Understanding the Teen Brain: Gray Matter and Emotion Processing

1. Please get out: • Your textbook • A writing implement • Your Ch 3, Sec 2 Parts of the Brain chart 6th per Psych I Tues, 4/26 Did you know?? The first longitudinal MRI study of the teen brain, performed at the National Institute of Mental Health, showed that gray matter increases just before puberty begins. Gray matter is where thought takes place in the brain. The production of gray matter occurs in the area of the frontal lobe and it continues to thicken in the frontal lobe until about age 11 in girls and 12 in boys. Another MRI study by researchers at Harvard’s McLean Hospital focused on how teens process emotions. The scans showed that young teens used the amygdala to identify emotions in photos of individuals shown to them, while older teens used the frontal lobe of the brain.

2. Chapter 3BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR • The Big Idea: • The nervous system, the brain, the endocrine system, and heredity shape human thoughts and behaviors. • Essential Questions: • What are the different parts of the brain, and how do they work? • Objectives: • Describe the different parts of the brain and how they work.

3. Today’s Agenda • Bipolar • Schizophrenia • Chapter 3, Section 2-start To prepare for Class on Thursday, 4/26 • Read Ch 3, Sec 3 • Take notes using the handout on inetteacher

4. Types of Mood Disorders • Bipolar Disorder • A cycle of mood changes from depression to wild elation and back again • Period of mania, or extreme excitement characterized by hyperactivity and chaotic behavior

6. Mania is…. • A period of persistent and abnormally heightened, irritable, or expansive mood lasting at least a week • Three or more of the following must be present & persistent: • Inflated self-esteem • Feels less of a need for sleep • More talkative than usual • Racing thoughts/flitting ideas • Easily distracted • Increase in psychomotor agitation or goal-directed activity • “excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences” (APA DSM-IV, pg. 362) (APA DSM-IV)

7. Mania-cont. • “The symptoms do not meet the criteria for Mixed Episode” (Manic Episode & Major Depressive Episode at the same time) • The mood disturbance is severe enough • to affect one’s ability to function at work/school, relationships with others, and usual social activities • OR to require hospitalization (harm to self or others) • The symptoms are not caused by a general medical disorder or a substance (APA DSM-IV)

8. Mixed Episode • Manic Episode & Major Depressive Episode at the same time • For at least a week • Hypomanic Epsiode • Manic and Hypomanic have the same symptoms/criteria, except in a Hypomanic Episode one is able to function at work/school, in relationships with others, and usual social activities

9. Bipolar I • Characterized by one or more of the Mood Episodes • The symptoms cause significant distress in one’s ability to function at work/school, in social situations, or in other important areas • The symptoms are not better classified as Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorders, Schizophreniform Disorder, Delusional Disorder, or Psychotic Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (APA DSM-IV)

10. Bipolar I • Bipolar I Disorder, Single Manic Episode • Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Hypomanic • Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Manic • Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Mixed • Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Depressed • Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Unspecified (APA DSM-IV)

11. Bipolar II-Diagnostic Criteria • Characterized by having one or more Major Depressive Episodes • History of at least one Hypomanic Episode • There has never been a Manic Episode • The symptoms cause significant distress in one’s ability to function at work/school, in social situations, or in other important areas (APA DSM-IV)

12. Schizophrenia • Schizophrenia is usually considered the most serious psychological disorder and can be very disabling. • Schizophrenia causes thought disruption and a decreased ability to function normally. • Schizophrenia is characterized by a loss of contact with reality. • The three types of schizophrenia are paranoid, disorganized, and catatonic schizophrenia.

13. What is Schizophrenia? • Schizophrenia: characterized by loss of contact with reality. • Can be very disabling and can lead to the affected person’s inability to function independently • First appears in young adulthood • Usually develops gradually, but can also appear suddenly • Most striking symptoms are: • Hallucinations • Delusions • Thought disorders • Other symptoms include social withdrawal, impaired social skills, loss of normal emotional responses. • Occasionally, may go into a catatonic stupor: an immobile, expressionless, comalike state.

14. Types of Schnizophrenia • Paranoid Schizophrenia • Delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations that center on one theme, often a theme of persecution • Disorganized Schizophrenia • Incoherent in their thought and speech and disorganized in their behavior; delusions and hallucinations are unconnected • Emotionless or show inappropriate emotions • Catatonic Schizophrenia • Activity may slow to a stupor and then suddenly switch to agitation • May hold unusual, uncomfortable body positions for long periods of time, even after their arms and legs swell and stiffen

15. Explaining Schizophrenia • Psychoanalytic Views • Result of overwhelming of the ego by urges from the id • Fantasies become confused with reality • Other Psychological Views • A family environment in which a parent frequently expresses intense emotions may spur the disorder, but does not cause It • Biological Views • Studies try to link abnormal brain functioning and structure with specific symptoms. • Heredity, complications during pregnancy and birth, birth during winter, excessive dopamine, loss of synapses in the brain were all shown to affect rates of schizophrenia. • Multifactorial Model • Biological and psychological factors may interact in development. • The model suggests that even severely dysfunctional environmental factors are not enough to lead to the disorder.

16. Psychology Video • Schizophrenia and Art

17. Ch 3, Sec 2: The Brain-Our Control Center • The brain is composed of three major sections: the hindbrain, the midbrain, and the forebrain. • The human brain has many parts that work together to coordinate body movement, create thought and emotions, and shape behaviors. • The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that controls thinking, memory, language, emotions, complex motor functions, perceptions, and much more.

18. Early Beliefs About the Brain • In ancient times, people did not attribute human psychological processes such as thinking to the working of the brain. • Instead, people widely believed that the body was inhabited by souls or demons. • Ancient Egyptians believed that a little person dwelled within the skull and regulated behavior. • Where did Aristotle believe the soul resided? • How might the love songs and poetry of past centuries have been different had ancient peoples had a better understanding of human psychological processes? • Today we recognize that the mind, or consciousness, dwells within the brain.

19. Biology & Behavior Multimedia • Brain Function • Visual of the Major Structures of the Brain • 3-D Brain Anatomy

20. Works Cited American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 2000.