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What Does it Mean to Have Autism Spectrum Disorder?

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has seen a rise in diagnosis, but unfortunately it is still not well understood due to how broadly it impacts any given individual. This article will break down how we currently understand ASD and some common misunderstanding about the disease.

 

What is ASD?

Autism Spectrum Disorder has taken on a different meaning than what was traditionally consider autism in the past. In the past it has been referred to by many names: autism, Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder. These terms have all been consolidated under ASD to designate that the concept of autism is both unique to each individual and falls on a spectrum of levels, although Asperger’s syndrome is still used occasionally to describe mild ASD. The official standard definition of ASD according to the Mayo Clinic is “… a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person perceives and socializes with others, causing problems in social interactions and communication.

 

Early Signs of ASD

There are two major categories to identify autism that take into account how different each case is, social communication and behavioral patterns. Social communications indicators are as follows:

Fails to respond to name

Resists physical contact and prefers solitude

Poor eye contact and facial expression

Doesn’t speak or speaks slow, missing vocabulary

Won’t participate in conversation

Speaks with abnormal rhythm or tone (Singing or robot-like)

Repeats phrases without understanding them

Doesn’t understand questions/directions

Doesn’t express or understand emotions

Behaves abnormally in social interactions (passive, aggressive, or disruptive)

Doesn’t understand nonverbal cues

Indicators that are patterns of behavior may include:

Performing repetitive movements (rocking, spinning)

Performing self-harming activities (biting, headbanging)

Problems with coordination or odd movement patterns, stiff or exaggerated body motions

Is fascinated with details but ignores the overall purpose or function of objects

Is sensitive to light, sound, or touch while ignoring pain or temperature

Doesn’t engage in make believe play

Fixates on objects or activities with abnormal intensity

Has hyper specific food preferences

Autism is normally found early in development, talk to your pediatrician if you have any concerns. The diagram below provides a more simplified guide to generic autism symptoms.

A diagram demonstrating early signs of autism in children. More info on image

What Causes ASD?

The short answer is that there are many potential causes, and few certain causes are known for sure:

Genetics- Syndromes such as Rett syndrome or fragile X syndrome can be indicators of ASD. There is a chance of genetic mutations or non-typical expression of brain related genes that can cause ASD. Some of these changes are heritable, while others are random.

Environmental factors- it is currently unknown if factors such as viruses, medications, pregnancy complications, or air pollutants impact ASD

Please note that vaccines DO NOT cause autism, this information was gathered from a faulty study.

It is also important to note certain risk factors:

Males are four times more likely to have ASD

Families with an ASD case will be more likely to have another child with ASD

Babies born before 26 weeks of gestation may be at higher risk

There is a potential connection between parents that are older and ASD

Below is an important image about autism and its cause

It’s important to remember that autism is not a parent’s fault! More about the image

ASD Diagnosis and Treatment

ASD is challenging to diagnose, these are the most likely steps a physician will take:

Observe the child and learn about how their social interaction, communication skills, and behaviors have changed

Give tests covering hearing, speech, language, developmental level, and social/behavioral issues

Present structured social and communicative interactions to be evaluated

Use the DSM-5 as a guideline (a tool used in diagnosing mental issues that are not visible to the eye)

Work closely with specialists

Perform genetic testing based on the above info

While there is no direct cure, there are ways to help make sure people with ASD can live a “more normal” life to the best of their abilities:

Behavioral and Communication Therapy- designed to help teach children with ASD to interact with the world and people around them

Educational Therapy- highly structured education is very helpful for children with ASD

Family therapy- families can learn how to best support their children with ASD

Other therapies- depending on needs, children with ASD can benefit from speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and working with a psychologist.

Medications- certain medications can aid in managing symptoms, such as controlling hyperactivity, anti psychotics for behavioral issues, and antidepressants to control anxiety.

Doctors can also help manage medical and mental health issues such as: epilepsy, sleep disorders, limited food preference, stomach issues, anxiety and depression. Hopefully this information helps dispel some myths about ASD and provides useful information for anyone who may need it. For more information

Feature art created by me

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Cancer and Endocannabinoids: More Than Just Palliative Care?

