1. Explain in detail what "savant syndrome" means.
Savants are people who despite serious mental or physical disability have quite remarkable, and sometimes spectacular, talents. Savant syndrome is perhaps one of the most fascinating phenomena in the study of human differences and cognitive psychology. It is often claimed that, because of the extraordinary abilities involved, we will never truly understand human memory and cognition until we understand the savant. Savant syndrome is exceedingly rare, but a remarkable condition in which persons with autism, or other serious mental handicaps, or major mental illness, have astonishing islands of ability or brilliance that stand out in stark contrast to their overall disability. The condition can be congenital or be acquired by an otherwise normal individual following CNS injury or disease. It occurs in males more frequently than in females in an approximate ratio of 6 to 1. The skills can appear suddenly, without explanation, and have been reported as sometimes disappearing just as suddenly.
http://www.psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/Savant%20Syndrome.htm
2. What does genius mean? Explain the difference between genius and savant.
“An exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially asshown in creative and original work in science, art, music a person having such capacity a person having an extraordinarily high intelligence rating on apsychological test, as an IQ above 140.”
www.dictionary.com
The difference between a genius and a savant is that a savant lacks basic skills and is just superior in one aspect, while a genius is outstanding in everything. A savant usually has an IQ of less than 70 while a genius has about 140.
3. What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?
“A stroke or "brain attack" occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain. When either of these things happen, brain cells begin to die and brain damage occurs. When brain cells die during a stroke, abilities controlled by that area of the brain are lost. These abilities include speech, movement and memory. How a stroke patient is affected depends on where the stroke occurs in the brain and how much the brain is damaged.”
http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=stroke
4. What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?
FMRI is a device used by doctors to map brain activity. It stands for functional magnetic resonance imaging. The fat the beginning of fMRI is not capitalized unless at the beginning of a sentence.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fmri.htm
There are no machine that comes close to perfectly simulating the human brain, the level of fine control and data yielded makes Connectionism a very effective way to learn more about the consequences of brain injuries. Also, disorders like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or depression can be observed in brain scans. These observations can help researchers to learn more about how these disorders work, and how they may best be treated.
5. What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?
Corpus callosum consists of nerve fibers.
1. callosum: genu (the front part),
2. splenium (the bottom part) and
3. truncus (located between these two parts).
The essential assignment of corpus callosum is to allow the two hemispheres to communicate. Because the two hemispheres have completely different functions, they have to have something that will join these functions together, so that our brain could function properly as one organ.
The corpus callosum is actually connecting these functions into one, carrying information from one hemisphere to another and vice versa. It is also responsible for lateralization of the brain, which means that it determines which side of the body will be preferred. Eye movements are regulated and coherent due to fast action of corpus callosum.
If corpus callosum is accidentally injured or harmed in any way, it can cause serious consequences to our body functions. Depending on what part of corpus callosum is affected, we can expect different consequences.
http://www.steadyhealth.com/about/corpus_callosum_function.html
6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that makes people susceptible to seizures. Epilepsy usually does not get worse with time. Most adults who have epilepsy can expect to live a normal life span. A seizure is a sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain that affects how a person feels or acts for a short time. Seizures are a symptom of many different disorders that can affect the brain.
http://www.mamashealth.com/head/epilepsy.asp
Epilepsy affects the brain because of the seizures, with constant seizures you may have severe brain damage and during a seizure many of your brain cells die.
7. What is autism?
Autism is a developmental disorder that affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.
Autism usually appears in the first 3 years of life. In the general population, autism affects about 1 in 250 births. There are about 1.5 million Americans that have some form of autism.
Autism affects boys 3 to 4 times more often than girls. It was first described by Dr. Leo Kanner in 1943.
Children with autism may need therapy and special tutors.
http://www.mamashealth.com/mental/autism.asp
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