Please answer the following question in a 250-word response minimum. Try your best to reference the text if needed please do so a link for the text book is provided here:
https://www.cengagebrain.co.uk/content/9781285232430.pdf
(outside sources are okay, but please cite)
1. What are some risks when taking psychostimulants?
2. How can damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s area affect speech? From speech patterns, how can you differentiate between which area was affected? How can this affect the quality of life?
3. What is the role of a psychostimulant in learning and memory? Psychostimulants have typically been prescribed to individuals with ADHD. What are some affects of taking a psychostimulant for a person who does not have ADHD? Should this medication be prescribed more widely? Why?
Please participate (respond) to the classmates answers with notable and educational input. (200 word minimum Reponses)
1. Kelly: The psychostimulant methylphenidate (MPH) has been used since 1955 as a cognitive enhancer and wake-promoting agent for a variety of disorders (Challman and Lipsky 2000). Over time, it has become the mainstay of treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as it improves executive control, reduces impulsivity, and improves cognitive function, including learning and memory (O’Toole et al. 1997; Aron et al. 2003; Mehta et al. 2004; Arnsten 2006; Swanson et al. 2011). MPH-induced memory enhancement is often viewed as incidental to improved attention and/or cognitive control (Barkley 1997). Although many studies have modeled MPH’s effect on executive function, almost none have directly modeled its effect on long-term memory (LTM) acquisition or retention, per se. Improvement in LTM is a critical target of therapeutic intervention in ADHD, as ample evidence shows a deficit in LTM in ADHD (Rhodes et al. 2012). Psychostimulants are frequently prescribed to enhance classroom learning and are increasingly sought out by individuals without ADHD for the same reason. Indeed, stimulants also enhance learning in normal populations (Rapoport et al. 1980;Rapoport and Inoff-Germain 2002; Marshall et al. 2010). Thus, the degree to which MPH directly enhances LTM warrants further examination. Drug development for ADHD would benefit from a simple, efficient animal model of MPH’s effects on LTM. We examined the effects of a wide range of doses of MPH on Pavlovian fear learning. In this task, an initially neutral tone conditional stimulus is paired with an aversive foot-shock unconditional stimulus. As the result of this pairing, the animal comes to fear both the tone and the place of conditioning, a phenomenon known as context conditioning. Tone and context fear memory are used generally to model long-lasting memory (Anagnostaras et al. 1999; Gale et al. 2004). Drug development for ADHD would benefit from a simple, efficient animal model of MPH’s effects on LTM. (“Learning And Memory”, 2014)
2. Bernice: Damage to a discrete part of the brain in the left frontal lobe (Broca’s area) of the language-dominant hemisphere has been shown to significantly affect use of spontaneous speech and motor speech control. Words may be uttered very slowly and poorly articulated. Speech may be labored and consist primarily of nouns, verbs or important adjectives. Speech takes on a telegraphic character. People suffering from Broca’s aphasia have great difficulty with repetition and a severe impairment in writing. In some patients, however, the understanding of spoken and written language may be relatively well-preserved. The non-fluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) is a type of expressive aphasia. Damage to the posterior superior areas of the language dominant temporal lobe (often called Wernicke’s area) has been shown to significantly affect speech comprehension. In other words, information is heard through an intact auditory cortex in the anterior temporal lobe, however, when it arrives at the posterior association areas, the information cannot be sufficiently “translated.” To differentiate between which area was affected; in contrast to Broca’s aphasia, the person with Wernicke’s aphasia talks volubly and gestures freely. Speech is produced without effort, and sentences are of normal length. However, the person’s speech is devoid of meaning.
How can this affect the quality of life? As communication is at the core of many of our daily activities aphasia can have a big impact. It affects the ability of a person to do everyday tasks that we take for granted, such as, reading a get well card, answering the telephone, watching TV, or shopping. People can find it extremely hard to stay in employment, to fulfill their role in a family, or to keep up their usual social activities and hobbies. They often feel extremely frustrated, and isolated, and there can be breakdown in relationships. Many people with aphasia feel anxious and depressed and their wellbeing and quality of life suffer.