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Medical marijuana has been a hot debate topic for years now, but one of the undeniable and notable effects that has been seen is that medical marijuana has a good effect on people with terminal cancer. It is used to manage pain and symptoms effectively, but research has discovered that it can do so much more than that. Research has discovered that not only does cancer have palliative properties, it can also work to treat tumors.

How Marijuana and Other Endocannabinoid Activators Interact with Tumors:

Marijuana is part of a class of drugs called cannabinoids, which interact with the endocannabinoid system of our body. Marijuana, and more specifically THC have been studied for their medicinal purposes for years, but recently there have been breakthroughs in understanding how it interacts with cancer. When a patient with a glioma was exposed to THC, it was found that the tumor began to kill itself on the cellular level. This is because THC activated the CB1 and CB2 receptors that are naturally present in the body, and stimulated various aspects of the body that focus on autophagy, or consuming the cancerous cells. The diagram below paints a detailed picture of what goes on after THC activates the receptors, but in short THC enables the body to naturally kill off cancerous cells while also leaving healthy cells untouched. Through this signaling, THC and other cannabinoids can effectively treat cancer as well as providing relief from the major symptoms of cancer. There is also notable benefits of cannabinoids in other research, these include the ability to stop cancerous growth and even interfere with a tumor’s ability to resist traditional medicinal treatments. However, research has just begun to scratch the surface of the benefits and issues with cannabinoid treatments.

The chemical working of THC and tumors

What Needs to Be Explored About Cannabinoids and Treatment?

While studying the cannabinoid’s ability to treat cancers, it was found that some cannabinoid resistant cancers existed, which led to a new challenge when facing said tumors. This resistance is related to a growth factor called growth factor midkine MDK, which activates something called the anaplastic lymphoma receptor tyrosine kinase (ALK). As shown in the diagram below, there is a way to counter this resistance by combining cannabinoids with classical cancer treatment methods such as chemotherapeutic drugs to get around this resistance. This research also opened the doors to combining classical cancer drugs with cannabinoids to enhance the power of both and to target difficult tumors. This being said, there is another major issue that is hindering all of this research, and that is the stigma surrounding marijuana. This combined with the fact that it is illegal in much of the US strongly prevents much of the additional research needed to get this treatment option into the hands of patients with cancer. There have been studies done with CBD and cancer, which is less stigmatized and works differently than a traditional cannabinoid, but the end results could still be removed by researching in conjunction with THC and the already known benefits it provides. In conclusion, THC and other cannabinoids have remarkable potential to treat cancer, but need to be given more research in order to best assess their usage and begin getting the treatment to the people that need it. The image source and more information about the topic can be found here

Featured image created by me

A potential way to subvert a tumor’s THC resistance
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Neurochemistry: Integrating and Applying Liberal Arts Education Goals

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Neurochemistry has allowed me to integrate and apply the skills and competencies that a liberal arts education at Concordia College strives all students to meet. Learning at a liberal arts college means that the education I receive is holistic and it focuses around many areas of study in conjunction with forcing students to get out into the community to make a difference. In my well-rounded education, I was emmerssed in topics that I never would have studied before coming to college, but I am able to look at a signal topic with various lenses that my other causes have instilled in me that makes me a more intuitive person when going into the dental profession. The learning outcomes at Concordia College for the liberal education are outlined below.

Instill a love of learning:

Neurochemistry has expanded upon how much knowledge within my major of neuroscience can be applied to various disease states in order to understand what is physiologically happening in the body in atypical circumstances. In many of my neurochemistry courses, we discuss what typical biochemical processes occur. Neurochemistry threw our knowledge into an application stage by applying our previous knowledge to disease states to understand what is happening within the body and what mechanisms are effected when diseases take place. By reading current research and asking questions about disease states, I have been better able to learn from my curiosity and questions about neurological diseases that many people have no idea about to understand the pathology of a disease, as well as how to prevent and ultimately treat disease states. As many of my classmates and myself are going into the sciences, I think it is important to acknowledge that we are learning to take previous knowledge to help treat or solve diseases that affect our population in order to improve the quality of life of many individuals. Not only did I improve my problem solving skills and how to better ask questions to solve, but I also learned to better communicate in writing and verbally through blog posts and our “speed” information sessions. The speed information sessions with other classmates helped me to pair down my question of interest and the information to answer the question in a few sentences, which will help me as a dental professional explaining to my patients what is happening.

Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities:

At the start of neurochemistry, the first seven class periods were on setting the foundation of common pathways in the brain that we would later cover in disease state papers. Understanding the common neurological pathways allowed me to better understand where in a pathway a disease state is dysregulated and how it impacts the rest of the typical pathway. These skills will allow me to look at current dental disease states and better understand where in the pathway select disease states the dysfunction happens. I also learned how to break down academic articles, which is necessary in the dental profession as technology and biomaterials are always changing. I would highlight the skill of making dense information understandable to my classmates and non-science individuals as a core competency on my resume. I think that this knowledge will allow me to more quickly process academic papers as a dental professional to augment my own knowledge and how to ensure that I change how I practice to support my patients and their health.

Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and intercultural perspectives and their connections:

Beyond taking courses to support my knowledge of neuroscience courses, I have also supplemented my disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary learning through my minors of chemistry and food/nutrition/dietetics. My knowledge of chemistry and nutrition have given be a broader view of neurological disease states. I bring my passion for nutrition into the course by wanting to better understand what the role of nutrition is in the progression or treatment of neurological disease. One example of problem solving using my science perspectives includes how maternal nutrition can impact the risk of having offspring with autism. I found that increasing omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin D, iron, and folate consumption in pregnant women can significantly decrease the risk of having a child with autism through various pathways to promote healthy offspring. The intercultural component of the puzzle can be found in looking at what other countries do to promote or prevent diseases along with speaking to my classmates to learn about how their experience shapes their knowledge and overall perspective that they bring to class. Having discussion days in class better allows me to ask students why they believe what they do and learn from their experience to have a better knowledge base and become a more well-rounded individual.

Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding:

During discussion days, I learned from my classmates about their own culture, ethical, physical, and spititual knowledge and believes when ethical questions were posed about how to combat and treat disease, as well as the best options on how to help people with disease states. By just listening, I acknowledged how my beliefs and perspectives also shaped my own beliefs while making room for others to share their understanding. I did not quite understand how my beliefs and attitudes could slightly change by just having a conversation with others weekly.

Encourage responsible participation in the world:

I did not do the PEAK project this year, but I think that learning about disease states and helping others who are neurologically different can raise awareness and even understanding about the human condition. I think this skill can help me as a dental professional when I see clients who are neurologically diverse to treat everyone the same, with respect and kindness.

Conclusion:

Being able to use my liberal arts education to make me a more well-rounded student has been amplified in my neurochemistry course as I have brought many of the components together throughout the course this semester. I am so excited to use this knowledge in dental school next year and in my career as a dentist.

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Final Blog Post

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This class pushed me in ways I did not anticipate. I had to adjust my learning style to be more independent. I expected this class to be like every other science course I have taken at Concordia: lecture based, textbook notes, many quizzes, and exams. The format of this class was strange to me at first, but now at the end of the semester I really enjoyed it.

I learned how to read scientific articles and journal efficiently to obtain the information I needed. I developed skills to decipher complicated language and schematics in order to understand chemical signaling. I maintained organized notes that I could return to as the information accumulated. I grew to be okay that not everything will make sense, answers will not always obvious, and some answers have not even been found by professional scientists.

This class connected to topics in my other courses past and present. The aspect I enjoyed most of the knowledge this course gave me was calling my mom to tell her all about it. I was able to relay in common language how addiction changes a brain, what abnormalities are seen in Alzheimer’s disease, and how obesity can be a disease of the brain. I believe the skill of explaining complex topics to someone with no previous knowledge is very important for my future. With a patient, I will need the ability to communicate to them professionally and simply. And this class has provided me experience with this.

