umuc bio160 week 5 discussion

11 Jun umuc bio160 week 5 discussion

Question
WEEK 5 DISCUSSION

TOPIC 1 Pain

SOME GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PAIN:

Most of the nerve endings are found in the skin, just below the epithelial layer. There are many types of nerve endings present in the epidermis (outer skin) and dermis (fatty connective tissue between skin and muscle). There are relatively few receptors elsewhere in the body, except at critical points such as joints or blood vessels chemo- and baro- (pressure) sensitive zones.

EPIDERMIS: The free nerve endings that can penetrate into the epidermis are extremely sensitive to hot, cold, light, touch, pain….such as in a paper cut. They are our primary pain response mechanisms. They send strong frequent signals to warn us about our environment.

DERMIS: The deeper nerves such as Meissner’s corpuscles and the deeper Pacinian corpuscles are sensitive to varying degrees of pressure only …such as the (wrestling) pressure, torc (twisting) and tearing pain in the hypodermis. These receptors are often layered and each layer has an associated set of dendrites that respond selectively. The stronger the pressure, the more receptors that respond so we can determine the strength of a grip. These receptors form a secondary pain response system and usually continue to send intermittent signals only when the damaged tissue is moved.

ORGANS: For the most part, the nerves found inside body respond as part of a homeostatic regulation system. The responses are quite specific and often do not involve pain but rather involve signaling systems that trigger hypothalamus response systems to produce hormones. For example, there are proprioceptors in major muscles that signal which muscles are moving and their muscle position to the cerebellum so a person knows if they are sitting, standing, walking or running in a coordinated or uncoordinated fashion. There are chemoreceptor nerve endings in the the blood vessels and digestive system that respond to acids or bases so that the pH of the systems can be regulated. There are very few thermoreceptors inside the body. The primary internal response to body/blood temperature is the hypothalamus of the brain which again releases hormones to stimulate a variety of systems to help the temperature to return to normal. Heat or cold bothers us if our skin receptors are irritated and fevers bother us only if the hypothalamus is irritated. Cold causes the internal systems to gradually shut down once a person becomes hypothermic.

Organs do not have many pain receptors since we do not need to be constantly aware of breathing, cardiorhythm or digestion. Organ pain receptors are difficult to activate unless the tissues are seriously injured… but once activated they tend to signal for an extended period of time. For example, if heart muscles are damaged, a person may experience angina for minutes to hours, likewise once triggered, migraine head aches last for hours, and deep burned or damaged nerves send extremely irritating signals until the nerves have fully regenerated.

RECOVERY FROM PAIN

The pain associated with injuries is a warning to be careful.

Skin or mucus membrane regeneration takes just a few days, so pain will persist just until repair is complete.

Muscle regeneration takes an average of 2 weeks… so… if just muscle is damaged, the pain should disappear in about 2 weeks.

Bone regeneration takes an average of 6 months, so bones will ache until repair is complete.

Tendons (that attach muscle to bone) or ligaments (that attach bone to bone) that are damaged take about 12 months to repair!

PAIN KILLERS

Taking pain killers to deaden the pain can result in continuing damage and longer recovery time if used during ACTIVE waking hours! If used at night, while sleeping, those same pain killers can allow the brain to relax for a good night’s sleep and since there is less risk of damage, recovery is not necessarily prolonged.

Overuse of pain killers can be problematic since the body will adapt to the medication and higher concentrations have to be used to have the same effect. Long term use of just about any medication can lead to liver damage and potential addiction. Addiction occurs when the body stops producing its own natural pain killers and the individual becomes dependent on the artificial medication.

The majority of pain receptors are found in our surface skin for acute rapid assessment of minute and major environmental changes. We need to feel pain to know when and where and how badly we are hurt. Without pain, tissue damage can become extensive and even life-threatening. If tissues are continuously re-injured scar tissues may develop which render the tissues non-functional. Rapid repair however usually results in a return to normal function. Under certain circumstances we do NOT want to nor do we need to feel pain.

Think about this and describe a circumstance when you have felt pain and how this pain was beneficial to you. Then describe a circumstance when you did not need to feel pain and how it was detrimental to you. Please use sentences. Remember not to be too personal in this open forum. Thanks! 🙂

GOOD PAIN:

BENEFIT:

BAD PAIN:

DEFICIT:

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TOPIC 2 Hearing Tests

SENSE OF HEARING: The ears receive sound waves which are transmitted to the middle and inner ear and transformed into electrical signals which travel to the auditory cortex of the brain. The sense of hearing is located in the temporal lobes of the brain (next to the ears). Wernick’s area allows us to understand and remember what we hear. Broca’s area allows us to talk or sing. When learning a new language, we often understand words and meanings long before we can imitate them!

NORMAL RANGE: The maximum auditory range of adults is from 12 Hz to 20,000 Hertz (20kHz). We will test the normal range for speech from 500 Hz to 8,000 Hz (8 kHz).

HEARING LOSS: Some hearing loss may be due to normal aging. Individuals who live in cities, work in factories or with noisy equipment, wear headphones or ear bugs when listening to loud music may lose hearing sooner than people who live in the quiet country side, work in quiet offices, and listen to soft music.

UPPER RANGE HEARING: Most people lose the upper end of the range first. High pitched sounds can be very irritating. Above 14000 Hz (14 kHz) many people find the pitch very irritating. The younger a person is, the more sound they can hear at the high pitch end of the range. In some tourist shopping areas, around the world, speakers with high pitched sounds are installed to irritate loitering teenagers and drive them away from the tourist areas! Dogs and deer can hear in the ultrasonic end of the range (up to 60kHz). In Pennsylvania you can buy small whistling devices that you can attach to the side of your car which produces a high pitched sound when you drive to scare the deer away from the road!

LOWER RANGE HEARING: Hearing loss in the lower end of the range is actually more important since that is the range of quite speech. It is common to lose hearing from 12 to 200 Hz as we age but hearing loss becomes problematic above 500 Hz. You can often tell if a person has some hearing loss in one ear because they will turn their good ear to listen to you. If they have conversational tone hearing loss in both ears, they tend to talk much louder than normal, without realizing it!

HEARING TEST: The hearing test will begin with establishing a baseline tone so you will need to know where your sound control is on your computer and turn the VOLUME LEVELS WAY DOWN….. to reduce the irritating test tones to the minimum. Once the volume is minimized you can begin the 6 part test (500 Hz, 1 KHz, 2 KHz, 3 KHz, 4 KHz, 8 KHz) Record which decibel level(s) you could and could not hear. Listen with your right ear (plug the left) , then listen with your left ear (plug the right) and then listen with both ears unplugged. Be sure to close the site when you are done or the test tone may continue!

Test your hearing for free by visiting one of these web sites:

http://www.egopont.com/hearing_tests.php?soundID=2000

Hearing Test – Can You Hear This?

What frequencies could you NOT hear (with left, right, both ears)?

What frequencies could you hear both (with left, right, both ears)?

EVALUATION: Compare the hearing in your right and left ears.

If you are interested, you can try out the other environmental hearing tests at the same site. If you wish to test tones below 500 Hz, use this site (click on the blue words)…Lowest Tone Hearing Test.

TOPIC 3 Vision Tests

Having perfect vision is a blessing. But even with perfect vision, you can run into short-term vision problems when the eyes are strained. In the first test you will receive a score of 0.1 to 1, which corresponds to an acuity rating such as 20/200. A score of 1 on a “20/200 test”, which what this first test is, is EXCELLENT vision. A score of 0.1 on the same test is very poor vision which means that a person is nearly LEGALLY BLIND and must be 20 feet from an object to see it as well as a normal sighted person who is 200 fee away. A score between 0.1 and 1 implies some vision impairment.

Record your rating. Please stand away from your computer for this test. If you are right up to the screen you will not have any good results. The normal distance is 20 feet! But for this work you can choose your distance.

Select the second web link. Determine your color-blindness score by taking the quick 24 part test and record any abnormal results only.

Go to the first site for an acuity test and then one of the other two sites for a color blindness test.

Do this first: http://www.finestglasses.com/TryOn/VisionTest.aspx

Then select: http://www.colour-blindness.com/colour-blindness-tests/ishihara-colour-test-plates/

or

http://colorvisiontesting.com/ishihara.htm

What were your visual acuity numbers for the Vision test?

What were the results for the Color Blindness test?

TOPIC 4 Taste Tests

Taste is a function of both the chemical sensors in the taste buds of the tongue and the olfactory lobes in the nasal cavity. When you have a cold and your nasal passages are clogged with mucus, your food will taste bland. If you are a smoker, the fine neural cilia can be destroyed, limiting the number and type of signals sent to the smell and taste center of the brain. Seeing food can also trigger sense memories.

In this exercise, obtain a piece of plain white bread and cut it up into 8 bite size pieces. Spread a jam of your choice on to 4 of the pieces and spread the same amount of a different jam onto the other four pieces. If you do not have jam, you can select any two other similar condiments to compare. Make a note of what you used. You will need a helper for the eyes closed tests.

TEST 1. With your eyes closed and your nostrils pinched, ask the helper to give you one sample. They should not tell you which it is! Chew it. Tell them what you think it is. Have them record your answer as correct or not correct. KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED. Rinse your mouth with plain water.

TEST 2: With your eyes closed and your nostrils open, ask the helper to give you the other sample. They should not tell you which it is! Chew it. Tell them what you think it is. Have them record your answer as correct or not correct. Rinse your mouth with plain water.

TEST 3: With your eyes open and your nostrils pinched, ask the helper to give you one sample. They should not tell you which it is! Chew it. Tell them what you think it is. Have them record your answer as correct or not correct. Rinse your mouth with plain water.

TEST 4: With your eyes open and your nostrils open, ask the helper to give you the other sample. They should not tell you which it is! Chew it. Tell them what you think it is. Have them record your answer as correct or not correct. Rinse your mouth with plain water.

Draw some conclusions concerning your ability to taste with your eyes, nose and mouth.

Copy and paste the table below into your response.

Taste testing

Test Eyes Nose Spread 1= Spread 2=

1 closed closed

2 closed open

3 open closed

4 open open

TOPIC 5 Right or left brained?

The Right Brain

According to the left-brain, right-brain dominance theory, the right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities popularly associated with the right side of the brain include:

Recognizing faces

Expressing emotions

Music

Reading emotions

Color

Images

Intuition

Creativity

The Left Brain

The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language, and analytical thinking. The left-brain is described as being better at:

Language

Logic

Critical thinking

Numbers

Reasoning

Some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain …..and others occur in the front or back of the brain…AND… still others occur in both the left, right, front and back of the brain!! We know this from thermal imaging tests using PET (positron emission tomography) scans that show what areas of the brain are activated when certain activities are done.

People who identify as left-brain thinkers might feel that they have strong math and logic skills. Those who profess to be right-brain thinkers, on the other hand, feel that their talents are more on the creative side of things. Given the popularity of the idea of “right brained” and “left brained” thinkers, it might surprise you learn that this idea is just one of many myths about the brain. But there is certainly nothing wrong with testing things for yourself!

Go online to determine if you are right or left brained or a perfectly balanced individual! Take any three tests and then compare your results to state the three test results. You can use the links below or choose any other testing format you wish. Please give the web address for the new test site.

Do you think the tests were valid? Why or why not?

Left or right brained test 1

Left or right brained Test 2

Left or right brained Test 3

CONCLUSIONS:

Do you think the tests were valid? Why or why not?: