Today, we talked about the different parts of the brain and their functions. Each part of the brain has a specific function. As we talked about the different lobes, the functions of the frontal lobe caught my eye. The frontal lobe is responsible speaking, reasoning, and voluntary movement. Within the left frontal lobe is Broca's area. Broca's area is the language center of the body which controls speech production. As I was thinking about this in class, I came to remember hearing about a woman that went to bed one night and woke up with an accent of a different country. This is called Foreign Accent Syndrome. What happens is a person suffers from a stroke, trauma, brain damage, or a tumor. This new accent is developed over night. In the video, it shows a woman that received an oral operation and woke up after speaking in a new accent new accent. Originally, she had the typical American accent, living in Oregon, but after the surgery, it seems as though she speaks with a British/Scottish accent.
Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare phenomenon. There have been less than 100 cases since the 1940's. Although this may seem like it is just a rare occurrence, scientists have linked FAS to brain damage. Accent does not belong to a specific part of the brain. The frontal lobe, however, controls much of the final output of speech and tongue and mouth movement during speech. We can infer that the frontal lobe is largely responsible for accent in humans because of its correlation with speech output. There is no known cure for this syndrome. In some cases, it has been reported that FAS went away within several months, while in others it went on for years, or never came to an end. Speech therapy also has very minimal effect on getting the original accent back.
Foreign Accent Syndrome is a perfect example of displaying the effects of brain damage on mental and physical capabilities. Damage to a certain part of the brain can have severe or just silly effects. We can also see the direct effects a tumor or stroke in a certain part of the brain can play on future mental processing.
For my blog post this week, I decided to discuss the social-cultural aspect of psychology. This topic came to me after listening to Mr. Fischer lecture our physics class on the first day of the term. He began to speak about how he was from Upper Michigan. He brought up the difference in use of vocabulary saying "youse guys" or "eh" and even his difference in pronunciation of words. Even being so close to Wisconsin, Michigan has a very different social-cultural aspect to it. This got me thinking about the classic arguments of, "Is it soda or pop"or "jimmies or sprinkles". I found a picture chart that would make any Wisconsinite proud. If you're from Wisconsin you probably say your going to go get a drink from the bubbler.
As the chart shows, bubbler is a word used strictly in wisconsin. The west coast refers to the bubbler as a drinking fountain and the south, midwest, and east coast refer to it as a water fountain. This says a lot about the social-cultural aspect of Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S. If the rest of the United States uses either water fountain or drinking fountain, why does strictly Wisconsin refer to it as a bubbler. Not only to cultural-social differences occur in the United States, but the rat of the world as well. I have included a video that explains common hand gestures in the U.S. and compares their meaning with other countries throughout the world.
A simple thumbs up in the U.S. means good job, but in other countries means something very different. These hand gestures and their meanings give us a better idea of the social-cultural differences that are present throughout the world. If hand gestures and words can be interpreted so differently, it explains how different cultures really are in this world, even though we all have the commonness of being human.
The greatest expectation I have for this class is to learn about the behaviors of myself and others around me. I am interested in learning the parts of the brain that control different behaviors and emotions. Sometimes I look at some people and wonder why they react to a situation the way they do or think a certain way about something. One topic I am excited for is identical twin personality. I have been shown articles in other classes and heard from other students that identical twins have grown up in different places and still maintain the similar personality traits. I want to know if outside forces really impact your true personality. I believe that AP Psych will be unlike any of my other classes this term. I think I will be able to learn things and directly apply them to every day life. Many topics that will come out of this class will be interesting to learn because of this direct application to daily life.
One interesting topic I have come to encounter in the recent years is the Power Balance Bracelet and the placebo effect. Power Balance claims that this bracelet is able to improve strength, balance, and flexibility with a holographic chip that sends positively charged ions through the body. In order to "prove" that the Power Balance works, they test the individual first without the bracelet on, and then with the bracelet on. The individual tests better with the power band bracelet after he has been exposed to the initial test. He is given an advantage of knowing the test a second time through, but is convinced that the reason he "dramatically" improved was because of the power balance bracelet.
Could these tests be performed in reverse order and produce the same results? Likely not. If the individual did each of the tests with the power balance on first and then without you would see the second round of test results improve. The placebo effect of the power balance bracelet played a factor in how the individual performed in the tests with it on. He gets a feeling and sense of improvement from it and believed that it was actually working. "Scientific evidence" is enough to fool many people with this product. This product works as long as people are willing to believe it does.