Neurochemistry has reminded me of how grateful I am to be attending a liberal arts institution. The emphasis on developing a love of learning and transferable intellectual capacities reigns true in this course. I integrated a variety of information from previous courses to fully understand the material in neurochemistry. I developed a love for finding the answers and a great sense of pride when I discovered the full story for myself.

I finish this course with improved problem-solving skills, a new addition to my love of learning, and knowledge on many important brain diseases. For anyone interested in the brain I highly recommend this course.

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Sleep Strengthens Smarts: memory consolidation

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Sleep

Sleep is a natural process every human requires for survival. This is a state of reversible unconsciousness and decreased motor activity. On average adults 18+ should achieve 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Sleep is not only necessary for survival, but it plays a vital role in good health and well-being.

Figure 1: https://www.verywellhealth.com/why-do-we-sleep-the-theories-and-purpose-of-sleeping-3014828

When you sleep the brain resets itself, it removes toxic waste byproducts that accumulated during the day. This mechanism has been coined the brain’s ‘garbage disposal system’, like in Figure 1. It is as if a garbage collector comes through the brain during sleep, removes all waste, and when you wake up you and your brain are refreshed and ready to function normally.

Sleep studies have found strong links connecting adequate sleep to better productivity, increased concentration, lower weight gain risk, better calorie regulation, greater athletic performance, lower risk of heart disease, depression prevention, lower inflammation, and more benefits. For stressed out college students, they may believe they don’t have time for sleep. However, sleeping may improve their grades.

Memory Mechanism

Figure 2 is the general model of how memories are formed in our brain, the actual neurological mechanisms are still quite hazy but there are some knowns. The hippocampus is crucial from memory formation, this is where the term hippocampal memory comes from. In one patient, who had their temporal lobes removed to aid in severe epilepsy, they could remember everything before the procedure but were unable to make new memories. Therefore, suggesting the importance of the hippocampus with memory formation.

Figure 2: DOI: 10.1177/1073858415579635

With time a memory can become stronger and resilient to disruption, and the level of strength is often dependent on the emotional salience attached to that memory. The way emotion affects memory formation is on a U-shaped curve. With optimal memory strength being a level of moderate stress and emotion. Either side will drop off if not enough emotion is felt or if too much is felt.

From an animal study in which rats were trained with the inhibitory avoidance (IA) task (a task that would elicit some level of fear and stress, thus, ensuring optimal encoding conditions), researchers found that the activation of the pathways mediated by transcription factors cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is required for IA memory consolidation. Several studies have concluded that CREB-C/EBP is an evolutionarily conserved molecular pathway of long-term plasticity and memory formation.

In this same study, they found that in the dorsal hippocampus, glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) controlled the rapid learning-dependent increase of CREB phosphorylation and the expression of the immediate gene activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc), as well as the increase in synaptic phospho-CaMKIIa, phosphor-synapsid-1, and AMPA receptor subunit GluA1 expression. They also found that inhibition of GRs in rat hippocampus significantly reduced the phosphorylation of the tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), protein kinase B, and phospholipase C. Essentially, activation via GRs cause an increase in molecules and signaling that are implicated in memory consolidation and inhibition of GRs diminishes memory consolidation, figure 2 provides summarized view of this idea.. The mechanisms activated by GRs which are implicated in long-term memory formation are: pathways activated by CREB, MAPK pathway, CaMKII activation, and BDNF expression. They concluded that the BDNF-dependent pathway was a key downstream effector of GR activation during memory consolidation.

But where does sleep come in?

Sleep and Memory

Figure 3: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neures.2017.04.011

Memory consolidation depends on Ca2+ activating the cAMP/MAPK/CREB pathway. This pathway works with a circadian oscillation, like the circadian rhythm associated with sleep. Figure 3 shows the progression of this pathway to gene transcription and protein synthesis. Within this mechanism CRE-mediated transcription and protein synthesis is positively regulated, therefore when this pathway is activated mechanisms are occurring to aid memory consolidation. This pathway reaches activation in REM and light phase sleep, suggesting that memories are maintained over the time of sleep by oscillating activation of the MAPK pathway. Therefore, when you are asleep not only is your brain resting but it is also encoding the day’s events so you may remember them later. These memories are strengthened when you are achieving proper sleep and are able to cycle through the different stages of sleep.

