PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF BIOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE TO EVERYDAY LIFE 1. NEURONAL CIRCUITRY AND CONSERVATISM

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1 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF BIOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE TO EVERYDAY LIFE 1. NEURONAL CIRCUITRY AND CONSERVATISM Although the exact number of nerve cells or neurons in the brain cannot be known, it is estimated that the human brain contains approximately 100 billion cells. Since the formation of the brain in the embryonic stage, the nerve cells start making connections to each other; some based on our genes, some randomly, and still others due to experience. In the group of nerve cells that remain, these neuronal connections, so-called neuronal circuits, are the determinants of our experiences and personalities. The neuronal connections that are not used are generally destroyed, and the ones used remain as a part of our functioning brain. A newborn with a very limited number of formed circuits, which are already being used, is ready to form many more connections, and use them. An example is when a baby attempts to put food in his or her mouth for the first time: it ends up in the ear, hair, and eventually in the mouth; however, after repeating the process many, many times, it becomes an unconscious effort and the child can do it without thinking about it. This is same as when an infant or a child learns a concept or to how perform a task; he or she can very easily master it. The mastery for the very same task for an adult is more difficult. The reason for the simplicity of mastery for a child is twofold: First, he or she can form connections much more easily than an adult. On average, the rate of neural connection formation, or even cell division and growth, in a child is twice as fast as an adult, and the process slows down more and more as the person ages. It should be noted that certain cells such as neurons and muscle cells do not divide after a certain age. However, the speed of cell divisions for the ones that do divide in a child are double that of an adult.

2 The second reason why the child is much more prone to learning is that he or she does not have many formed neuronal fibers to hinder his or her judgment against learning the specific task. However, children are much more suggestible than adults. For the same reason, they can easily be traumatized by repetition of some formidable condition, while for adults, it is a much more difficult task to traumatize them. On the other hand, when a person ages, he or she has already formed multitudes of neuronal fibers and used them over and over. Therefore, he or she has a rather difficult time accepting a new way of approaching similar things. Moreover, the rate of neural connection formation has slowed down; even if he or she tries to learn this new way, the task is more difficult. The result is that the person avoids learning many new things, and the adults generally try to repeat what they have already learned. This makes the person more and more conservative as he or she ages; the meaning of conservatism here is understood as to repeat old ways and avoid new ones. What grown-ups, and especially aged people, should do is to fight this process of conservatism within themselves. If you know that this is happening to you, you can slow down the process by: a) Telling yourself over and over that you will not become a conservative person. b) Keeping yourself open to new ideas and ways. As an example, if your teenage child talks to you about a new kind of music, rather than rejecting it outright, listen to it and try to learn something form it. By doing this, first you have respected your child s opinion; second you are improving your own brain activity by exercising your brain; and third, even though the music is not to your acceptance or offends your intellect, try to look at it in a new way. By doing so, you will be forming new neuronal connections in your brain. After all this, if you still consider this music corrupt or immoral and reject it, you have a better chance to discuss it with your child than if you have rejected it from the beginning. It has been shown that the best way to slow down the process of aging is to be active both physically and mentally, especially by learning new

3 things. This is because the more you are active and learning new things, there will be new neuronal connection formation, and retard their slowing down, as well as movement of muscles, bones, etc., in your body. 2. LEFT AND RIGHT BRAIN EDUCATION The learning process should not be only left-brain activity. Left-brain thinking involves analytical, logical, objective, and scientific learning. The more you use your left-brain, the more knowledge you gain and the better you can analyze things. The right brain, however, is holistic, intuitive, subjective, and artistic. The more you can use your right brain, the better you can get enlightened of circumstance in an unconscious way. To activate your left-brain, one has to learn new things and activities, as well as repeating old knowledge, in order not to forget them. These involve both physical and mental activities. To activate your right brain, one should meditate, chant, and do yoga and other spiritual activities. It has been shown that people who do the above activities remain younger for their age than those who do no spiritual activities. Even spiritual activities should be started from childhood. Children should be encouraged to do yoga, and other spiritual techniques. Spirituality is different from religion, especially organized religion. Students should be able to have a period of silence and prayer every morning in their class. First the students should not be forced to attend this practice if they do not want to, and second, they could do any prayer they want, even quietly reading a mystical poem. The separation of church and state does not mean that the students should be stopped from doing any spiritual practice, and thereby kept from activating their right brain. Before the era of classical science and industrial revolution, people were thinking spiritually as well as intellectually. Since then, science has damped down spirituality resulting in separation of church and state, thereby bringing about many democratic governments. However, modern science showed that the universe and man couldn t be considered simply as a machine. They are much more complex and there is a need for spirituality. Therefore, rather than preventing everyone from using their right brain, one can keep the separation of church

4 and state, and still do spiritual activities. In this sense, church should mean organized religion, not spirituality. Therefore, students should be encouraged to do a non-religious prayer and all kinds of right-brain activities in schools, as well as at home. This can bring us to a utopia, more than just being half-minded people, i.e., using mostly our left-brains.

5 3. GENETICS, HEREDITY, AND MENTAL ILLNES Nucleic acids contain sugars and phosphates as their backbone, and four nitrosgenous bases, adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T), and cytosine (C). This structure was thought to be too simple to carry so many genes of living systems. Watson and Crick, two British scientists, deciphered the structure of double helix DNA that was shown to be the major portion of chromosomes. Chromosomes carry our genes, which are the determinant of what species we are, and what individual form, shape and character we have. Each chromosome contains hundreds of genes, which are next to each other, and except for control systems between each few genes, there is no separation between the genes. The order of A, G, T, and C make variety of genes possible. In other words, such a simple system can bring about such a variety of complex living structures and characters. Each chromosome (DNA) can copy itself to make available chromosomes for new cells being formed as the result of cell division. This process is called replication, which has to be perfectly accurate. A single base change, addition, or omission will have deleterious effect for the next cell being formed. For this, the system has a mechanisms

6 after making each part of the chromosome, to read it to make sure every base is placed correctly; otherwise, the wrong base is removed, and replaced with a correct one. The chromosomes eventually have to make a protein for each gene, which would result in our expressed characteristics. To do so, the chromosome makes one RNA for each gene (there will be hundreds of RNA formed for each chromosome), and each RNA will end up making a specific protein. These proteins are the determinant of our characteristics. The formation of RNA from DNA is called transcription, and the formation protein from RNA, translation, as shown below: Replication DNA RNA Protein Transcription Translation It has been shown that redheaded women are generally more temperamental than brunettes or blondes. Also, since most redheaded people have freckles, we can assume that the three genes initially came in a package as below: Red hair Temper Freckles Control system

7 a chromosome (DNA) RNA RNA RNA for for for red hair temper freckles Protein Protein Protein for for for red hair temper freckles Humans have 23 pair of chromosomes, from which 22 pairs are autosomal (non-sex), and one pair, sex chromosomes. The sex chromosomes are XX in female (both are the same shape, X), and XY for male (two different ones, X and Y). The reason that the chromosomes are counted in pairs, rather than as 46 chromosomes, is that for each pair, one is taken from father (paternal), and one from mother (maternal). Consequently, 23 chromosomes for each individual are from his/her father, and 23 from his/her mother. This way, considering each individual having 46 chromosomes, their offsprings take randomly 23 from each parent. Consequently no two children, except identical twins, will have the same 46 chromosomes. Moreover, during gamete, or sex cell formation, each pair of 23 pairs of chromosomes crosses over and mixes up. As the result, some of each offspring genes are from each grandfather, the rest from each grandmother. This way, no two offspring will ever end up having, exactly the same chromosomes (except identical twins).

8 The gametes are sperm from father and egg from mother. They join after copulation to form a zygote. This process is called fertilization. Each gamete has 23 chromosomes (not 23 pairs). As the result, the zygote will end up with 23 pairs. The zygote starts dividing into 2,4,8,16. cells and eventually embryo is formed which turns into the fetus. At the end, a child is born as shown below: cell sperm +egg zygote embryo fetus offspring fertilization division birth When copulation occurs, sperms rush to the available egg. However, certain sperms act as soldiers and have the function of destroying the sperms of another male, so that they cannot fertilize the egg (for survival reasons). The sex chromosomes XX from mother produce only X chromosome in the egg. The paternal XY can produce either X or Y chromosome in the sperms. And X chromosome in sperm results in the XX zygote, which is female zygote. Y ones produces XY zygotes, which are male zygote. Therefore, it is thought that the father is the determinant of the sex of a child. However, it has been shown that several sperms may reach the egg at the same time. As soon as one sperm injects its 23 chromosomes into the egg, the egg will reject all other sperms. However, if the egg has chosen one sperm from a number of sperms that has reached there at the same time, then the egg must choose between all the sperms. I propose that this may make the egg, thereby the mother determinant of the sex of the offspring. If the

9 egg chooses sperm with an X, the child will be a girl. If it chooses Y sperm, the offspring will be a boy. Moreover, the egg may choose one specific X-sperm or Y-sperm, or none at all, in which case, there will be no pregnancy. This process makes mother more effective in offspring sex determination. Even the process may result in the mystical idea that the whole process may be predetermined, and only the child, who is supposed to be formed, will evolve, and no other one. Two or more sperms will fertilize sometimes two or more separate eggs. As the result, two or more fraternal twins (triplets, etc.) are formed, each having different sets of chromosomes. However, if the zygote divides and separates, two identical twins are formed that have identical chromosomes. As the zygote divides, the cells eventually begin to differentiate, i.e., result in cells, which are not identical but have different properties, despite having the same chromosomes. The three layers, which are formed, are endoderm (which results in formation of gut and internal organs), ectoderm (which results in formation of nervous system) and mesoderm (which results in formation of muscle mass). It is proposed that one of these germ layers may start growing faster than others, resulting in body types with certain characteristics. One is endoderm growth that results

10 in endomorph type or heavy body built. Another is ectoderm growth that results in formation of ectomorph type, thin but nervous and sensitive. Finally, mesoderm growth resulting in mesomorph type or muscular built. The chromosome pairs are said to be homologous, meaning similar but not identical. At every location, they have the genes for the same kind of character but the actual genes may be different. The different genes with the same characteristics are called alleles. For example, there may be several alleles for hair color, blond allele, black allele, red allele, etc. Each pair of chromosomes may have the same alleles for a characteristic, socalled homozygote, or different, so-called heterozygote, for that characteristic. When they are homozygote, that characteristic will surely be expressed. When heterozygote, in many cases, one is dominant which will be expressed, and one is recessive which will not. On the other hand, the two different characteristics may blend and result in a half character from each, such as black hair and blond hair resulting in brown-haired offspring. The way to determine the chance of an offspring having a characteristic from parents is by formation of a Punnett square: If one black hair parent being homozygote for black

11 hair (BB) marries a blond hair person (bb) (B stands for black hair which is dominant to b, blond hair), then B B b Bb Bb b Bb Bb all children will have black hair. Now if two heterozygote black hair people marry, then B b B BB Bb B Bb bb the only blond 3 children out of four will have black hair (BB,Bb,Bb) and one blond (bb). In most cases, there is more than one gene at different loci, determining the characteristic. Such as the color of hair may be determined by one gene on one chromosome, another on another one, etc. Then, the result will be much more complex in determining that characteristic. It is recently proposed that approximately a dozen different genes (from 10 to 20) control most of our higher mental activities. These characteristics include manicdepressiveness, paranoia, aggression, or even intelligence. For example, if a person has no manic-depressive gene, he or she would have such a uniform attitude, which may be boring to oneself. If there were about 3 manic-depressive genes, he or she would be

12 normal. The person will change from time to time, but such a behavior may be needed for an acceptable life. If there are 6 manic-depressive genes, the degree of change is so much that it may be difficult to control oneself from time to time, but the degree of change is still tolerable for oneself and others. If there are 9 manic-depressive genes, for sure the person should seek help or even use a medication. When all 12 genes are manicdepressive, the person may not be able to cope in this world and may need to be institutionalized. Likewise, if there is no paranoia gene, the person will not be able to survive because there are times when being paranoid is a necessity. If there are 3 paranoia genes, the person is paranoid to a normal extent. If there are 6 paranoia genes, the degree of paranoia to so much at times, that the person may have difficulty controlling it at times and may need to seek help. If there are 9 genes, for sure, he or she should be under professional help or even use medications. If all 12 genes are paranoia, the person should be institutionalized because the degree of paranoia is so much that he or she may be dangerous to oneself or others. As we realize, to be normal, one may need some crazy genes within him or her. In other words, it is not the characteristics which make us crazy or not, it is the degree to which one has a characteristic or lack of. 4. NATURE vs. NURTURE

13 Everybody agrees that our physical characteristics are mostly the result of our genes. However, are our emotional and mental characteristics the result of nature (our genes) or nurture (our environment)? This question has intrigued mankind since the beginning of humanity. The answer today is both. Studies of identical twins who have exactly the same genes showed that they were 50%, more or less, closer to each other's state of mind, than two persons with different genes. Therefore, 50% of what we are made, mentally and emotionally, is from our environment. However, the answer is not as simple as what was stated. There is no doubt that our genetic make up affects our behavior and mental and emotional state: a) As stated, the new theory of mental disorders shows that we have approximately a dozen genes for every higher mental characteristic. The more genes for a characteristic we have, the more prone we are to act and perceive the world a certain way. b) The brain circuitry is made based on three mechanisms: random circuit formation, genetic, and circuits based on our experiences. If this circuitry of brain and nervous system, in general, makes us what we feel and how we perceive the world, genetics has a great amount of influence on it. The nurture or environmental aspect also is as important. First, let's consider the physical aspects of our environment.

14 a) Diseases, especially childhood illnesses, play an important role in our make up. Basically, if there is a disturbance in our system, first the body tries to adapt to it. If the disturbance is too much or continues for too long a time, there will be an injury. Up to this point the injury may be reversible. However, if the disturbance goes beyond a certain amount, death of the tissue or organism will result. If it were the death of the organism, there would be no more reason to talk about it because the person, as far as we are concerned, ceases to exist. If a part of the body will be lost, such as a leg or eyesight, it will surely affect our perception of environment, and therefore will change our lives. b) Nutrition and poisons in environment play an important role in our physical, emotional, and mental make up. It has been shown that the shortage of certain nutrients such as iron, in early life, will lower the IQ of the afflicted individual. On the other hand, poisons such as lead will lower an IQ of a child up to mental retardation. This way we can show that the physical aspects of environment can affect us directly. The emotional and mental aspects of environment are every important, as well. a) If a child is exposed to many stimulating activities early in life, he or she will become much more intelligent than the one who is not. The reason is again formation of more neuronal circuitry in the brain. b) If a child goes through many emotional difficulties, such as divorce of parents or being ridiculed continuously, he or she will suffer emotionally and therefore may be afflicted with many mental or emotional disorders, which change his/her perceptions of surroundings.

15 To put all these aspects together, let us assume that a child is born from very high IQ parents. He or she is likely to have a high IQ. However, because of certain deficiencies in his/her nutrition, he or she may never reach his/her potential. On the other hand, a child who has 9 out of 12 aggressive genes will surely be a very violent person. However, there is a difference between his/her behavior, if the child has been raised in a loving family and environment, rather than having been raised in a hostile environment without receiving any love.