Warning: The following contains a lot of large words, odd concepts, and nerdy enthusiasm.
aka I'm going to write about the crazy things I learn here because I'm pretty sure that the people who actually read this are the only ones that care enough to pay attention to my ridiculous ramblings :)
Alright, back to the title of this post...
"Purple is my favorite flavor."
This makes no sense, right?
I mean, you can attempt to rationalize it: purple = grape, purple frosting is better than green, etc.
But the statement in itself is 'wrong'.
In behavioral neuroscience we've been getting into some weird, last-minute, loose-end kind of topics; today we discussed schizophrenia. People tend to associate it with 'voices' no one else can hear, hallucinations, bizarre behavior. In essence, these are correct. Delusions ("I am Superman"), hallucinations (the 'voices' heard primarily, and reoccurring thoughts that people are out to get you), and odd behavior (catatonia, or being completely withdrawn from human interaction; poor hygiene; duct taping chunks of styrofoam to all one's clothing and venturing out to kidnap the neighbor's cats....) are all symptoms of schizophrenia, along with inappropriate affect (responding emotionally in socially unacceptable ways, i.e. laughing at a funeral) and incoherent thought (i.e. purple is my favorite flavor and other illogical conclusions). But did you know that no two cases of schizophrenia are all that similar? It's really thought to be a constellation of different disorders that can only be somewhat grouped under a single term- the causes of each case are different, there are a multitude of biological causes and environmental triggers, etc. Dopamine (a neurotransmitter (chemical) in your brain that is related to reward and pleasure) is one of the common factors between the cases, but even it doesn't have a direct part in every case. So anyway (I promise I have a point here), one of the biggest triggers is chronic stress (because stress activates the brain, causing chances in certain systems which results in the elevation of glucocorticoids (stress hormones), norepinephrine and epinephrine (stress-relaed neurotransmitters)) which explains why many experience an onset of the disorder in their 20s- all of a sudden the stress of life is on you and things like the aforementioned symptoms can start appearing!
Basically, GROWING UP CAUSES BAD THINGS. So I'm planning on just staying young :)
Also, memory is fascinating. Humans have two memory systems, conscious and unconscious, and even if you don't consciously remember something the results of learning it can still be tracked and traced back to your unconscious memory!
How cool is that?
(I'm such a nerd, I know. I blame my parents!)
And if all of that totally went over your head, don't worry about it. I just had to tell SOMEONE.
In easier to comprehend news, I got all my paperwork done for my official joining of the college of education at WWU and registered for education classes next quarter. I'm officially on my way to the rest of my life.
And I'm nearing the end of my second quarter here, which is ridiculous. I feel like it just started. I'm going to miss my neuroscience class a LOT. I love my professor and learning things like all the stuff above y'all probably just skipped over ;)
Anyway, I have studying to do, presentations to prepare, and essays to edit!
Dead week = finals week for me.
The end.
:)
