Neuroscience

Differential Effects of Stroke Damage on Understanding and Speaking Language


Slide the green handle for responses to the question: "Are you going to visit your mother?"


Those with damage to Wernicke’s area of the brain (in blue) cannot understand what others say to them. Those with damage to Broca's area (in red) cannot produce a coherent speech pattern.


  • Wernicke's area affects understanding of language (input)
  • Broca's area affects speech production (output)

The below videos show the effect of damage:

Electromagnetic

Therapies

Althought ECT has been used for decades to treat depression, it has been controversial. Some newer electromagnetic systems have produced results with simipler and less invasive solutions and with a wider range of use for disorders. Click on each below for videos explaining the procedures:
  • ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) for depression
  • MST (magnetic seizure therapy) for depression
  • rTMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) for depression
  • LFMS for depression
  • VNS (vagus nerve stimulation) for depression
  • DBS (deep brain stimulation) for OCD, Parkinson's disease, Tourette Syndrome
  • eTNS (trigeminal nerve stimulation) for ADHD


For more on this, see this NIH article: "Brain Stimulation Therapies."


Mirror Neurons

Facing Brains
  • Groups of neurons discovered in the 1990s
  • Similar reaction in brain when observing another's motor behavior as when one does the same behavior themselves
  • Basis for imitation, intention, empathy, understanding, language
  • May explain autism's social deficits
  • Explains why seeing crying makes us sad, why yawning and laughing is contagious, 
  • May explain psychopaths lack of empathy


"Don't become a mere recorder of facts but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin."


Ivan Pavlov

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)


SAD causes depression to increase in the winter months and subside during the summer months. One cause of this seems to be sensitivity to amounts of the hormone melatonin in the brain associated with sleep. Light through the eye affects the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the brain which then affects the pineal gland's production of melatonin.


Slide the red handle below to see how this all works and think how it might affect some during the shorter days of winter.


  • other factors also affect SAD such as social factors, cultural factors, and serotonin levels
  • light therapy helps regulate melatonin levels and depression
  • cognitive-behavior therapy and/or antidepressants are recommended for some
  • Psychology Today: The Neuroscience of Light Therapy


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