A student would benefit greatly from this knowledge. If a student has an exam the next day, they may feel studying all night will benefit them more than getting a good night’s sleep. This is not the case. Memories are being strengthened in sleep. Thus, if you cannot seem to remember the PKAs of all the amino acids, look at them before you go to sleep, and your brain will do the work for you.

References:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neures.2017.04.011 

https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/how_much_sleep.html

DOI: 10.1177/1073858415579635 

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Final Blog post: a personal reflection

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My experience with this class:

Neurochemistry was by far the most interactive and learning-focused class that I have taken so far in my college life. It has helped me realize the importance of understanding concepts, asking questions, and being comfortable, rather than cramming a bunch of information. I have to admit, that I was completely lost and had no idea what was going on in my first days of taking the course. It was a lot of new concepts that I was not very familiar with, however, it was interesting enough to keep me focused.

My biggest takeaway in this class was to be confident, to learn, ask questions, explore and be creative overall. These skills have tremendously helped me to easily read and understand neurochemistry research articles easier and be able to interpret the data, what it means and its possible further implications.

BREWing through Neurochemistry: Being Responsibly Engaged in the World.

Though I did not continue with the PEAK route of the class, I believe that I have actively engaged with the world around me through being knowledgeable and being responsible. Learning neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Obesity, Addiction, and anxiety, helped me be more mindful of my actions and neurological consequences that may arise. This is the long-term can help change behaviors for the better, which is why I believe that this class was very fruitful and mindful to me.

Through my engagement in the Student Government Association, I actively used my platform s a leader to advocate for the importance of maintaining one’s fitness, through working to promote awareness of Holistic Health. This involves various aspects of health not just limited to physical wellness but also including financial wellness, spiritual wellness, emotional and social wellness. It was a learning and very rewarding time for me, as it teaches good habits that help reduce stress, by promoting mindfulness in what we ingest and invest our money in.

This made me feel the importance of learning science more intimately, as I could easily see how it plays in my life and those around me.

Advice for future students:

My biggest advice is to enjoy the class and have a desire to learn. You don’t have to have prior knowledge for neurochemistry to do well in class. However, it is important to have the desire to learn in your own time, from your other classmates whenever possible. Take advantage of Wednesday sessions, as it is the best time to learn more aspects of the subjects you’re learning. ASK QUESTIONS AND MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND, it can be harder to get back on track when you’re lagging.

 

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Sleep: Is it Important for Memory?

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Get your sleep college students.

Background

“Sleep is important.” Most individuals have heard the aforementioned phrase before, but many individuals do not understand just how important sleep is for memory. Memory can be defined as the way in which the brain takes external information and processes it to store and recall for later. A short-term memory, such as a new term learned in a class, can be modified into a long term memory through long-term potentiation (LTP), which is called memory consolidation.

Memory consolidation:

In the brain, memory consolidation is influenced by the hippocampus during the fourth sleep stage. The memory formation during sleep is described in Figure 1.

The process of memory occurs via NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) receptors, which is a type of receptor that opens after being AMPA receptors have depolarized the cell membrane and both are glutamate receptors. After NMDA receptors are activated, calcium enters the neuron through receptor, ultimately initiating transcription and translational pathways responsible for forming memories.

Figure 1: Pathway for memory consolidation in the hippocampus.

Calcium then activates AC to cyclase ATP into cAMP, a second messenger. Calcium and cAMP further work to activate MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) to induce CRE (calcium response element) mediated transcription and protein synthesis.

How does this pathway involve sleep?

REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is the fourth sleep cycle after NREM (non-REM) sleep cycles one through three. REM sleep aids in maintaining memories by reactivating the processes required for memory formation to reconsolidate memories as described above. REM sleep is typically the stage of sleep that the brain is the most active.

During REM sleep when the brain is active, the same neurons that were firing when learning during the day are re-firing to demonstrate long-term potentiation to make the memory stronger. The chronic re-firing of neurons in the same patterns as when the information was taken in from the environment can also promote memory persistence.

Memory persistence:

Memory persistence is a more long-term solution to memory consolidation. In electrophysiological tests, specific action potential patterns occur in the same way when someone is learning and when someone is sleeping to amplify memory persistence. In neurons, the proteins that are responsible for storing memories have a lifespan much shorter than long-term memories, which is exact what memory persistence aims to understand. In memory persistence, the NMDA receptors are constantly being synthesised. Persistent synthesis is required in conjunction to BDNF (brain-deprived neurotrophic factor) synthesis. BDNF is synthesized with CRE is activated and the synthesis occurs approximately 12 hours after learning. BDNF is significantly downregulated in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, showing that BDNF is associated with learning and memory.

Other brain structures involved:

Hippocampal memory formation relies on the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus for activating AC (adenyl cyclase) pathways during circadian rhythms. Lesions in this reduced memory formation, which could have long-lasting impairments on memory, which just demonstrates that the suprachiasmatic nucleus works with the hippocampus to ensure that memories can be formed.

So what?

Sleep is necessary for learning and forming memories, as well as keeping memories stored for later use. College students are notorious for pulling all-nighters and depriving their brains of the much needed REM sleep required to consolidate memory in order to remember the content that students are going into debt to learn. Therefore, college students should stop pulling all-nighters and prioritize sleep to fully take advantage of their college educations.

Sources:

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3898677/ 
  2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010217302377?via%3Dihub
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2772165/ 
  4. https://aasm.org/college-students-getting-enough-sleep-is-vital-to-academic-success/

 

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Lucid Dreaming: What it is and how to do it

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Lucid Dreaming – Science Communication Club

Figure 1: A general picture of lucid dreaming.

Sleep and memory

All through grade school and college, I always heard people say that staying up late cramming before an exam is really counterproductive and shouldn’t be done. I never believed it because I figured the more information I could go over for the exam the better. However, after reading this weeks paper on sleep and memory, it might be time to switch things up.

The paper really focused on the circadian oscillations of cAMP, Ras, MEK, CREB, and MAPK as part of the same signaling pathway. These elements as part of this pathway seem to be downregulated during the day, but are upregulated during REM sleep which is known to have activity in the hippocampus during it. The hippocampus is also known to be a site of memory consolidation, hence the signaling pathway and memory are coupled. For more information on this topic, please see the paper found here. REM sleep is also known to be when people are dreaming. This is where the idea of lucid dreaming comes from.

How to Lucid Dream Tonight - Money Muser | Lucid dreaming techniques, Lucid dreaming tips, Lucid dreaming

Figure 2: A personal account of how to lucid dream in a few easy steps.

What is lucid dreaming and how do you do it?

Lucid dreaming is simply a dream where the dreamer knows they are dreaming. Some people use this realization to actually take control of their dreams and determine their outcome. This can be very helpful for people preparing for something like a stressful meeting or public speaking as they can act out these situations in their dream to build up confidence to do it in the real world. It also just offers a fun skill for those who have ever wanted to control their dreams. But how is it done? Well, its not exactly down to a science, but there are a collection of things that one can do to have a better chance at lucid dreaming (coming from people that self report being able to lucid dream). Below is that list of those things which can be found here. Please note that I took some liberties in the names of the steps as well as some of the descriptions.

