Learning/Memory- Why I'm curious about it.

As far as improving memory goes, understanding the mechanisms of LTP seem promising since there are ways of stimulating and inhibiting the production of the proteins that are linked to learning. 

The best way to learn something is to link it to an interesting memory or something that will sticks out in your mind.  If it engages your curiosity, it is more likely you will remember/learn it.  That is what I've been talking about, every single post I've made in this journal says, "I found this to be very interesting because it relates to....." and fill in the blank.  It's good to know I'm doing something right.  I am actually retaining a lot of the information because I find it really intriguing.  Lobotomies were interesting because they were gruesome and unnecessary.  I will never forget what they are now.  The stuff about hemispheres was interesting to me because I noticed that my husband isn't as gifted as I am with words.  (LOL) He's probably one of the like 35% of left-handers that do not process language in their left hemispheres like most people do.  Maybe, I can't say for sure, but given what I've read and what I know, I can hypothesize.  Pretty much everything in biological psychology is of interest to me, which is why I chose psychology as my major.  I think I will be pretty good in this field, supposing that I continue pursuing higher education.  I'm sure that learning will always be easy for me because I genuinly like this subject and I'm always curious about it.

This is a very interesting read called,10 Mind-boggling Psychiatric Treatments.  Give it a read because they mention phrenology, labotomy, and other ridiculous things I've learned about in other classes like "hysteria and the wandering uterus."  Also, some things I never knew. Super interesting.

Left handedness

I think to myself, jokingly of course, that it must be true that I am dominant in only one side of my brain (I must be using only half my brain!)  I cannot seem to wrap my head around the concept lateralization and contralateral control, it confuses me so much!  I think the most important thing I learned was that even though the hemispheres of the brain specialize in different operations, they communicate through the corpus collosum and through small commissures and that you use BOTH hemispheres and require cooperation from both sides.

My mother, my husband, and my son are all lefties.  The hemispheric dominance has been pretty interesting to me and I noticed something during my reading that I wouldn't have paid such close attention if it didn't pertain to someone in my life.  Speech, my husband had a stutter when he was a young boy.  He doesn't really stutter anymore but if he's trying to say something really fast or if I feel like he's got a rush of information that he just wants to let out I can hear it.  I read that most left-handers have a left- hemisphere dominance for speech but some might have right hemisphere dominance or a mixture of both and many people who have bilateral control of speech stutter.  I'm not a neuroscientist, but I'm assuming he might have bilateral control of his speech.  Maybe or maybe not? Either way, it was interesting to learn about.  

Here's some debunked rumors about lefties that I found very interesting: