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Daniel Sumner

Hobbies 2021

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Glad to be starting my Latin lessons again: using Wheelock's Latin and watching the 'beginner Latin 101' great courses on Amazon.

Hopefully in 2021 I'll become proficient.

But I'll also be pursuing my Open University BSc in Forensic Psychology starting with the first module: 'Introducing the Social Sciences'.

It's going to be a busy year, promoting my book 'Recalling 'Simon' and continuing work on my new collection of shrpt stories.

I'll keep working on my YouTube channel also. The channel is a place where I help people improve their memory, using the method of Loci technique or more colloquially as 'the memory palace.'

This technique is a profoundly efficacious and I provide step-by-step tutorials. Useful for those studying to enhance recall.

You can find my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_GTBCQRY-2ECXd_PoEs3w

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Daniel Sumner

Psychosis and feedback

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Interesting research being carried out by scientists at the University of Missouri into the origins of psychosis. Here a key area of the brain seems to be the striatum an area known to be part of a network involved with feedback. The neurotransmitter dopamine also seems to be part of the issue.

 

Researchers used fMRI technology to assess the brains of those most at risk fro psychosis and found that the striatum was not activated when the patient received feedback.

 

This research has also found increased levels of dopamine within the striatum.

 

https://neurosciencenews.com/psychosis-treatment-9062/

 

#medicine #neuropsychology #psychology #science #neurology #mentalhealth #mind #brain  


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Daniel Sumner

Hallucinations and neuropsychology

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A potential result of failing eyesight is the peculiar condition, Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

This syndrome is marked by hallucinations which can be incredibly varied. For some, the hallucinations entail some rudimentary geometric shapes whereas for others it might involve sophisticated images comprised of people.

One risk according to one of Oliver Sacks' books is that this may be confused with dementia and thus Charles Bonnet Syndrome must be considered when reported hallucinations occur within a geriatric population.
What is Charles Bonnet syndrome, the eye condition that causes hallucinations?

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Daniel Sumner

Prosopagnosia and Neurology

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A wonderfully inciteful article on face blindness. I first came across this interesting condition by reading the works of Sacks. This piece captures how crucial the social ability to recongise other people truly is.

Prosopagnosia or face blindness is a problem with how the brain processes faces rather than the eyes. This strange ailment causes the sufferer to forget faces, as if they cannot store the collected details of a face and thus while they don't forget the person they can't remember the face.

Certain coping mechanisms are used, such as trying to remember a beard or glasses or any other details that might aid the sufferer in remembering the individual.

Sacks describes these coping mechanisms with his own conversation of how he suffered with prosopagnosia.

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