Neuroscience & Me

Hello! This is my final project for my Neuroscience class. This is all my own work so please don’t copy it. Some of the links and works cited may not work because some are link that came from the Canvas site for my class. 

Neuroscience & Me

Willow V.

                 

       My interest in psychology began when I discovered a show in sixth grade that I’m now obsessed with, “Criminal Minds.” At first, I was mostly interested in criminal and forensic psychology, so I started taking psychology classes and doing research to prepare myself for what I thought I was going to be, a behavioral analyst for the FBI. As I started my journey, I discovered that I actually really enjoy doing research and authoring reports, so now my dream career is to be a psychological researcher.

I’m honestly interested in all aspects of psychology, but I want to focus on studying under-represented populations, specifically people of Color in non-western countries. I’m also drawn to aspects of psychology that affect me personally, like depression, anxiety, autism, insomnia, and nightmares. I personally feel that knowing how mental illnesses, sleep, drug use, and stress can affect the brain on a structural level is especially important for anyone in the field of psychology.

 

Sleep

One aspect of psychology and neuroscience that gets a lot of attention is sleep, but I feel like few people truly know how it can affect you. Sleep has a sort of cyclical effect on mental health. Mental issues like depression, anxiety, and insomnia can make it difficult to sleep, but a lack of sleep can make depression, anxiety, and your focus worse during the day (Lim, 2021). It can also cause multiple physical health problems.

There are two types of insomnia, onset insomnia and maintenance insomnia. Maintenance insomnia is characterized by difficulty staying asleep once you fall asleep, while onset insomnia is when you have difficulty falling asleep. There’s no specific definition for insomnia, it can be characterized as regular issues falling or staying asleep, being irritable during the day because of sleep deficiency, and having issues with focus during the day. Anxiety, stress, and depression can be symptoms of insomnia (Lim, 2021). A lack of sleep can also contribute to suicidal ideation (How Sleep Deprivation Impacts Mental Health, 2022).

As someone who has nightmares, depression, anxiety, and has had insomnia, I can corroborate all of the research done on how sleep affects mental health. My lack of sleep would make it hard for me to function during the day, especially in school. The lack of focus and energy due to the sleep deficiency led to me becoming really stressed out over schoolwork, which then led to me staying up later to do that schoolwork and losing more sleep.

There’s one specific aspect of sleep and mental health that I am extremely interested in; how PTSD flashbacks and nightmares can affect mental health and sleep. I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and it has led to nightmares that have impacted my sleep and flashbacks during the day that have affected my anxiety. I know that PTSD and sleep has been researched in veterans, and that nightmares and insomnia are symptoms of PTSD (VA.gov | Veterans Affairs, n.d.). A lot of the research that I’ve found on PTSD has been about veterans, and before I truly got into researching psychology, I only really viewed PTSD as something that happens to veterans. Women are two times more likely than men develop PTSD (Novotney, 2024) and Black people have higher rates of PTSD than any other race (Roberts et al., 2010). I’d like to research how PTSD effects Black women, and what things tend to cause PTSD the most for Black women.

Neurotransmitters

                  Neurotransmitters are signaling molecules released by the presynaptic cell to influence the postsynaptic cell in a chemical synapse (Lim, 2021). They help your brain and neurons communicate with the rest of your body. If you know anything about mental health and psychology, you have heard of neurotransmitters, but you may know them as brain chemicals. Dopamine (the reward chemical) and serotonin (the happy chemical) are both neurotransmitters.

                  Serotonin is derived from tryptophan, which is an amino acid. Serotonin is a major part of mood regulation, but it can also have an effect on digestion, bone health, sleep, and wound healing (Professional, 2024). Low serotonin can contribute to depression, as we all know, but it can also have an impact on phobias, schizophrenia, suicidal behavior, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic disorders (Professional, 2024).

