Essays on Prefrontal Cortex

The concept of "social brain" is one of the challenging and advanced concepts of the modern neuropsychology. In addition, the "social brain", as a concept, forms a completely new approach to the study of social psychology and brain pathologies. Research and development of this concept contributes to the discovery of the social and psychological development of a person. The thematic justification of this study is important because it allows tracing the relationship between the social cognition and social behavior of a person, which is basic in the context of psychology, sociology, and neuropsychology. The development and use of the " ...

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Embodied cognition incorporates that the human cognition is comprised and shaped by various aspects of the body, which eventually indicates that it exceeds from the dependency on brain. In this manner, cognition is observed to be dependent on the experiences that an individual receives from numerous sensorimotor capabilities of the body. These capabilities are considered to be highly integrated in accordance with the psychological, biological and cultural setting of an individual (Wilson & Foglia 2011). Embodied cognition also accounts for the feedback mechanism that takes place between an individual and the world and hence, the prevalence of action ...

Introduction

Self-control has been identified has the single, most basic differentiating characteristic that separates human beings from the animal species. In psychological circles as well as in past research on the subject, the term has been used interchangeably with self-regulation and behavioral regulation . Before examining the details of how and why this aspect of human behavior is crucial in ensuring that people are able to lead normal lives, it is important to understand the boundaries of the concept in itself. In the simplest of terms, self-regulated behavior is an individual’s ability to suppress their immediate impulses instead of acting ...

Creative cognition involves the analysis and comprehension of the processes and mental representations within creative thought. Creativity refers to the ability to create original, useful and appropriate work. Creative thinking, however, never follows the same pattern. Psychologists have presented data to the effect that discoveries, inventions, and original ideas originate from insight, others, however, are of the view that discoveries originate from the cumulative application of expertise or prior knowledge (Smith et al., 1997). The two schools of thought have led to a contention among psychologists on whether creativity involves prior knowledge and expertise or simply, insight. The dominant ...

For hundreds of years, people have known that nature has profound and positive effects on human lives (Suttie 1). Over the years, various writers have documented the benefits of spending some time in nature (Suttie 1). These writers most probably based their claims on own experiences or those of others. Until recently, there has been no scientific evidence to support the above claims. This essay focuses on a variety of health benefits that we experience when we take time to interact with Mother Nature. It also explores the growing research evidence that supports the argument that natural settings improve ...

Psychology Summaries

Solomon, Caren G., Murray B. Stein, and Jitender Sareen. "Generalized Anxiety Disorder." The New England journal of medicine 373.21 (2015): 2059-68. ProQuest. 7 Apr. 2016 .Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1735349848?pq-origsite=summon Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a condition that creates excessive worry and concern in a debilitating manner for those afflicted with the condition. “According to representative epidemiologic surveys, the estimated prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder in the general population of the United States is 3.1% in the previous year and 5.7% over a patient’s lifetime; the prevalence is approximately twice as high among women as among men” (Solomon, Stein, and ...

Summary: The study titled: “The Role of Prefrontal Inhibition in Regulating Fascial Expression of Pain.”, examines the role of pre frontal cortex in the control of fascial expression of pain (Karmann et al.). Expression of pain is determined by a certain factor in the environment (like the availability of caregiver) and also on factors that exist within an individual. Expressing pain is a form of communicating once feelings to others. Understanding expressions may help in assessing the pain in a patient (Craig). Presently, assessment of pain in an individual, is done based on the verbalization of pain by the ...

Summary

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest among neurosurgeons on the potential for therapies that impact on diseases, over and above the movement disorders and pain. One of the biggest targets of this increasing interest has been the nucleus accumbens. It has been studied for long, as an area of the brain that mediates a variety of behaviors, including reward and satisfaction (Salgado & Kaplitt, 2015). With this in mind, the modulation of the biology of the Nucleus Accumbens through either deep brain stimulation or through biological therapies like gene therapy or the transplantation of cells ...

Brief summary

Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is considered to be a health problem because of the millions of people who are using it worldwide. The article states that excessive cocaine use will cause changes in the prefrontal Cortes (PFC) (Terraneo, p.37). The reason for this is because PFC plays a significant role in the addictive cycle such as the inhibitory control, reinforcement learning as well as cravings. Many types of research that have been conducted show that the loss of inhibitory control is brought on by drug behaviors. The article looks at the animal studies that have been carried out in ...

Summary: The interaction between the limbic system and the subcortical dopaminergic system, is important in the experience of reward by the individual. The hypothesis in the present study is that, increased excitability of the medial prefrontal cortex, exerts a suppressive effect on the interaction between subcortical dopaminergic system and the limbic striatum structures (Ferenczi et al.). Lack of a reward seeking behavior is seen in patients with depression and MRI studies in these subjects have identified increased excitability of the medial prefrontal cortex. This finding was suggested as a rationale for the study. The experiments were designed to demonstrate ...