  1. Preparing your bedroom
    • Do things to induce good sleeping habits. You want to induce REM sleep so do things to get good quality of sleep. Things like blackout curtains and white noise machines to block out ambient light and noise. Try calming techniques before going to bed so you are in a comfortable state first.
  2. Starting or keeping a dream journal
    • This keeps you in tune with your dreams and prevents you from just having dreams and then forgetting.
  3. Recognize dream themes
    • Don’t just write down dreams then forget about them. Review the journal and look for themes. Do certain people or event come up regularly? Try to recognize this in the dream.
  4. Perform reality checks
    • This is a way to recognize if you are in a dream or not. These can be things like trying to push your index finger through the opposite palm with the expectation that it will happen. In a dream you will be able to make it happen! Or you could try looking at your hands and feet, in a dream they tend to be distorted. Finally you can try looking at a clock or book, then quickly looking away, and then looking back. In a dream the time or text will have likely changed but in reality it obviously doesn’t.
  5. Trick your brain as you fall asleep
    • As you drift off to sleep, try repeating a phrase like “I will be aware that I am dreaming.” By repeating this you are essentially tricking your brain to remain aware as you fall asleep.
  6. Try going back to sleep
    • After waking up from a dream, try to fall back asleep while thinking about was happening in the dream, but this time focus on knowing that you were aware it was a dream as you fall back asleep.
  7. Induce sleep paralysis
    • Instead of #6, you can try this alternative method known as “wake induced lucid dreaming.” When your alarm goes off, try to get back to sleep as soon as possible, but keep your mind focused and active to increase the chances of lucid dreaming. However, be warned, my keeping your mind awake while your body falls back to sleep you may induce sleep paralysis which can be very frightening because you are unable to move.
  8. Wake, Bake, Back to bed
    • This involves setting an alarm at some point through the night (typically 4, 5, 6, or 7 hours into sleeping with 6-7 hours to be most effective for most). This increases the chance of waking up during REM sleep and remembering your dream. Then stay awake for 30-60 minutes before going back to bed. The idea is to wake up your brain while your body is still tired.
  9. Take up gaming
    • There are actually studies that show that playing video games leads to better dream memory retention as well as the ability to lucid dream. This follows because video games are typically an immersive experience that you are in control of.
  10. Try to stay in the dream
    • Congratulations! Hopefully by this point you are beginning to lucid dream. However, don’t get frustrated if you can’t do it for very long. It is common for those that are first learning to lucid dream to get so excited when they finally do it that they wake themselves up.

And there you have it! How to lucid dream! The length of the post is a little long, but hopefully you’ll be lucid dreaming in no time with a little practice!

And finally, here is my arstract on how lucid dreaming can make your dreams awesome!

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Final Blog Post

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Being wrong is… actually, perfectly okay 

Neurochemistry this semester has given me the not-so-fun, but very much needed opportunity to practice being okay with being wrong. Not going to lie, sitting in on the first exam humbled me. A lot. Maybe I was alone with this, but I felt more clueless than ever. Not confused, not surprised, not scared, simply just clueless. I knew I wasn’t supposed to know everything, given that we only received some small snippets of information from an academic paper along with factual data in the form of a list. But I had no idea “how wrong” I could be without appearing very dumb. But eventually, I realized that instead of wondering about which level of wrongness I should achieve, I could just take whatever I was given, carefully read it, and take whatever I DID understand to use it in my hypothesis. Even if I would have been wrong, if it was logical, that would have been a win for me. Leaving the exam, I could finally fill in the cracks, and get a better understanding of what exactly I was right or wrong about, then get the chance to correct myself along with explaining my own thought process. Admitting that we can be wrong at times is hard for everyone, but this class was a great way to practice that, and gain valuable social skills while communicating our own ideas to those who may have completely different ways of thinking. I am glad to have had the opportunity to practice being wrong, which I fully believe is a part of our social awareness, as well as being responsibly engaged in the world.

Engaged citizen

The blogposts of this semester have been an amazing way to learn how to effectively communicate science to those not in science. I enjoyed the way I got more and more comfortable writing my blogs as the semester progressed, and got to have some fun researching many interesting things going on around the world. With being allowed to expand on things I personally find the most enjoyable, and letting me pursue my interests I feel I could contribute to our weekly one-on-one chatting very effortlessly. I also enjoyed getting the chance to be a leader in group discussions and building some great skills to guide, and socialize with people in a respectful and inclusive way. Bringing a group together and offering a place where people can comfortably share their thoughts is never an easy task, but certainly can be a very rewarding one.

