Leonardo Da Vinci Had Surface Dysgraphia?

Who is Leonardo Da Vinci?

Leonardo-Da-VinciYou probably know Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) for his paintings, specifically for his most famous paintings: the Mona Lisa and The Last UnknownSupper.  What may not be as common for people to know about him is the way he wrote.  He wrote a lot in his notebooks, but his writing was so different that not many people could read and understand it, other than scholars that knew him.  His handwriting was very strange, so strange  that people thought he was writing in code.  Was this just a case of surface dysgraphia that Da Vinci had?

What is surface dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is when an individual has difficulty with spelling and writing.  Individuals with surface dysgraphia are better at spelling to dictation with regularly spelled words as well as non words and are impaired when spelling irregular words.  Dysgraphia occurs because of damage to the lexical semantic route and reliance on phoneme-grapheme conversion.

Is it true that Leonardo Da Vinci had surface dysgraphia?

Many people thought Da Vinci was writing in code to make sure no one stole any of his ideas.  People also wondered if he was just writing from right to left because he did not want to smudge the ink due to the fact that he wrote with his left hand.  As a matter of fact though, he did not write in code he just had trouble writing and spelling.  He was not good with spelling and made many spelling errors in his noteb6a00e54f9f8f8c883400e5520121768833-800wiooks.  Leonardo Da Vinci wrote in his notebooks in mirror reversed script.  Mirror writing is when someone writes back to front or begins on the right side of the page and moves leftward.  The letters are also in mirror image distortion of their conventional form, which many people interpret as code.  It was probably also very likely that Da Vinci also had surface dyslexia, brain-deregulation-with-dyslexia1because many people who have trouble with spelling and writing also have trouble with reading. Surface dyslexia is having an impairment in reading irregularly spelled words, but having the ability to read regularly spelled words and nonwords.  It is very likely that Leonardo Da Vinci had surface dysgraphia due to the way he wrote and most likely had surface dyslexia because it is very common to have both dyslexia and dysgraphia.  

 

 

References:

Ward, Jamie. “Amnesia.” The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience. Hove, East Sussex: Psychology, 2010. 204-11. Print.

http://ed.ted.com/featured/zgHDpuBu#review

 

 

In Love with a Stranger

What would happen if, one day, the girl you loved suddenly forgot who you were? This is exactly what happens in the 2012 blockbuster “The Vow”, based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. The two main characters, Leo and Paige, get into a car accident in the beginning of the movie, from which Paige acquires amnesia and forgets everything that has happened in the recent years, including her entire marriage with Leo. The last memory she has is from her college years, when she was engaged to another man and living a completely different life. Leo and Paige’s relationship is thrown into turmoil as she struggles to go on living a life she does not remember. This turns into an epic story of love in the face of hardship, as Leo continues to love Paige as he watches her slip away from him. Paige never regains her memory, even after everything they go through, but eventually everything works out for the best.

What is wrong with this portrayal of amnesia?

As you can see in this brain, many different parts of the temporal lobe are involved in memory.

Although this makes for a great movie, the symptoms of Paige’s amnesia are very unrealistic when examined closely. Paige has retrograde amnesia, meaning that she does not have memories from before the accident. However, she can remember most her life up until a few years before the crash. It would be very unlikely that she would forget only a certain chunk of time (and all semantic and procedural memories within it) without forgetting anything else. Paige can remember procedural memories (memory for skills) from when she was young but cannot remember recent ones, shown when she cannot find her way home after leaving to get food. She also cannot remember basic art skills even though in the years before the accident she became a great artist. Memory is a complex function that deals with many different parts of the brain, but semantic long-term memories (conceptually-based knowledge) are normally stored in one place, as are procedural long-term memories.  It is also highly debatable whether one can have retrograde amnesia with no evidence of anterograde amnesia, which is a loss of memories after an accident or episode. Paige shows this as she can form new memories after the accident and functions normally throughout the rest of the movie.  In reality, this loss of retrograde without loss of anterograde has only been observed in amnesia arising from psychiatric illness and mental breakdown. There is little to no evidence that this sort of amnesia can be caused by head trauma. It is hypothesized that the hippocampus are involved in permanent storage of certain kinds of memory and they are very important in processing for declarative memory (memories that can be consciously accessed). This hypothesize would assume that all memories of a certain type would be stored in one place, and would be lost together if this storage center was damaged.

The hippocampus is heavily involved in processing and storing memories.

Is there any truth in the story?

She does show some symptoms that amnesiacs normally show, such as her intact short-term memory. Her procedural memory is also intact, aside from the most recent memories, which is present in most amnesiacs.

In conclusion, although it is great movie, one must keep in mind that it is just a movie. There are many different kinds of amnesia that share some universal symptoms and the life of an amnesiac is much different than that portrayed in the  movie.

References:

Sparks, Nicholas. The Vow. Print.
Ward, Jamie. “Amnesia.” The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience. Hove, East Sussex: Psychology, 2010. 204-11. Print.

Unable to Concentrate? Let’s Meditate!

Unable to Concentrate? Let’s Meditate!
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You’re in a history class and your professor is lecturing about the World War. You have your textbook right infront of you and you’re staring at it without reading anything. You’re zoning out and you can’t focus on what the professor is talking about. You’re physically present in the class but your mind is somewhere else.

Does any of this sound familiar? For most of the students, this is an everyday scenario. Whether its listening to a lecture in class or trying to study at home, it is hard for many of us to stay focused in our work. However, we can remain glued to our favorite novel/comic, and our favorite TV shows for hours. Ever wondered why is it so hard to concentrate in things we do not find interesting?

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Studies show that the average attention span in 2000 was 13 seconds. In 2013, the average attention span dropped down to 8 seconds.

There are numerous reasons for this. First, our brain might not be used to the amount of information we need to process. Also, there are too many distractors around us. All of the new technologies are very good at distracting us; hence, we are losing our ability to concentrate on a specific task for too long.

Meditation can help!

meditation_sun

Meditation is a mental training of attention.

Several studies have shown that regular practice of meditation can help increase attention. Meditation is a mental workout, which involves attention and the ability to concentrate on a particular object for a longer period of time. Past research have shown that during meditation, brain scans show increased activity in regions directly correlated with decreased anxiety and depression, along with increased pain tolerance. Meditation has also been found to improve memory, self awareness, and goal setting. Studies have also shown that meditation physically changes our brain shape and size. The gray matters are found to be more dense in areas associated with learning, memory processing, and emotion regulation.

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Meditation is associated with a decrease in grey matter in the amygdala (red), a region associated with stress.

MRI scans have also shown that after an eight-week course of meditation, the amygdala, also known as the “fight or flight” center appears to shrink. The amygdala is activated when the body experiences fear or emotion. While the amygdala shrinks, the pre-frontal cortex, associated with awareness and concentration, becomes thicker. The connections between the areas associated with attention and concentration gets stronger. Hence, meditation helps improve performance in attention-demanding activities significantly. It can help keep your brain focused and help your absorb more information without getting distracted.

Learn to expand your concentration span: Meditate!

Since it is so beneficial for us to meditate, here’s a quick guide for the beginners. There are many techniques of meditation and can be varied, but the basic concepts are:

1. Relax the body and the mind. Pick a process that helps you relax. It has be any music or mantras.

2. Be mindful. Don’t pass judgement on your thought. Let them come through and let them pass. Make sure you bring your attention back to your primary aim.

3. Concentrate on something. Concentrate on your breathe, the feel of going in and out. When your attention wavers, gently bring it back.

4. Concentrate on nothing. It can be hard at first but this can be achieved with a lot of practice.

5. ZZzzzZzz ZzZzzz. Make sure you’re not sleeping!

 

Resources:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/attention-span-statistics/

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7tacticstoboostdigitalmarketingconversionrate-140629192919-phpapp01/95/7-tactics-to-boost-your-digital-marketing-conversion-rates-28-638.jpg?cb=1404075361

http://www.amenestudio.net/fortaleza/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/falta-de-atencion-illustration-by-fian-arroyo.jpghttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/200910/easily-distracted-why-its-hard-focus-and-what-do-about-it

http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/05/how-meditation-improves-attention.php

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-does-mindfulness-meditation-do-to-your-brain/

Meeting Brad Pitt: A look inside a celebrity’s face-blindness

The first time you meet Brad Pitt, you might say you were star-struck, and that he was friendly and down to earth, especially considering his immense fame and position of power.

Meeting Brad Pitt for the first time may be comfortable and enjoyable for both parties. (Link to photo)

You may even have an hour-long conversation with him about his role in the film Fury in which Pitt plays a U.S. Army sergeant and commander of a tank in Nazi Germany during the end of World War II. During this conversation you share with him that your late grandfather commanded a tank in World War II and that you found the movie to be helpful in understanding what he went through. When your conversation is over, you may return home and tell your friends and family all about your wonderful experience with Brad Pitt.

A month later you see Brad Pitt again, give him a smile and a wave, and he stares back at your blankly, his face conveying confusion and you realize he has no idea who you are or why you are waving at him.

Meeting Brad Pitt for the second time, he may not recognize you and stare at you blankly. (Link to photo)

Your excitement of seeing him for the second time quickly disintegrates as he retracts his gaze and becomes enveloped by a sea of paparazzi and fans.

What could explain Pitt’s striking forgetfulness? Prosopagnosia.

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a neurological disorder in which the ability to recognize previously familiar faces is impaired. Individuals with this disorder retain fully functioning memory, vision and learning abilities. Prosopagnosia is believed to selectively affect facial recognition rather than object recognition as a whole. In other words, individuals with prosopagnosia have demonstrated the ability to recognize non-facial objects they have previously been exposed to such as books or chairs. For this reason, these individuals often rely on non-facial information, for example voices, to recognize people they have previously met.

In a 2013 interview with Esquire, Pitt explained that the faces of people he meets begin to fade from his memory the moment the person walks away. Any attempt of his to hold onto the details of the face becomes futile as the facial features slip from his memory, disallowing him from recognizing that person the next time he encounters them. This facial recognition lapse has led people to feel that Pitt is disrespecting them, and have responded with, ‘you’re being egotistical,’ or ‘you’re being conceited.’

In the same interview, Pitt outlined his previous attempts to mediate the issues brought on by his face blindness. One year, rather than pretending to remember the person, he would ask where they met, or how they know each other, however, Pitt found that this approach was even more offensive to those he encountered. After trying this experiment and experiencing its negative consequences, Brad Pitt expressed that he no longer enjoys going out. He confesses that his face blindness even discourages him from leaving his home. However, Brad Pitt is a celebrity whose fame and distinction lends him to the role of a public person, often finding himself in large crowds and meeting new people who he may or may not meet again.

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Brad Pitt is constantly meeting new people,  but soon after these photos were taken, the mental images of their faces were likely erased from his mind.

Link to photo 1          Link to photo 2           Link to photo 3                 Link to photo 4

What’s the truth?

Prosopagnosia is believed to result from abnormalities or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, which is an area of the brain that has been shown to have a strong correlation with facial perception and memory.

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The top arrow points to the right fusiform face area, the area thought to be highly connected with face recognition and consequently impaired in individuals with prosopagnosia. (Link to photo)

Several studies have shown that this area, also known the fusiform face area or FFA, is highly active when individuals are viewing faces that are familiar to them. While in some cases, prosopagnosia has been present from birth through adulthood, in other cases it appears to develop later in the individual’s life. Some cases of prosopagnosia appear to run in families and therefore may be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. So, what about the case of Brad Pitt? Has he been suffering from prosopagnosia since birth? Did he develop the disorder in adulthood? In fact, we may never know the answer to the questions, or even be able to conclude whether he has prosopagnosia at all! It is possible that Brad Pitt uses this as an excuse to justify his lapses in kindness and memory. Pitt claims to have the disorder but has never been diagnosed with it. After being questioned about this issue of his, Pitt usually concludes by saying, ‘I am going to get it tested’. So, until he officially gets tested for prosopagnosia and the results of his testing are publicized, we may not know whether Brad Pitt is a kind man suffering from a facial recognition disorder or a rude man claiming to have one.

Citations:

Ward, Jamie. The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience. 3rd ed. Hove, East Sussex: Psychology, 2010. Print.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/prosopagnosia/Prosopagnosia.htm

http://www.medicaldaily.com/brad-pitt-says-he-has-face-blindness-prosopagnosia-more-common-thought-246184

http://www.medpagetoday.com/celebritydiagnosis/39420

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/interviews/a22679/brad-pitt-cover-interview-0613/

 

Are you left-brained or right-brained?

If you don’t already know, you can follow this link (http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html) along with a plethora of others.

    Many sources found on the internet today JESS3_Mindjet_BetweenMinds_RBvLB-finalsuggest that there are individual differences pertaining to laterality; that is, that some people are left-brained, thus predominantly use their left hemisphere, while other people are right-brained, thus predominantly use their right hemisphere. In fact, one of our homework assignments in our first week of class was to complete an online test to determine whether each of us was left-brained or right-brained. This test, as well as similar tests that can be found online, asks a series of questions such as, “is it easier for you to remembers people’s names or faces?” and “is it easier for you to read for main ideas or to read for specific details?” In essence, these sorts of questions seek to determine whether the test-taker has more qualities typical of left hemispheric dominance (strong logic, language and analytical skills) or of right hemispheric dominance (strong expressive and creative tasks). Upon completion of the test, you are told whether you answered with more left-brain typical responses or with more right-brain typical responses. Whichever brain hemisphere was implicated by your responses is said to be your dominant brain hemisphere. Do you buy it?

    tpt-right-or-left-brainConsidering the current abundance of these sorts of online quizzes and articles discussing laterality, it seems that popular culture buys into this concept. However, this opinion is not necessarily accepted by everyone. In 2013, Christopher Wanjek wrote an article in livescience entitled “Left Brain vs. Right: It’s a Myth, Research Finds” that challenges this popular sentiment. Wanjek cites a University of Utah study which, after analyzing more than 1,000 brains, found no evidence that one hemisphere is dominant over the other in a given individual. Throughout the course of the experiment, participants of the study used their entire brains equally across hemispheres. So, what do you think? It is hard to deny the concept that certain people are more detail oriented and analytical while others are more artistic and focused on the bigger picture. However, to what extent can we designate these behaviors to one brain hemisphere or the other and better yet, to what extent can we assume people who possess these behaviors predominantly use their left or right brain respectively? The aforementioned article suggests that current science is unable to prove that people preferentially use their right or left hemispheres, but as popular culture proposes, maybe there is some legitimacy to these laterality tests. We will leave it up to you to decide.

1. http://www.web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm

2. http://www.web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm

3. http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/a/left-brain-right-brain.htm

4. http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html