Curated Paper 2 by Alex Rich

 Alexander Rich

BIOL 4500

Dr. Karpel

Curated Paper 2

Since the last Curated Paper, we have studied two main topics, drugs and the brain. We have gone pretty in-depth in both of those topics and I have been very satisfied with all of the new things that I have learned. After studying these two topics for the last few weeks, I was impressed and amazed how much overlap there is between these two topics. I really enjoyed learning about how these different topics overlap and intertwine at many different avenues. In the next several paragraphs, I will explain some of the interesting facts that I learned about both the brain and drugs, along with some examples of how they overlap and intertwine. 

Of the two topics, the brain was the topic that we researched and studied first. I was really amazed at its complexity and nuanced anatomy. Before studying the brain in this class, I thought that I had a basic but solid understanding of the brain and its many different parts, but I was mistaken. I was shocked at learning about all of the different parts of the brain and how there are specific regions of the brain that are in charge of very specific functions. One interesting example of this was Broca’s Area. This is a specific part of the brain that is in charge of allowing the person to speak. Basically it allows the person to move the specific body parts in the right order needed to create logical and coherent sentences. I was surprised that there was a specific part of the brain designed just for being able to speak correctly. Overall, this was a really interesting fact or concept that I was able to think and reflect on over the past few weeks. 

Another interesting fact that I was able to learn about, and reflect on from the brain section of this class was how traumatic brain injuries change functionality of the body as well as the personality and their psychological presence. This was really interesting for me to think about because functionality made sense, because different parts of the brain are responsible for different functions to occur, so if there was a traumatic brain injury to a specific part of the brain, then that specific function would be messed up. The personality part was really interesting because personality is something that I always thought was just “you". In other words, there wasn’t a part of the brain that's responsible for your personality, it was just kind of an accumulation of who you are as a whole, an intrinsic part of you. But after learning more about the brain, I realized that the cerebral cortex was really the main part of the brain that dealt with personality. This was super interesting for me to think about, and I tried to apply this to my own life, or think of any examples of such. A member of my family actually had a traumatic brain injury a few years ago. He was driving and got in a car accident and hit his head against the steering wheel. He ended up doing serious damage to his brain and was in the hospital for several weeks. After this event occurred, he was different. Although he was able to move all of his extremities and answer all of the questions correctly like who was the president at the time or what year it was, it was obvious that his demeanor, or his personality, was different. He was still “himself” and the same guy that I grew up with, except he was much more stern, and had much less patience than before. He used to be much kinder and patient with us, but after the event, it was apparent that this part of his brain was somehow damaged. It was obvious that he psychologically had changed. I never understood why this was until this section of the class. Now, it all makes sense and puts my mind at ease that there was an actual reason why he had changed. This was another really interesting facet of the brain that I haven’t really thought of or researched before this class. Overall, I’m really glad that I was able to learn about traumatic brain injuries, especially because it affected my life and my relationship with my family members so much.

The other topic that we studied in-depth since the last Curated Paper was drugs. The powerpoints that Dr. Karpel uploaded for this class included both legal and illegal drugs, so it was cool to be able to see a full range of drugs, as well as how they interact with the body. Although there were a lot of really interesting facts about drugs, one of the ones that I found most interesting was the myriad of different ways in which it could be ingested. The power points talked about a few of them, namely, ingestion, inhalation, or injection. This was interesting, because of course I knew that drugs could be administered in all these different ways, however, I did not know that there were different effects on the body or the speed at which the drugs start becoming active in the body. I learned that injection was actually much faster than ingestion because it didn’t have to become absorbed through the intestines. This was really interesting to me in the lab to reflect on the different types of drugs and how they might differ in active or on set times based on how they were usually taken. This made me then think about and contemplate the economics/sociological factors behind these different types. For example, if someone is in extreme poverty, maybe they don’t have the money to buy needles and they have to just crush it up and inhale it. I didn’t do much research on this question, but from what I saw there didn’t seem to be a huge correlation. But, I am still learning more about the sociological aspects of drug use and their avenue of choice when putting it in their body. Overall, this was one of the many different facets that I found. Very interesting about drugs.

Another aspect of drugs that I found very interesting through the power points were the ways in which they are different from each other. For example, there were many different drugs that acted on the body in many different ways because of the neurotransmitters that they espoused, as well as the receptors that they either enhanced or blocked. For example, alcohol and benzodiazepines are depressants, which actually relax the body, and would make someone feel more sleepy and groggy. This is why the hangover occurs as well as people becoming drunk and falling asleep quite easily when they drink a heavy amount of alcohol. On the other hand, amphetamines or cocaine are both enhancers or uppers. This means that they actually increase the heart rate, increase the blood pressure and increase the rate at which you think and respond to stimuli. This would also make sense. Why people take Adderall, and amphetamine, when people are trying to study is because they are able to stay active and focus for longer periods of time. This is really interesting to me as well, because it allowed me to reflect on my time as a medical scribe in the ER. There were many overdoses and people that were “high quote" on a number of different substances that came into the ER for treatment. I am now able to reflect on how they acted based on what drugs they took, and it was really interesting for me to think back on my experiences, and kind of relate to each other. Overall, this was another really interesting facet of drugs that I found exciting and intriguing throughout my study of this in this class.

Overall, the stuff that we have studied since our last creative paper has been really interesting, and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about it. One of the most interesting ways that I enjoyed learning about these two different topics, drugs, and the brain, or actually how they intertwine and work with each other. Of course, I knew that drugs somehow play a role in the brain because I have worked in the ER and I see what different drugs do to people, and I clearly saw that these people had some type of mental change while they were under the certain drug. However, the mechanisms by which this occurred or what actually happened was pretty unknown to me. That is one of the reasons why these study topics have been so interesting to me, because I’ve been able to put a lot of stuff together in my brain, and be able to make sense of it. In other words, understanding these different subjects has kind of been like putting puzzle pieces together to build a great puzzle that now makes sense to me. One good example of this is the concept of neurotransmitters and their receptors. I knew that drugs altered the brain, but I didn’t know how, but now I do. For example, when someone takes an antidepressant, the drug has specific inhibiting properties which inhibits the reuptake of serotonin. This allows the serotonin to be in the synaptic cleft for a longer period of time, and allows it to do a “larger than normal “activation of those hormones that are associated with it. This intern, makes you happier. This is really interesting to me, because it allowed me to understand on a deeper level, how the brain, and the central nervous system, for this matter, was connected to different drugs. That was just one example, but it elicited my point of just how complex these two subjects are, as well as how strongly tied and intertwined they are to each other. All in all, I really liked the stuff that we have learned in the topics that we have gone over in our class since the last creative paper. I have truly enjoyed reading the PowerPoint, watching the videos, and reflecting on what I have learned