                  Dopamine is derived from tyrosine through several enzymes, one of which being tyrosine hydroxylase (Lim, 2021). It’s known as the “reward chemical” but isn’t very widely available in the brain. When there isn’t enough dopamine produced or the dopamine isn’t processed by its receptors, it can result in low dopamine levels. Dopamine gets released when you eat a food you crave or check social media. Dopamine affects many aspects of your life like motivation, lactation, sleep, stress, pain processing, and kidney function (Dopamine: What It Is & What It Does, 2024). Doctors also use prescription dopamine, known as Inotropin, to treat multiple cardiac issues like poor blood flow. Dopamine levels also have a role in schizophrenia, addiction, and as we all know, ADHD.

                  Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects perception, thoughts, and behaviors, and is considered a type of psychosis (Seladi-Schulman, 2022). The symptoms can be divided into two categories, positive symptoms, and negative symptoms. Some positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech and/or thoughts (Pitkanen, n.d.). The negative symptoms can be affective deficits (a lack of emotional expression, usually through facial expressions or voice intonation), relational deficits, avolition (lack of motivation to complete tasks and activities), and cerebellar structural deficits (Lim, 2021). The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia is that increased levels of dopamine cause schizophrenia, it’s been disproven, but other neurotransmitters participate in schizophrenia. A certain type of glutamate receptor, called an NMDA receptor, being inhibited can lead to schizophrenia symptoms (Seladi-Schulman, 2022).

 

Neuroscience and My Future

                  A lot of people tend to focus on trauma, environmental factors, and genetics as causes for mental health issues. I feel like neurotransmitters, brain structure, trauma, genetics, and environmental factors are all equally important aspects of psychology and mental health. A lot of medications, like SSRI’s, used to treat mental illnesses are based off how neurotransmitters affect your mental health, so neuroscience has already contributed a lot to the psychological field. As the research in neuroscience expands and develops, the latest ideas and treatments in psychology will expand. One thing that I believe will help both fields is to expand the research to under-represented groups. We should expand the research to non-western countries and see how brain structures and neurotransmitters might be different between different races, sexualities, genders, and even religions. This could help to customize treatments more for different populations, making them more effective. One thing that’s been consistent in all of the research and learning I’ve done with psychology has been neuroscience, usually in the form of neurotransmitters. I feel like the things I’ve learned in this class and the other things I will learn about neuroscience and neuropsychology will be especially important in my future research.

 

 

Works Cited

Lim, A. (2021). Open Neuroscience Initiative (1st ed.). Vincentian Endowment Fund. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n08qgzhG5-RgkoqL_Aa4y1UBSycUcy5g/viewLinks to an external site.

How sleep deprivation impacts mental health. (2022, March 16). Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/how-sleep-deprivation-affects-your-mental-health

VA.gov | Veterans Affairs. (n.d.). https://ptsd.va.gov/PTSD/understand/related/sleep_problems.asp

Roberts, A. L., Gilman, S. E., Breslau, J., Breslau, N., & Koenen, K. C. (2010). Race/ethnic differences in exposure to traumatic events, development of post-traumatic stress disorder, and treatment-seeking for post-traumatic stress disorder in the United States. Psychological Medicine, 41(1), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291710000401

Novotney, A. (2024, July 8). Women who experience trauma are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD. Here’s why. https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/topics/women-girls/women-trauma

Pitkanen, I. (n.d.). Sleep Stages and Sleep Disorders [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas@BC. Sleep stages and sleep disorder slides.pptx: PSYC202 20824 - F24 - Intro Physiological Psychology

Pitkanen, I. (n.d.). Emotion, Memory, and PTSD [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas@BC. Emotion, memory & PTSD slides.pptx: PSYC202 20824 - F24 - Intro Physiological Psychology

Pitkanen, I. (n.d.). Schizophrenia [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas@BC. Schizophrenia slides.pptx: PSYC202 20824 - F24 - Intro Physiological Psychology

Pitkanen, I. (n.d.). Synapse, Neurotransmitters, and Drugs [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas@BC. Synapse, neurotransmitters and drugs slides.pptx: PSYC202 20824 - F24 - Intro Physiological Psychology

Professional, C. C. M. (2024, May 1). Serotonin. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22572-serotonin

Dopamine: What it is & what it does. (2024, July 9). WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-dopamine

Seladi-Schulman, J., PhD. (2022, May 31). What’s the link between schizophrenia and dopamine? Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-and-dopamine