On Wednesday, 24th Jan our class (8A) had a
Skype interaction with Walid Yaasin- a neuropsychiatrist who studies at The
University of Tokyo. He is a research assistant as well. He had a lot of
information to enlighten us with. He first talked about the nervous system
telling us how the nervous system manifests into behavior and how we can
actually control our behavior. He showed us videos how a head injury can
manifest into larger traumatic diseases.
He
explained to us the two types of head injury:-
1. When blood starts coming out of your
brain which is called Focal Head injury.
2. When you hit your head on a cabinet but
there was no bleeding that injury is called Diffuse Axonal injury.
He explained that there is a liquid inside
the brain. When you hit your head, your brain goes forward and backward with
the liquid. After which, the grey and white matter start to slide against each
other and as a result break. The cell body dies soon after. The
neurotransmitters are released when the cell body dies.
He soon drifted into the topic of how
diffuse axonal head injury leads to narcolepsy with cataplexy. Narcolepsy is
when you suddenly fall asleep. Cataplexy is when you're paralyzed. He shared a
video with us where a man is diagnosed with the disease- narcolepsy with
cataplexy. He shared that the man diagnosed with that disease would go to sleep
and paralyze when positive emotions flowed through his body. He showed us an MRI scan of the human brain
and showed the area where positive emotions and released. When positive
emotions are released the hypothalamus activates the brain stem which results
in a negative reaction by the brain stem causing paralysis. The hypothalamus is
the part of the brain right below thalamus. The hypothalamus regulates
sleep, hunger, thirst and mood swings in
the body.
He talked to us telling us about spinal cord
injuries. The spinal cord has vertebrates that connect and form the spinal
cord. Getting hurt in a vertebrate means that the area where the vertebrate is
attached will also suffer from the injury.
In the end, he did an activity with us where
we kept our hand vertically upright pointing a finger. We then closed our eyes
and attempted to get our finger to the tip of our nose. If we were able to do
it that means that our brain is in good shape. These activities were done with
adolescents to check their cerebrum. The activities are called
Neuro-development tools.
He answered the class's questions and helped
us understand our brain and the nervous system much better. After the
conference its evident that we gained knowledge beyond classroom learning .It
also gave us a whole other insight into the brain and the nervous system. It
made us understand the importance of the brain and how traumatic a small injury
can be. I acquired so much knowledge in just an hour of a skype conversation.
This definitely made me realize how beautiful and yet complicated the mind is.
I am grateful that this in a way made me feel how fortunate I am to have all my
body organs in good health and shape. We enjoyed our time learning with Mr.
Walid and hope to learn more!
