Accidental Genius

Some people become accidental genius’. For example, some people know things they have never learned. They showed us one man that, when you told him a date, he could tell you the day of the week it had or would be. Then, he got put inside a functional MRI and scientists saw that his brain was using some parts to think that would not be used by a normal person. This tells us that genius’ use or have parts of their brain functioning that other people do not have working. Another situation showed to us was the life-changing event that a man went through. He experienced a stroke and his life changed completely. Before this stroke, he was not interested at all in painting, and after the stroke happened, he became obsessed with it. He became so obsessed with it that his partner left him, and now he is living alone and grabs every opportunity he has to paint wherever he can. These are some cases that show that people can become a genius by accident.

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Make Me a Genius

If you put your mind to it, and really want it, you will achieve it. Adding to the previous blog, the case of a Russian women being a professional at chess can show us that geniuses are not necessarily born, but can be made. She said that hard work is required to become a genius, and in her case, her father taught her to play chess since she was a little girl. When you do things repeatedly, you then do not have to think about how to do them, and this is exactly what happened to this woman. She trained appropriately and she achieved what she wanted; beat men at chess. She does this technique called chunking, in which she takes in the information in the chess board by chunks and this helps her remembers it. They did several experiments with her and her result were impressive. So can genius’ be made?

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Genius

Some people think genius’ are born. Other people think that gifted kids have something extra in their brains that normal people do not have. Either way, I strongly believe that environment affects everyone, and our environment shapes who we are. I used to think that people who are genius’ are socially awkward because they spend most of their time studying rather than interacting with others but this was not the case of a little kid who was a professional in piano. He spends most of his days practicing at least 8 hours but he still interacts with his neighbors and his neighbors think he is a nice kid. He balances his time between school, piano and friends and his case was impressive. He was playing high level songs  and he made it look so easy. His mother said that since he was little he was playing piano and enjoyed it a lot. He was a natural piano player since little and has big dreams for his musical career when he grows up. So, is there such thing as a gene for a genius?

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Homosexuality

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There has been a constant disagreement between whether homosexuality is nature or nurture. In this video, we saw several evidence of both sides, but it was more concentrated on the theory that homosexuality is nature. There is an action or personality that is called childhood gender nonconformity in which the child’s behavior is more typical of the opposite sex. This one case of twins surprised me a lot. One twin was a boy who acted as a boy and the other one, who was a boy also, was already leaning towards the feminine side. The ‘normal’ boy, we can say, had G.I. Joe dolls, green and gray quilts while the feminine boy had finger nail polish, barbies and had a pink theme room. The video also showed us how gay people act differently from straight people like for example their hand and feet gestures and the way they talk. Most people differentiate them from straight people using this kind of judgement. One very interesting theory that I learned in this video was that the more older brothers a man has, the more chance he has of turning out gay. What is even more interesting is that this theory only works if the boy is right handed, and not left handed. Most psychologists think homosexuality is not nurtured, its natured, but not completely genetic. In my opinion, homosexuality is nurtured, it depends fully on you environment. If you are born a boy, you are born the way you are and it is not possible that you have genetics that make you act as a female. Your environment changes the way you think and it is the most important factor in homosexuality.

Mind of a Murderer

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Murderers are made, not born. This video taught us that there is a probability that murderers or harmful people don’t act the way they do because they want to, but because of their past. Brain damages can be related to violent behavior. One common example is that children have had impact on their frontal lobe since little age. This causes permanent injury in their frontal lobe. Abuse causes mental illness and brain damage. If a child was abused at young age, they will probably be bad people making bad decisions in the future. Brain damages also contributes to crimes. We saw an aged man in the video as an example of criminal behavior. This man had killed women in his adult years and he did confess that he was sexually and physically abused when child. This is a perfect example and explanation of why people do the things they do. In my opinion, children should not be treated badly or harmed at young age. If they get harmed when they are little, they will probably harm someone else when they get older. Because of this bad treatment they got in their childhood, they tend to have aggressive behavior. I think frontal lobe damage is the cause of why criminals and criminals. As learned in previous videos, your frontal lobe controls your emotions, your personality, problem-solving, reasoning and many more important functions. If you damage this very important lobe, your personality, your reasoning and your problem-solving will alter badly. Your personality will not be the same, it will be more aggressive and violent. You will not have intelligent reasoning. Brain damage changes your life in big ways. You need to protect it to be able to function to the best of your abilities.

Brain Injury

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Almost a quarter of a million people are hospitalized for brain injuries. Brain injuries can cause multiple harms since you damage one part of your brain. All of the brain lobes are important, but the one who gets the most damage is the frontal lobe. When you injure your frontal lobe, you will experience some problems with thinking and controlling your actions. In this video, we saw how the lives of ordinary people change when they have brain damage. Traumatic brain injury happen when force is applied to the skull, harming it. Although brain damage can be lessened with therapy, your brain will never be the same. Therapy tries to develop the activities you have lost, but this takes patience and time. People with traumatic brain injury will do impulsive things or have aggressive behavior. This is because the frontal lobe is in charge of controlling our emotions and reasoning. There are three types of bran injuries: Contusion, axonal injury and brain bleeding. These injuries can be mild, moderate or severe but can be treated with therapy; over time you will recover. People with brain injuries will lead a hard life, but everything gets better if you have patience, will and faith.

Mind Reading

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I learned that computers are now able to read minds through an fMRI. This MRI can see the movement of your brain and can see what you are thinking at that same moment you are inside the machine. Back in the days, mind reading was unreal and fiction, but now, technology is advancing and will be able to do what we thought was impossible. This new process of mind reading involves the person being put into the MRI and tell them to think of an object. The computer will identify the object according to the places in your brain that are functioning. For the moment, it can only identify the specific object you are thinking but in the future, it will be able to read more in-depth thoughts. Later on, this can be very useful and can be used as a lie detection device. An example used in the video was that it will be used in airports. When the police officers are asking questions, they will be able to see if you are lying or not. In my opinion, mid reading can be good but it can also disrespect your privacy and your personal thoughts. This device will keep getting better and more advanced but it should be used adequately, keeping in mind the right of privacy of the rest.