Your Experiences are who you are

The Switches that can turn mental illness on and off

Imagine, instead of the nice sheltered, educated life you have today was instead a life in Africa starving, or during the bubonic plague, or as an orphan. All these things can change who you are today. The DNA of a person contains an epigenetic code, which is methyl groups and coiling proteins that make an organism what it is, along with silent and awake genes, which can be changed by certain experiences in one's life. Neurologists tested this on two rats of the same litter; one with the mother's care and one without. Results of the two's behavioral instincts were different. The one who received all the attention(we'll call him Mr. Attention or Rat-A for short) was very curious, loved to explore and was not easily startled, contrasting to the one who was neglected(we'll call him Mr. Neglect or Rat-N for short) and ended up being easily startled, had a tendency to suffer a surge of stress hormones, and had a reluctance to explore new places. The beginning of the two rats altered the epigenetic marks on the DNA, which changed whether certain behaviors were turned on or off. Since the epigenetic marks can be changed from one generation to the next through childhood experiences, doesn't that mean that behavioral traits are technically passed from one generation to the next through actions of the parental generation? if not, why?

Like an abused child, a neglected rat shows signs of nervousness, being uncertain about one's surroundings, etc. The behaviors of the future generation will also carry this nervousness, but their upbringing can change the epigenetic marks on their DNA as well. Recently, there have been some studies of over-studious students, who go through their math homework five times, have extra tutors on the side to help them, and whose parents make them cram all the information in, all this plus the extra curricular activities that will look good on a college transcript such as being able to play the chello, a sport, etc.



This second generation of children might look back and think that they do not want their children to have a life like that so then the next generation of parents do not cram their children with tons of activities, do not force them to do their homework a million times, but still want them to do well in school. The third generation of children, sometimes not always, believing that they did not get the best most studious beginning, wanting the best for their child, will try and create a better upbringing than the one they had, by doing the same thing as the first generation of parents. Each generation of children is reacting to their childhood(and epigenetic changes from on to off, or off to on) by changing the way the next generations childhood (and behaviors for the future) will change through a difference in the next generations childhood(and epigenetic marks). If a person's behavior can be different with a different childhood experience, then isn't it impossible for one generation of alcoholics to pass the genes on to the next generation, when the next generation is orphaned? Even though that still confuses many people today, are behaviors passed on through genes or actions, the evidence shown here will help you make your decision.



Resources
Zimmer, Carl. "The Switches That Can Turn Mental Illness On and Off."
     Discoer: science, technology, and the future. Kalmback. Publishing Co.,
     n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2011. <http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jun/
     15-brain-switches-that-can-turn-mental-illness-on-off>.
2ratspicture. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2011. <http://www.google.com/
     imgres?imgurl=http://www.pinnaclenews.com/content/img/f209147/
     RATS2_ds031607.jpg.>
overstudiousstudent. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2011. <http://www.google.com/
     imgres?imgurl=http://www.usafa.edu/df/dfb/courses/
     GraduateSchool.jpg>.

A Life of Lives

On the book My Name is Memory

Book by : Ann Brashares

Article by: Hannah B

Labels + Definitions

Memory - a form of remembrance, where a part of the body is used as tool or slate to put things down.   Like a video that you save that can be watched over and over and over again.
Life - the feeling of movement and action; having a body that allows you to breath and understand         concepts

Summary 

Written by Ann Brashares, the book, My Name is Memory, is about a man/boy(has about six different ages in story) named Daniel, who has the genetic ability to remember his past lives. Often, this man was able to run into a few other people with this ability, but then the other few lost it when they grew older. The only person introduced that could actually consistently remember past lives other than Daniel was first introduced as a boy named Ben. Ben has been around since as far as the book says, forever. Daniel explains at one point that "Some live only once. Some a very few times. And some just go on and on and on"(147).

Along with this ability is a part where souls and lives are connected to one another. Usually one's mother in one life may become one's sister in the next. Plus these people carry the same attributes from one life to the next, "Those memories are in there somewhere. You act on them in ways you don't realize. They determine how you respond to people, the things you love and the things you fear. A lot of our irrational behavior would look more rational if you could see it in the context of your whole long life"(148). An example of this in the story is of a man, who demands to have his healthy right leg cut off, which confuses all the doctors of that time. Daniel at the age of seven goes up to this man and explains the rationality of it; in the man's past life he had been a soldier at war. His right leg had been shot and amputated from the hip down. Another example of this in the story is an asylum. It is explained to be "the densest concentration of people with partial memories you will ever find. They get flashes and visions but usually not in the right order"(149).

Discussion 

Though this book was written as fictional, it can be proven factual.

When someone dies his or her brain molecule diffuse from the body and mix into the air soon after death. Once someone's body become's cold, his or her soul is gone and floating around for a new body. The time between the different lives is a consistent amount for each individual. Every person is born again with his or her old memories. At this point, differences begin to occur.

Some (very few) humans have the ability to hold the old along with the new, but most do not have the brain space to do this, and begin to forget the memories from the past life. this occurs around the infant stage. The few like the main character have enough space in their brain to contain all of this information. Like a black hole,  Daniel's brain is able to hold all the information in such a condensed space.

Another difference is  the amount of lives a person has. As written earlier, some live once, a couple times, and others forever. An example from the book is Hamilton being a brand new soul, while Jefferson was a couple lives old.

Through life unexpected things happen that create scars and behaviors, which promote new actions. This occurs because people have an innate feeling from the brain particles from their other lives to do this. An example of this is the man who feels he must have a completely healthy limb cut off. This is a genetic disorder called Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), where people feel that things which are part or of their body should not be there.

I choose this book, because it reminded me of how life's too short. But if you think about it, Life's not that short after-all with the many different generations and experiences that a person can have. Have you ever had the feeling of déjà vu? or i think i've seen that person before but i just can't place him/her. That's where your old memories kick in and your mind is mixing the past with the future. Maybe you have seen him or her, or a version of that person in your past life.

Questions

1. Is there a way to test this in a scientific experiment?
2. If memories are placed on brain molecules/cells, what part of a cell's nucleus would they be in? do cell have their own memories?
3. If this is true, would there be a way to extract someone's memories of a Alzheimer person's life and give them back their memories?
4. Is it possible that the author Ann Brashares has the ability, and is using the character Daniel as a cover up?

Resources - 3

• Brashares, Ann. My Name is Memory. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2010. Print. 
• life. N.d. Jpg file. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://castorel.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/life.jpg&imgrefurl=http://castorel.wordpress.com/&usg=__VSfhJj5uHMoOVxSEB6Thvj8Dn8I=&h=500&w=900&sz=54&hl=en&start=0&sig2=4Bdt-3mDu7kCjn9H32Jaxg&zoom=1&tbnid=tfDNIQCBBQ98XM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=159&ei=8iQpTdH2J4XEsAPI082CBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D535%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C112&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=426&vpy=260&dur=1714&hovh=167&hovw=301&tx=145&ty=91&oei=8iQpTdH2J4XEsAPI082CBw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0&biw=1152&bih=535
• origin. N.d. Gif file. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/~deamer/origin2.GIF&imgrefurl=http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/~deamer/&usg=__ey0gktAEqj4otssp0AtGWOeBoGQ=&h=502&w=463&sz=63&hl=en&start=39&sig2=R4gUP34DCyhxPfbw0k_nLg&zoom=1&tbnid=_p0mrraoQ9MsSM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=112&ei=-SYpTYeJDYLGsAOx9ZjOBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D535%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C925&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=899&vpy=194&dur=227&hovh=234&hovw=216&tx=142&ty=157&oei=8iQpTdH2J4XEsAPI082CBw&esq=10&page=3&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:20,s:39&biw=1152&bih=535