Future directions

It really is quite interesting how many different social skills I have gained from such a “sciency” class, but I believe it will be one of most valuable experiences at Concordia. In sending me off into the world, this class has ensured me that I would be okay, even when finding myself in the most unexpected situations where I might just simply be clueless. I am way more comfortable with myself, my knowledge, and the way I present myself while communicating with others. I truly believe this course will be part of the many ways I can potentially succeed in my future career.

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What Happens When We Don’t Sleep?

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Top Funniest Sleep Memes: Take Your Portion of Good Laugh - Terry Cralle

What’s something that we all have in common, well we sleep. I’ll admit it, some of us get more than others, but at the end of the day our favorite activity is more than willing to greet us with open arms when we’ve had enough. We already know that sleep is crucial for memory formation, specifically long term memory consolidation. Since we already know that we might ask the question, “what happens if we don’t sleep?”

Before we jump into that, lets briefly discuss what we already know. The Calcium/cAMP/MAPK/CRE pathway is necessary for memory consolidation.  The MAPK pathway is especially important in the hippocampus where long term memory is formed. REM seems to increase the activity of the pathway listed above.

Now lets look at what happens when we don’t sleep, or more specifically when we are sleep deprived. We can’t really look at what happens when we don’t sleep at all because we would die without sleeping eventually.

  1. You get sick much easier when you don’t sleep, your immune system is weakened leading to more illness.
  2. Not sleep is very bad for your heart. You are at higher risks for heart disease and strokes.
  3. Lack of sleep is associated with increased risk for developing cancer.
  4. It is hard to think straight, we’ve all dealt with this one. When you’re tired all you can think about is sleep and not doing that homework that’s due tomorrow.
  5. Your memory is impacted and you cannot recall things. This one we’ve already talked about so it shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone.
  6. This one might sound strange, but just bear with me. Sex drive is negatively impacted by a lack of sleep. Not sleeping lowers testosterone and other sex hormones by up to 15%.
  7. You are more likely to gain weight… sad
  8. Risk for diabetes goes up
  9. Rates of accidents goes up, this goes along with lack of focus/thinking straight.
  10. Your skin quality goes down; fine lines, wrinkles, uneven skin color, looseness of skin, etc.

If those things don’t sound bad enough, here’s a couple more shown in the figure below. Some of these things are repeats that we talked about already but some are new.

Its hard to get enough sleep when we live in a world that prioritizes productivity and working long hours. There never seems to be enough time in our day to do everything that we need to. But take this into consideration, don’t sleep just because its good for you, although that is a pretty good reason to do just that. Sleep because it will make you far better at doing those things in your day to day life that you never seem to have enough time to do. You’ll be more productive, have better quality work, and be much happier doing so. Although you might not feel like you have the time to sleep, it will be better for you in the long run if you close your eyes and get some rest.

79 Brilliant Sleep Memes

Lets diverge a little bit into some serious material, I might be reaching here but stick with me.

“Being awake for at least 18 hours is the same as someone having  blood alcohol content of 0.05%”-the CDC

“Being awake for 24 hours is equal to having a blood alcohol content of 0.10%”- the CDC

Why do I include these two quotes from the CDC? Simple, get some sleep or your essentially drunk, we all disagree with drunk driving and doing important things while under the influence. But we should also have a similar mindset when it comes to doing things while being tired, its the same thing. I suppose the moral of the story is you could either drink a strawberry daiquiri or stay awake for 18+ hours, which is worse? Should we allow people who are that tired to drive and do other crucial things in our daily life, or should sleep deprivation be equivalent to being drunk? For example, surgeons work extremely long shifts and they are performing potentially dangerous procedures on their patient. Their shifts can be 12-28 hours long, that’s more than enough to have a BAC above the legal range. Our society needs to accept sleep rather than demonize those of us who just want to perform at our best. Don’t let your surgeon be Patrick, although he seems like a nice guy he’s not entirely in the right mindset for surgery. 25 Witty No Sleep Memes For Insomniacs - SayingImages.com

References

https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/drowsy_driving.html

https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-lose-sleep#accidentprone

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-the-symptoms-of-sleep-deprivation-3015161

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