Retrieved from: http://memory.ucsf.edu/brain/language/disorders
3. Kristine: The process of identifying the parts of the brain that are involved in language began in 1861, when Paul Broca, a French neurosurgeon, examined the brain of a recently deceased patient who had had an unusual disorder. Though he had been able to understand spoken language and did not have any motor impairments of the mouth or tongue that might have affected his ability to speak, he could neither speak a complete sentence nor express his thoughts in writing. The only articulate sound he could make was the syllable “tan”, which had come to be used as his name. When Broca autopsied Tan’s brain, he found a sizable lesion in the left inferior frontal cortex. Subsequently, Broca studied eight other patients, all of whom had similar language deficits along with lesions in their left frontal hemisphere. This led him to make his famous statement that “we speak with the left hemisphere” and to identify, for the first time, the existence of a “language centre” in the posterior portion of the frontal lobe of this hemisphere. Now known as Broca’s area, this was in fact the first area of the brain to be associated with a specific function–in this case, language.
Ten years later, Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist, discovered another part of the brain, this one involved in understanding language, in the posterior portion of the left temporal lobe. People who had a lesion at this location could speak, but their speech was often incoherent and made no sense.Wernicke’s observations have been confirmed many times since. Neuroscientists now agree that running around the lateral sulcus (also known as the fissure of Sylvius) in the left hemisphere of the brain, there is a sort of neural loop that is involved both in understanding and in producing spoken language. At the frontal end of this loop lies Broca’s area, which is usually associated with the production of language, or language outputs . At the other end (more specifically, in the superior posterior temporal lobe), lies Wernicke’s area, which is associated with the processing of words that we hear being spoken, or language inputs. Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are connected by a large bundle of nerve fibres called the arcuate fasciculus.This language loop is found in the left hemisphere in about 90% of right-handed persons and 70% of left-handed persons, language being one of the functions that is performed asymmetrically in the brain. Surprisingly, this loop is also found at the same location in deaf persons who use sign language. This loop would therefore not appear to be specific to heard or spoken language, but rather to be more broadly associated with whatever the individual’s primary language modality happens to be.
In addition to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, a third area of importance for language, located in the parietal cortex, has been described more recently.
retrieved from:http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_10/d_10_cr/d_10_cr_lan/d_10_cr_lan.html
4. Kelly: Damage to a discrete part of a the brain in the left frontal lobe (Broca’s area) of the language-dominant hemisphere has been shown to significantly affect use of spontaneous speech and motor speech control. Words may be uttered very slowly and poorly articulated. Speech may be labored and consist primarily of nouns, verbs or important adjectives. Speech takes on a telegraphic character. People suffering from Broca’s aphasia have great difficulty with repetition and a severe impairment in writing. In some patients, however, the understanding of spoken and written language may be relatively well-preserved. The non-fluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) is a type of expressive aphasia. If damage encompasses both Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas, global aphasia can occur. In this case, all aspects of speech and language are affected. Patients can say a few words at most and understand only a few words and phrases. They usually cannot carry out commands or name objects. They cannot read or write or repeat words said to them. Degeneration of the angular gyrus in the temporal lobe and inferior parietal lobe can lead to lvPPA. Typical symptoms include slowed speech with normal articulation, impaired comprehension of sentence syntax as well as impaired naming of things. lvPPA is probably associated with Alzheimers disease pathology. (“Topics In Neuroscience”, 2016).
5. Stimulant medications including amphetamines (e.g., Adderall) and methylphenidate (e.g., Ritalin and Concerta) are often prescribed to treat children, adolescents, or adults diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). People with ADHD persistently have more difficulty paying attention or are more hyperactive or impulsive than other people the same age. This pattern of behavior usually becomes evident when a child is in preschool or the first grades of elementary school; the average age of onset of ADHD symptoms is 7 years. Many people’s ADHD symptoms improve during adolescence or as they grow older, but the disorder can persist into adulthood. ADHD diagnoses are increasing. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2011, 11 percent of people ages 4-17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. I do believe that the writing of these prescription should given widely due to I work ina dr. office and I see patients get terminated from the practice due to abuse of these medications I also think that some people don’t take them like they should but sell them on the streets as well.
