Cobbers on the Brain

It’s December and the semester in Neurochemistry has come to an end, and it has been a class that has taught me so much not only about different topics such as Autism, Parkinson’s, Obesity and others, but how to critically evaluate scientific articles and apply them to my daily life. I really was not sure what to think about the class once I signed up. I knew it would be fun since I’ve always enjoyed neuroscience, but I was scared about how difficult it was going to be since I heard that all the class did was read scientific articles. I’ve never been the best at interpreting at articles, especially when it’s about detailed pathways involving multiple mechanisms and proteins. And honestly, at the beginning I struggled a lot keeping up with the readings. But as the class went on, I began to really feel comfortable dissecting each article our professor gave us. Surprisingly, by the end of the class, I was actually enjoying reading them! They were like giant puzzles that I had to piece together.
How the class was structured was a great way to learn about each topic. On Mondays we would talk about the article and what we did not understand. On Wednesdays we would “speed date” and talk about the topic that we chose to learn more in depth from Monday. Lastly, on Friday we would break into two groups and talk about the paper as a whole and what we learned, still had questions about, and most often, applied our knowledge to how the paper related to our society. It was an awesome way to only help myself learn through my own research, but combine my knowledge with others for a better understanding of the topic of that week.
My Capstone experience was everything and more than I asked for. However, our professor told us at the beginning of the semester that what we put into the class is what we will get out of it, and I do wish I recognized this earlier. For the first couple of articles we read for class I often stopped at just reading the information, whether I understood it or not. I hoped that I would hopefully just learn the things I did not understand in class, but when I should have asked questions, I did not. It wasn’t until a little later in the semester that I began to delve deeper into the article and the internet to help answer some of my questions, and also ask more questions in class. As I did this, I began to learn more and get more out of each article each week. I’ve better learned that one should not stop with the question, but find the answer! Often the answer can be found, even if it has the word modulation in it.
My Capstone experience has taught me to think critically about all kinds of issues, and that there is not always a definitive answer. Sometimes the solution consists of many solutions, or that the right thing to do is much simpler than a complex series of medications targeting all kinds of different pathways. I’ve learned how I can help prevent Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, and more. And probably the most important thing I’ve learned is that nearly EVERYTHING is best in moderation.

It was not until last year when I heard a student give a presentation on autism that I realized how complicated and broad the disorder was. Autism Spectrum Disorder is one of those disorders that seems to have such a variety of symptoms that it’s hard not to say that all of us have at least one or two of them. Some symptoms of autism include; difficulty with nonverbal behaviors, difficulty forming freidnships with peers, performs repetitive movements, develop an interest in objects or topic that are abnormal in intensity, detail or focus, and more. There is no real diagnostic test for autism, but rather a team of doctors who observe a person’s behaviors does the diagnosis. Famous people such as Tim Burton, Dan Aykroyd, and possibly Lewis Carrol and Mozart are said to have some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder. So sometimes autism does not show in the most severe of ways.
According to Autismspeaks.org the prevalence of autism around the world has been continuously growing and is now estimated that about 1 in 88 children are affected with the disorder. It is also the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
So how does autism occur? Well, most of the research done has shown that it is a genetic disorder. But there are some hints as to how we can help those with autistic tendencies at an early age since we are learning more and more about what effects it has on the brain. Autism is often associated with having an “unglued” brain. This saying is talking about how often those with autism are unable to form tight junctions between synapses, causes the important connections between neurons to be loose, or not connected at all. Cell adhesion is not a strong, and therefore there is less information being transferred across the brain. This usually happens in specific areas of the brain, which may cause certain symptoms such as social or behavioral problems. Also, there is evidence that those with autism have a deficiency of BDNF and altered polyunsaturated fatty acids, also known as PUFAs. BDNF is an important growth factor that helps with cell differentiation, cell growth, synaptic plasticity and cell health. PUFAs help upregulate BDNF in the brain, and when there is a decrease in PUFAs within the brain, this leads to a decrease in BDNF concentration.
Lastly, I think it is very interesting to note that often those with autism have very strong dietary needs. Often, those with autism have extreme food allergies, or are unable to eat many different foods. Children with autism are usually very picky eaters, and doctors often suggest a well-balanced and nutritional diet that has been carefully thought out in order to provide children with the right amount of nutrients while also not upsetting their stomach.
Since I learned that autism can be so easily diagnosed, and symptoms can be hardly recognizable yet still be enough for diagnosis, I have become fairly skeptical with how much it is being diagnosed. It is no surprise that there has been an increase in the prevalence of autism across the world. However, it is still important to recognize that this disorder is something we need to worry about. It is hard not to think that our high fat diet lifestyles may not be a possible cause for this disorder. And yes, it may be genetic, but there is still a lot about autism we are not sure about.

