain because it gives more oxygen to to the blood vessels in the brain, but what I’ve learned today doesn’t even seem close to that. Why has it been so hard to find the reason physical activity increases learning? 

Marijuana

Marijuana has been a drug widely discussed because of the chemical that it contains. THC and other related chemicals in this plant can help reduce pain and nausea, to fight glaucoma, and increase appetite. At the same time it can impair memory and learning, as well as emotional processes. There have been many debates across the nation of the legalization of this drug because some argue that it is helpful and that it is a plant grown from the earth so it must be okay. In the video shown above I learned that there are built in receptors in our brain that the cannibinoids (marijuana chemicals) attach to, giving people the high feeling. It was very interesting to find that these receptors were in our brains and that the reason for this receptor being present in the brain is for neuroprotection. For example, when there is a brain injury the brain chemicals anandamide and 2-AG attach to this receptor to reduce the damage to the brain. So some how long ago this receptor was implanted in our brains so that it could protect us. This system is involved in almost all physiological processes so it is now being used to test other drugs/medication. As stated in the video a company in Europe has developed an antagonist to the cannibinoids to decrease appetite and increase metabolism for people struggling with weight. This was also interesting to hear that marijuana could be changed to produce the opposite affects that it normally generates. Unlike other drugs marijuana in large doses will not kill someone. So since we now know it can be altered for good health reasons and has already been used by cancer patients, why can’t the bad affects like harm to memory and learning be altered and removed from the drug?

Soooo Geniuses have More Calcium in their Brains?!

This week my fascination is about Glial cells in the brain. These cells are what I like to think of as neurons’ little helpers. They are important to the brain signaling system, as they aid in the neuronal activity. There are so many different kinds of glia cells like Microglia that remove waste material, and Schwann cells that build myelin sheaths around the axon. These are important functions of some glia but the ones I focused on the most were astrocytes. These cells help harmonize activity between axons and send messages in calcium waves. Why is that important? Well from an article, The Root OfThought, the author says these cells are enhancing our brain activity, creating deep thought. The article states, “Astrocytes can induce neurons to fire. Therefore, astrocytes improve neuron behavior...The fact that humans have the largest astrocytes of any animal and we are capable of creativity and imagination also justifies this theory.” He believes the calcium waves generated by astrocytes are our "thinking" mind. Without these waves neuronal transmittion would just generate reflex, making us just simple animals. Astrocytes also help bring more nutrients to areas in the brain that have more activity by dialating blood vessals.Glial cells are very important for the human brain. They protect, enhance, and guide neurons. I also saw a video where a scientist talks about how the genius Albert Einstein had a lot of astrocytes in his brain. 
So the more glia, the closer you are to genius. I know of the helping functions of glia but I was surprised to find out that this certain kind of glial cell could solely end up being our thoughts and imagination.I mean to suggest that without glia the neuron activity in the brain would just produce reflexes is pretty crazy.At the same time, there are more glia cells than neurons.
 So the question now is, how many of those glia cells are astrocytes? Is this what I need more of to be a genius like Einstein? 
Is it the quality or quantity of glia/astrocytes that made Albert a genius?

The Mind-Brain Problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADchGO-0kGo&feature=BFa&list=PLE3048008DAA29B0A

The video above shows the relationship between experience and brain activity. It was fascinating to see the way certain injuries to the brain can have a person behaving differently. Especially at 3:24. This part of the video showed a man who was blind but was still able to recognize the direction of a light was moving because his brain still had visual.

Part of the readings that I was really interested in were the hard problem, mind-body problem, and brain stimulation. The paragraph on Transcranial magnetic stimulation describes a study where the stimulation temporarily silenced the visual cortex so they had no conscious perception of sight but could still direct their eye movement toward the light. That sentence stated almost exactly what 3:24 part of the video shown above.  What I was more interested in was finding out how our awareness could be shut off by stimulation. In the clip in my earlier post it talks about consciousness. It only left me with more questions but I know that consciousness can only be described at the moment by synonyms like awareness, self-awareness, feelings, etc. Consciousness is what makes us unique from others. It is our perceptions, our opinions, and intentions. Without consciousness we would be robots. So, if we could temporarily turn off our awareness, how is it we haven’t found out what consciousness consists of? Is there a way of recreating it?

So, right now my only explanation is that this mysterious part of the human mind has to be the workings of the main man above, God. In my philosophy class, when we discussed whether the egg or chicken came first, I learned of the “Old Earth” creationist view. It is the belief that God set up the bang for the universe to be created. Science exists because God put it here and He only gave us the ability to understand so much because I believe the closer we come to massive amounts of genius, the closer we come to destroying ourselves.

I saw a video and 2:30 minutes in a man explained a theory of what consciousness is and I had no idea what he was talking about but what I did hear was that consciousness was a series of several collapses. Click here for the video.

What is Consciousness? by Vsause

The video above is from one of my favorite channels on Youtube ->Vsause. It answers a lot of great questions and leaves you wanting to answer more. Check it out!