Discussion: Symptoms of 2 sleep disorders

1a: Describe the symptoms of 2 sleep disorders discussed in our course textbook, their possible causes and treatments.

1b: Identify the physical and psychological characteristics of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. What makes these disorders difficult for patients to recover from and challenging for clinicians to treat?

Answer both of the questions below.

2a. Recall LeVay’s study of brain anatomy in heterosexual and homosexual men discussed in our course textbook. Some critics of the study have suggested that one or more of the men classified as “heterosexual” might actually have been homosexual or bisexual. If such were the case, would that fact strengthen or weaken the study’s overall conclusions? Why?

2b. What changes in ability to empathize with others would you expect to see in someone with damage to the amygdala? Answer this question by first describing what empathy is and what is required to be able to empathize with others and what the normally functioning amygdala’s function is, and then discussing what characteristics a person with a damaged amygdala would have.

Answer both of the questions below.

3a: Describe the role of the human amygdala in emotions and the role of serotonin synapses in aggressive behavior.

3b: ADHD is diagnosed far more frequently in the U.S. today than in the past, and far more often in the U.S. than in Europe. Suggest at least two possibilities for why this is the case and indicate whether it is testable and what methods researchers would use to test each of the hypotheses you proposed in answering this question.

Answer both of the questions below.

4a: What is meant by the “neurodevelopmental hypothesis” and the “dopamine hypothesis” of schizophrenia? Describe evidence for and against the latter hypothesis.

4b: Research on sensitization of the nucleus accumbens has dealt with addictive drugs, primarily cocaine. Would you expect a gambling addition to have similar effects? Why or why not? How could a researcher test the possibility that it would?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.