Question

1. Mary is a 40-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Mary’s 20-year-old daughter, Maria, expresses concern that her mother’s mental health disorder is genetic. What is the relationship between genetics and environment in the development of psychiatric disorders? What deficiencies are associated with Mendel’s theory?	6
2. James and Susan have just had their first child. James tells the nurse that he and his wife want to ensure that their new baby’s brain develops to its fullest potential. What determines brain development in infancy and childhood? What would you include in a teaching plan for these parents to promote their child’s brain development?	5
3. You and a friend are discussing mental health disorders at lunch one day. Your friend says, “I think people should be able to control any type of mental problems; they just need to have the will to feel better.” How would you respond to someone who believes that mental illness is related to a lack of willpower? How are neurotransmitters involved in mental illness?	3
4. Your friend Marcia has been suffering from symptoms such as staring spells, confusion, and uncontrollable jerking of the arms and legs. Her general physician wants to perform an electroencephalogram (EEG). Describe to Marcia the use and purpose of an EEG. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this neuroimaging technique?

Answer 1

1 aWhat one inherits is not the illness or its symptoms ,but a predisposition to the illness which is determined by genes tha we inherit directly.Studies have shown that three-fpourth of mental addictives and one-third of psychotic individuals have their condition mainly due to unfavourable heredity.

2a Brain development in infancy and childhood consists of forging connections between neutrons.At birth greater activity in left hemisphere specializes as infants listen to speech.Motor control begins about 2 months .Brain areas do not mature uniformly,skills affected by myelination and interconnections.This is the critical,sensitive period for development,when proceeds most rapidly,late prenatal and early infancy,great deal of plasticity.Normal genes control how brain should be cofigured,experiences determine architecture of brain.

b Teach the couples about the behavioural states

• Short sleep-wake cycles at first.
• Establish more regularity at 3-6 months
• Rapid eye movement during active sleep important for learning and memory processing.
• Children sleep from vast amount of information taken in ,sleep help learn the information and remember it.

3a

b Neurotransmitters affect mood,memory and our ability to concentrate.When these chemical messengers are disrupted,the message may go right back to the transmitter or be lost altogether.When considering mental illness,the result of interrupted neurotransmitters can be depression or even a tendency toward drug and alcohol dependency.Neurotransmitters in relation to mental disorders are Dopamine,acetylcholine,GABA,Noradrenaline and serotonin.

4 a Electroencephalogram is a test that detects abnormalities in your brain waves.it is used to evaluate brain disorders.it is also used to determine the overal electrical activity of the brain and is used to monitor bloodflow in the brain during surgical procedures.

b Advantages

• it has event-related potentials.
• Through EEG we can get a better understanding of how different types of information are processed.
• Another advantage is the ability to see brain activity as it unfolds in real time,at the level of miliseconds.

Disadvantages

• it is hard to figure out where in the brain elec trical activity is coming from