There are many different courses that are we are required to as students at Concordia College.  There are exploration courses, perspective courses, and religions courses.  Another class that is required before a student leaves Concordia is a capstone course.  According to Concordia College, the capstone course is the final course in the Core Curriculum which is a writing intensive course.  This course invites student to apply their liberal learning to significant problems of a global nature.  This definition seems to fit the definition of Neurochemistry perfectly.  One reason for this is that we were asked to write blogs after every paper that we had discussed.  This definition also seems to fit the class because of the topics that we covered can deal with global problems.  This is because of the neurological diseases that we covered are diseases that are issues all throughout the world and are constantly being researched everywhere.
The way that the class was set up was also very interesting.  This because the course was writing intensive, but when I was doing it did not seem like it.  This is because of the topics that we covered were interesting so writing about them was easy to do.  There were some though that were a hard to write about, buy that is expected with so many topics.  Another interesting aspect of the class was the way that it was set up.  The class met every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Mondays, we discussed the article a little and talked about subjects that were confusing and topics that we would like to know more about.  On Mondays, we also evaluated how comfortable we felt about the article.  At this point in the week many of the students don’t feel very comfortable.  To help increase this number, every Wednesday we take the topics we didn’t know much about and presented them to each other.  This part of the class was really beneficial because it is what taught me the most about the papers.  I also thought this helped my understanding of the papers so much more.  Then to finish the week we discussed the papers in two groups.  This is where we would discuss ideas on how to treat the disease or many other random topics.  By this time, I felt fairly comfortable about the paper and felt that I knew most of the ideas associated with the paper.  To cap off this class we got into groups and made a PSA about one of the neurological diseases.  I felt this was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the class.  I hope that these may be used in the future to show the dangers of these neurological diseases.
Another interesting experience that was associated with this class that was new to me was the blogging.  I have never thought about doing this before, especially on a subject matter like this.  I feel that this class has changed my idea about blogs.  I feel that if you look at the right blog it can be beneficial, such as the ones on this blog.  The problem is that as a reader you have to be able to distinguish between the good and the bad blogs.  I also feel that it was a good experience and it helped me be able to summarize important information in a brief, but thorough manner.  Another part about the blogs that I liked was the idea that I could discuss the information that I thought was meaningful to me.  This is one of the first times that in my science classes that I have been able to do that.  Another interesting part of the blogs to me is that all of us were in the same class, but the ideas that motivated the blogs were all different.  It allows for the readers of them to learn many different ideas related to the topics.
Overall, I felt that this has been one of my favorite classes that I have taken throughout my time at Concordia.  This is because I learned a lot of new information when not knowing that I was.  I also that it a valuable experience to have a class that was taught to each other rather than being lectured to by a professor.  Another valuable experience from was the fact that I learned so much about nutrition in the brain.  There was much information about this subject that I didn’t even know.  I feel that there should also be a class taught about nutrition in the brain.  We learned a lot about what nutrients are important for the brain, but I feel that it would be beneficial to have a class where we learn about what we should eat for that.  The problem with that is, I would learn how bad my college diet is then for my brain.  A class like this could also have a positive effect on students and their grades that they have in their classes.