Cobbers on the Brain

In modern times, the continued growth of technology-based communication has resulted in an ever-present force of social habituation. The constant need for communication with the world has become an obsession for many of us. The use of these technologies results in a continual expression of social “norms” and expectations. Especially impacting adolescents, negative pressures can be achieved through self-disapproval upon an encounter with these social expressions. One resulting impact from theses instances is that t has become increasingly more common for individuals to develop eating disorders. Bulimia nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder that impacts about 1.5 % of the population. BN seems to target the female population in their adolescent years. Contrary to popular belief, bulimia disorder is a severe mental disorder.
BN is characterized by repetitive episodes of binge eating and compensatory behaviors. These compensatory behaviors can include excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, or diuretic/laxative abuse. Individuals with BN exhibit dysregulation of estrogen and the serotonergic system within their brains. Serotonin effects are widespread throughout the brain and contribute to particular behaviors such as eating and sex. In BN, serotonergic dysregulation is correlated with brain arousal and brain arousal is associated with redundancy. The core behavior of BN is the binge/purge cycle and the associated award when performing these behaviors. Repetitive behaviors further implicate the positive reward associated with these activities in people with BN.
Estrogen is also associated with BN. Although it is not completely understood, a correlation between estrogen and regulation has been correlated with BN. Disruption of menstrual cycles and developmental cues associated with estrogen are supportive evidence of this claim. As for as drugs used to alleviate BN symptoms, estrogen based treatments have been looked into, but all-in-all are there other treatments that could be more effective in dealing with the issue of BN in modern-day society.
Often times, BN onset is highly influenced by societal pressures. These pressures are hard to address due to the nature they present themselves. As stated earlier, a continual bombardment of negative social influences on individuals with BN results in disapproval. It seems that the most relevant treatment for BN is positive education. Recognizing that BN has a neurological implication and encouraging an environment that promotes self-acceptance is key to address the issue of body image.

In today’s society, we are finding out new information each and every day about the dangers of our world that can hurt our kids. Bacon is being classified as cancerous, gluten will literally kill your child if you dare let them eat a slice of bread. Milk from the tit of a cow is both unethical and bad for their cholesterol. You can’t let them out after dark or even out of your sight for a few seconds or they will raped and killed by some stranger. And if a stranger attempts to converse with a minor not related to them, they are a pedophile. What in the heavenly f**k has our society become that we are so concerned about the “safety” of our child that we will shelter them from any and all things that aren’t perfectly safe? Seriously. Who would even want tot live in a world like that? Apparently our society. Helicopter parents are buzzing around every corner, protecting their child from every threat known to mankind, and shaming you if you don’t abide by the same parenting code they do. When I was a kid, my dad would leave me in the car with the radio on while he ran into Home Depot and it wouldn’t be a big deal. If you tried that today, you would literally be crucified in the parking lot by every f**king helicopter parent around. Sounds like a great time to want to be a parent.
But while that was a minor rant on the idiocies that parents these days subject too, let us talk about something neurochemistry related on the issue. Autism. Something nobody wants their child to be diagnosed with, but that affects close to 1% of children born today. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by genomic alterations whilst in the womb. Micro-deletions and insertions in the womb alter GPCR’s (and their derivative cascades) and affect numerous brain functions, including social cognition, intelligence, mental focus, behavior, emotional response, etc.
So how does this connect to my earlier rant? Studies are finding that literally anything you consume or do while pregnant can. Zinc abnormalities in the mother (deficiency or overabundance) can increase the risk of autism in the child. Zinc is found in most seafood, but you can’t eat seafood too often while pregnant due to mercury in the ocean and its potential to increase the risk of autism.
Also, if you are over the age of 35 as a woman and choose to have kids at that later age, your chances of having a child with autism increases dramatically. This is due to a “freezer burnt” effect on the eggs of the mother. Think about it. Women are born with all the eggs they will ever release during their lifetime. Eggs don’t recycle like sperm, so if they sit inside someone for 35+ years, they just get older and their parts don’t hold together as well. Eggs are not like fancy wine. They don’t get better with age. They are more like old cars. Eventually, it’s just not worth the amount of effort to keep them running.
So is it even worth it to consider having kids these days? Everything a mother can do increases the risk for autism, including dietary and age restrictions. And you are facing constant judgment from parents who seem to think they know more than you. Not to mention the fact that our world is becoming increasingly unstable with the threat of global terrorism on the rise. So yeah, it is not wrong to think twice before getting off the birth control and popping out a child. It’s not exactly the best time to be a parent. But hey, that is just my opinion.

This neurochemistry capstone class has done a wonderful job of summing up my academic experience at Concordia.  The goal of Concordia’s liberal arts education is to instill a love for learning and to cultivate examination of your cultural, physical, and spiritual self.  Concordia also aims to produce students who are actively engaged in the world’s affairs.  I believe this course has effectively accomplished these goals.  Before taking this class, I was intimidated at the idea of participating in a class based off student-led discussion.  This class style is unlike any other class that I have taken in college.  The typical class structure of passively taking lecture notes and taking tests that measure your ability to memorize and regurgitate information gathered from lecture allows students to be disengaged from the content of the course.  When students are active participators in class and expected to teach other students, they are more engaged in the content of the course.
I think one of the biggest issues with science in today’s society is a lack of communication.  Quality science could have such a larger impact on the world if more science was better communicated and shared with the public.  I believe this is partially caused by the class structure of a typical science class.  A structure which involves professor-led lectures and tests that grade your ability to memorize lecture notes.  These classrooms do not promote active learning that engages students in the coursework.  These scientists, in turn, never gain skills necessary to properly communicate scientifically in the scientific world, and to the general public, which is arguably more important.  The ability to convey important scientific knowledge to the non-scientific public is one of the most valuable skills a scientist can have.
This neurochemistry class helped us practice the skills become effective scientific communicators in the future.  I think the responsibility of teaching others in the class about a certain topic motivates students to learn their topic more in depth so they are able to provide useful information to the rest of the class.  This class doesn’t allow students to sit back and passively learn the material; it forces them to become engaged in the class content and actively learn information to help them understand class topics.  I think teamwork also plays a part in the success of this class.  When the goal of the whole class is to understand everything about a certain article, every student feels responsible to contribute information that can assist the class in understanding the article as a whole.  I believe this motivation to help the whole class understand the certain articles is the reason this class is so successful at engaging students in their own learning.
This class was also valuable because it allowed the students to discuss important issues present in society today and evaluate the ways in which science can help or cause these problems.  This aspect of the class enabled us to become more actively engaged in the world and integrate our scientific knowledge into the potential solutions of national and global issues.  In this class, I not only learned a great deal about neurochemistry, but also how much is unknown about this area of study with respect to the causation of different diseases of the brain.  I have also become a more effective scientific communicator, which will help me in all aspects of my future.  Perhaps most importantly though, this course taught me how to be engaged in my education and become an active learner in the classroom.