So if the brain kills off these neurons on purpose, what happens to the dead neurons? Journalist Melissa Marino asserts that the body must dispose of the dead neurons or else the body's immune system is in trouble.
Interestingly, Dr. Bruce Carter (a biochemistry professor) of Vanderbilt has discovered the brain's "clean-up crew" and the protein that is important to that clean-up crew (disposing the dead neurons) is called "jedi-1" (not to be confused with the science fiction movie "Star Wars"). If jedi-1 is not doing its job, the body may suffer from "autoimmune conditions." So there are many interesting things going on with our central nervous system that most people aren't aware of, but are important for good physical and psychological health.
Childhood Survivors of Central Nervous System Cancer Suffer Later: Another article related to the central nervous system, published in Science Daily, reports that children who suffered from cancer of the central nervous system (brain cancer in many instances) have a problem in school later in life. In fact they "achieve lower-than-expected educational success compared with the general public," Science Daily reports, based on an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Children who had central nervous system cancer and were treated with radiation "performed worse than the general population," according to a study of 10,000 5-year survivors conducted by the University of Birmingham in the UK.
Stresses of Police Work: Harold E. Russell and Allan Beigel published the book Understanding Human Behavior for Effective Police Work, a helpful tool for those wishing to relate to law enforcement-related psychological stress and how it effects the central nervous system. When a police officer encounters a dangerous or threatening situation, he reacts much like primitive man when confronted by a large animal, Russell et al. explain (Russell, 1990, p. 346). The nervous system automatically secretes "more adrenaline," the person's breathing changes into a more rapid breathing, digestion "dramatically" stops, the spleen produces more red blood cells so more oxygen can be carried through the body.
When the suspect has been safely put into incarceration, the officer moves into code 4 but his "level of tension" is still "considerably higher" than when he started his day. It is vitally important, Russell continues on page 347, that psychological counselors who work with law enforcement officers -- and families -- understand "code 3 biology." In fact, if an officer's home life isn't calm and sympathetic to his stressful profession, he may prefer not to go home right away but rather "stay at the station and exchange war stories with other squad members." Because biologically, that officer needs to "gradually" release tension before going home.
Works Cited
Chudler, Eric. "Neuroscience For Kids." Washington University. Retrieved January 30, 2010,
From http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nsdivide.html.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute. "Childhood Survivors of CNS Cancer and Leukemia
Have Lowered Educational Attainment." Retrieved January 30, 2010, from Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com.
Marino, Melissa. "Jedi' Enlisted to Help Clean Up Dead Neurons." Reporter. Retrieved January 30, 2010, from http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html.
Russell, Harold E., and Beigel, Allan. Understanding Human Behavior for Effective Police
Work. New York: Basic Books, 1990.
Nervous System: In order to achieve its function, the nervous system is divided into two major parts i.e. The Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). The central nervous system is basically made up of the brain and spinal cord and has the main function of receiving information from the body and sending out instructions. While the brain is protected by the skull, the spinal cord is guarded
Neuroscience and Human Development One of the most noticeable aspects of human beings involves the changes in shape, size, form, and function of the individual from a newly formed fetus to a fully grown adult. As the single most successful organism on Earth, human beings have developed, through millions of years of evolutionary adaptations, integrated yet malleable systems involving biological, physiological, emotional and intellectual components. This paper will review some of
Neuroscience Hormones and the Nervous System Of the many highly interesting features of the brain and the nervous system that are detailed in this chapter of the text, the one that I found most interesting is the relationship between the nervous system and the endocrine system, which controls the hormones secreted throughout the body. The initial comparison between hormones and neurotransmitters that the text makes initially helps to provide an immediate basic
.....neuroscience is one of the most common scientific field of study that basically involves study of the nervous system. Most of the jobs in neuroscience involves dealing with some problems that do not necessarily involve working in the lab. An example of such jobs that interests me is neuropsychology, which is an area in neuroscience that focuses on the science of brain-behavior relationships. I find clinical neuropsychology as an interesting
These indications then proceed to the neuromuscular connections of skeletal muscles. From there, acetylcholine is released from the axon terminal knobs of alpha motor neurons and received by postsynaptic receptors of muscles, thereby communicating the stimulus to contract muscle fibers (Ihlen & Vereijken, 2010). Psychological Influences Research on patient's brains scanned by Positron Emmision Tomography have designated that the kind of thoughts people have influence the balance of brain chemicals, so
Anatomy & Physiology 101 The Peripheral Nervous System It is difficult to decide the importance of one set of senses over another, because consequentially, each of the senses enables the working of another or two of the senses. Seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting are all somehow connected to each other; without one of the five, a particular system also becomes lacking in the sense department. That said, because of the importance
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now