Understanding A Teenager’s Brain, Or Why Kids Don’t Rise And Shine

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Posted on 29th November 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

Parade Magazine this Sunday told readers, who we assume included a lot of frustrated parents, the ins-and-outs of the brains of teenagers.

 http://www.parade.com/news/2010/11/28-inside-the-teenage-brain.html

It’s not just hormones that account for the moodiness, cluelessness and sleepiness of teens. It’s what’s in their noggins. The takeaway from the story is that PET scans and fMRI tests have shown that the brains of teenagers are much different than those of adults.  

The brains of youths are still developing, and are works in progress. The skills a child or pre-teen starts, and continues to practice as a teen, are the ones that their brains will continue to develop. And those that one avoids, or rarely does, will fall by the wayside. So it’s a smart idea for teens to establish good work practices during this period, as those aptitudes will follow them the rest of their lives.

Secondly, teenagers don’t have fully developed frontal lobes, or a developed prefrontal cortex. In fact, the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully form until someone is in their late 20s. And this part of the brain governs controlling impulses and making plans. So your teen does have an excuse for some of his or her foolish behavior. 

And according to the Parade article, the brains of teenagers are “physically programmed to stay up later and sleep later.” These kids also need more sleep than adults, up to 9.2 hours compared with 7.5 to 8 hours for adults. 

So don’t be so tough when Sally doesn’t want to rise and shine, or when Billy’s teacher calls to complain that he’s falling asleep in morning math class. 

Parade also offers some “Stay Sane” tips about how to deal with your teenager.     

New Jersey Youth Sustains Brain Injury From Fall At Rutgers Game

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Posted on 15th November 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Stunts that just seem to be playful can often turn dangerous, as a 20-year-old New Jersey man found out Saturday. 

Nicholas Amabile of Florham Park. N.J., remained in critical condition Sunday from head injuries he sustained when he fell down a flight of stairs at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, according to The Star-Ledge of Newark Monday.  

Amabile isn’t a Rutgers student, but he attended the Scarlet Knight’s game against Syracuse University on Saturday. According to Amabile’s friend and witness, Anthony Pryer, they were leaving the game in the second quarter when Amabile suddenly decided to slide down the staircase railing. 

Amabile fell about 30 feet and was knocked unconscious. He was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center in New Brunswick, N.J., where he remained.

Authorities wouldn’t comment on the extent of his head injuries.                                      

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/florham_park_20-year-old_man_i.html

 

In A Case Worthy Of ‘House,’ Mom Was Put In Coma Five Months Until Diagnosis

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Posted on 8th November 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Doctors put Donna Landrigan in a coma for five months as they struggled to find out what was wrong with her.

Landrigan’s tale was chronicled by AOL Health, kicking off with the painful headaches that the mother of three, then 35, was suffering from for almost a month until she finally collapsed on her kitchen floor.

http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/11/04/doctors-induce-5-month-coma-to-save-womans-life/?ncid=webmail

But as Landrigan’s case demonstrated, diagnosing a brain malady can play out like an episode of “House.” Physicians for months were stymied and couldn’t determine exactly what was wrong with Landrigan’s brain. Ultimately, she received treatments at four hospitals in several different states.

Doctors initially thought that Landrigan has encephalitis, or swelling of the brain due to infection. But tests came back negative. Then physicians believed that the young mother had nonconvulsive status epilepticus, which entails seizures and kills more than half the people who have it. But that diagnosis didn’t pan out.

At that point, doctors put Landrigan into a coma using propofol, the powerful anesthetic that killed pop superstar Michael Jackson. They did it because they feared that her brain could not continue to withstand the seizures she was having. Later, doctors put Landrigan into an even deeper coma using pentobarbital.

 The woman’s condition worsened, and doctors then went on to a new diagnosis: That one of Landrigan’s own antibodies was injuring her brain. 

That, it turns out, was the answer. Landrigan had anti-NMDA receptor antibodies, which can attack brain nerve cells, according to AOL Health. These antibodies typically appear when someone has a teratoma, which is a kind of tumor that people get in the ovaries or testes. 

Doctors removed Landrigan’s ovaries and fallopians tubes, and discovered that she did in fact have a benign teratoma. Her diagnosis was anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Landrigan was then slowly brought out of her induced coma.

Although her seizures ended once her tumor was removed, Landrigan is not back to her old self. A year after being taken out of her coma, the mother, now 36, remains in a wheelchair and has nerve damage, according to AOL Health. She still expects to walk one day.       

 

    

 

 

Dutch Dig Wooden Shoes, But Won’t Wear Bicycle Helmets

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Posted on 3rd November 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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 The newpaper story would a lot more amusing if its content wasn’t about foolish, dangerous behavior.

It seems, according to an article Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, that even though the Netherlands has the highest per capita use of bicycles, the Dutch refuse to wear helmets while riding. The story’s headline and kicker are “Getting These Cyclists to Use Helmets is Like Tilting at Windmills: Bicycle-Loving Dutch Hate Headgear; ‘We Are Not in Germany.”’ 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304248704575574250616160146.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5

 The story starts out with an anecdote about a university doctor who had a bike accident, sans helmet, that left him unconscious and in the hospital. But he did not learn his lesson: When he got back on his bike after his recovery, he still refused to wear a helmet.

The Dutch are so averse to wearing bike helmets that kids typically taunt other kids for wearing them. So one of the country’s provinces, in an experimental program, handed out free helmets to children in 42 schools to encourage kids to wear them, according to The Journal’s Page One story. Those helmets were decorated with pictures of “Coolie,” a cute blue cartoon mascot who is wearing a helmet.

In the spring, the automaker Volvo also distributed free, stylish helmets to children.

The Dutch anti-helmet brigade argues that the headgear doesn’t really protect bicyclists involved in bad accidents. Even Dutch doctors came up with lame excuses for declining to wear helmets, saying that they didn’t look good and that no one else wears them in the Netherlands.  

 

 

  

‘Monster’s Ball’ Screenwriter Hit In Head By Manhattan Subway

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Posted on 2nd November 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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 An Oscar-nominated screenwriter was in critical but stable condition after being hit in the head by a subway train in Manhattan this weekend.

Will Rokos, who wrote the script for “Monster’s Ball,” was clipped in the head while leaning over the subway platform at the 14th Street station by a No. 2 train Saturday. He was trying to peek down the tunnel to see if the train was approaching.  

 http://www.polijam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35732:screenwriter-injured-by-ny-subway-train&catid=57:entertainment&Itemid=56

 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/11/monsters_ball_screenwriter_sur.html

The train was speeding into the station, and hit Rokos. He was sent crashing into the station platform, where bystanders found him.

According to press reports Rokos, 57, was semi-conscious and awake when police arrive at the scene. He was then transported to Bellevue Hospital.  

Rokos was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 for “Monster’s Ball,” the film that netted an Oscar for actress Hallie Berry. She became the first black actess to win an Oscar in the Best Actress category.