Sex

Gender Identity Disorder: Is it a psychological disorder?

When you are born, you are identified as either a female or male; this is your biological sex.  Gender identity is the way you identify yourself.  According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is the persistent desire to be the opposite sex, persistent discomfort of one's sex and there has to be evidence of significant distress in social, occupational and other important areas.   Many argue that Gender Identity Disorder is labeling transgender as mentally ill.  In an article published by advocate.com, it is stated that in the new edition of the DSM, DSM-V, this disorder will be changed to Gender Dysphoria.  The video below gives an introduction to the debate on whether GID is an illness.

As you can see, people who identify themselves as the opposite sex feel as if they are being forced to believe they are psychologically ill.  ABC published an article explaining the features of GID in children, adolescents and adults.  GID can be diagnosed as early as in childhood.  The main observation in children is the toy preference and gender roles of the opposite sex during play time.  Early research suggests that gender identification is affected by  environmental factors, but recent research suggests that gender identity might be influenced by prenatal hormones. Therefore, if gender identity does not match biological sex, is it correct to label it as a disorder?

Pain, Olfaction, Pheromones, and Synaesthesia

Pheromones: Do they exist in humans?

The word "pheromone" was first introduced by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher  in 1959. Pheromones are chemicals that are released by an animal and affect the behavior of other members of the same species.  A very common example includes  when a female dog is "in heat" she attracts male dogs.  This attraction is important in this species for reproductive purposes; the existence and importance of pheromones in humans has been examined since the identification of the pheromone bombykol in silk moths.  So how are pheromones important to human beings?
Most of the research and identification of human pheromones are related to opposite sex attraction and sexual activity.
There are two varieties of pheromones that have been identified: releaser and primer pheromones.  Releaser pheromones cause an immediate behavior reaction; primer pheromones cause long-time physiological changes.
In mammals, the  vomeronasal organ (VNO) is a set of receptors that respond to pheromones and is used to detect pheromones.  In humans, the VNO is extremely small and has no receptors.  There has been no evidence of humans displaying any releaser pheromones, but the existence of primer pheromones are what researchers have suggested.  A specific study of the effect of the smell of women's sweat suggests that during the time of ovulation, men's testosterone secretion increases (Miller & Maner, 2010).  Another study relates to the timing of women's menstrual cycle and the synchronization of women who spend a lot of time together.  The study's findings concluded that women who spend a lot of time together seem to have synchronized menstrual cycles and it suggests that pheromones are responsible for the synchronization ( McClintock, 1971; Weller, Weller, Koresh-Kamin, & Ben-Shoshan, 1999; Weller, Weller & Roizman, 1999). The possibility of primer pheromones in humans has provided a marketing tool for companies of products to increase sexual attractiveness for men and women.  Check out this video on an experiment conducted by ABC 20/20:

Learning, Memory and Amnesia

Forget Me Not....

Have you ever walked into a parking lot and felt clueless about where you parked?  Why is it that we forget things? Let's examine the memory system!

In the video above, short-term and long-term memory are briefly described, but the memory system is not a simple process.  

Early research in memory formation led to the misconception that memories are "temporarily" stored as short-term memory and then consolidated into long-term memories.  Advanced research in cognitive psychology has proven that the consolidation process differs.  The memory system is divided into three functions; sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.  Sensory memory retains what a person hears or sees; short-term memory is determined by selective attention of the information acquired through the visual and auditory senses; long-term memory is a relatively permanent storage of information and information is stored based on the meaning and importance of the information.

So how does this memory formation process explain why we forget simple things such as where you parked or where you left your keys?

Elizabeth Loftus, a well-known memory researcher, has identified four reasons why we forget: retrieval failure, interference, failure to store and motivated forgetting.

• Retrieval failure is basically being unable to retrieve a memory.  For example, imagine you were carrying a bag with you while walking out the door.  Then, while sitting inside your car, you realize the bag you were holding was nowhere to be found.  You step our of your car and just cannot seem to know where you left the bag.  After a couple of minutes of intense search, you realize you "forgot" you had stepped into your room and had place your bag on your bed.  Sure enough, you walk into your room and alas, there is the bag!  You just completely forgot!

• Interference suggests that new memories compete with previous memories.  This mainly occurs when information of new memory is fairly similar to previously stored information.

• Failure to store a memory is basically the notion that a memory NEVER made it into long-term memory.

• And, motivated forgetting suggests that we may actively work to forget certain events, information, or experiences.  This is particularly notable after a traumatic or disturbing event or experience.

Although these four reasons may not answer the question "Why we forget things?", it is important to understand the memory system is quite complex.

Brain Lateralization

Broca's Aphasia

The video above is a demonstration of a patient with damage in the Broca's area of the brain. As you can see, it is extremely difficult and even almost impossible for this patient to "speak his mind".

Language is an essential and complex tool for communication among human beings.  Imagine how frustrating and difficult it would be to  not be able to say what you are thinking???  How difficult it would be to express your ideas??

The Broca's area contains motor neurons and is located in the frontal part of the left hemisphere.  This area is associated with the production of language. In 1861, Paul Broca, a french surgeon, identified the Broca's area and found that damage to this small area of the brain impairs language production.

Broca's Aphasia is characterized as a consequence of injury to the brain caused mostly  by a stroke.  Other causes come from head trauma, brain tumors, or infection.This condition limits speech output, vocabulary access, and writing.
Affected people omit prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, helping verbs, quantifiers, tenses and number endings. People with Broca's Aphasia rely solely on nouns and verbs to communicate.  This condition is also known as Nonfluent Aphasia because of the halting and effortful quality of speech.  It is important to know that damage to the Broca's area does not impair intelligence and it can affect people of all ages.  According to the National Aphasia Association, over 1,000,000 Americans live with aphasia every day.