5 November 2011

Post 1 - How Badly FAS Children's Brains Are Compromised

NINTH IN A SERIES by BRUCE RITCHIE                                                                                        My project clue at the end.
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence of FASD.

We will be looking at the six major regions of the brain that give FASD babies the lives they have never asked for. They are: Frontal Lobes, Corpus Callosum, Hippcampus, Hypothalamus, Cerebellum, Basal Ganglia.

Also, for your reference, these two pictures will accompany the next 6 posts:


As you can see, we have started with the frontal lobes. Here is what we know:

Frontal Lobes control judgment, inhibition, concentration, self-control, conscience, personality and emotional traits as well as cognition and memory, motor speech and movement skills. The Left Hemisphere deals with language based memory - logical interpretation of language, mathematics, abstraction and reasoning, facts and rules (such as safety and social). The Right Hemisphere deals with holistic functioning - processing of images, sound, touch; for a holistic" picture. Memory here is visual, auditory and spatial.
So, the Left side is logic, facts, and rules. The Right side is sensory input and reactive. The most noteworthy damage to the brain occurs in the prefrontal cortex which controls the Executive Functions.

Executive Functions:

Executive
Functions of the                       Effects of Alcohol Exposure on Behaviours
Prefrontal Cortex                    Related to Executive Functions

Inhibition                               Social inapproproate behavior, as if inebriated
Problem Solving                     Inability to figure out solutions spontaneously
Sexual Urges                         Inability to control sexual impulses, esp. in social situations
Planning                                Inability to apply consequences from past actions
Time Perception                     Difficulty with abstract concepts or time or money
Internal Ordering                     Like files out of order, difficulty processing information
Working Memory                    Storing and/or retrieving information
Self-monitoring                       Needs frequent cues, requires policing by others
Verbal Self-regulation              Needs to talk to self out loud, needs feedback
Motor Control                         Fine motor skills more affected than gross motor
Regulation of Emotion             Moody roller-coaster emotions, exaggerated
Motivation                              Apparent lack of remorse, need external motivators
Judgment                              Inability to weigh pros and cons when making decisions

I have to admit, with ARND, I exhibit 8 or possibly 9 of these 13 executive function difficulties. Remember at one point I mentioned it takes a lot of work to put these blogs together, to get them right. I later look back and actually regret some inconsistencies in wording and how far to go, things like that. I know my blogs in general are pretty good but are they as good (precise) as they could be, should be the question. Have I gone overboard? Did I become a button pusher? You know what I mean. Please, don't jump on me all at once. I really do have some very real difficulties.

And now a clue to my: "Fetus' Sweet Success." I'm downtown Vancouver for maximum exposure. I have a feeling now that I'll just spill the beans on myself making what I said yesterday a bit of a quandary. It's just that I've been thinking about you all and I don't want to create a game. At the same time, I'm a touch scared, if you will, for various external reasons but not in what I am actually doing. What I am doing is right to me. Tomorrow at 6:00pm day 3 begins. However, I will be downtown before that.

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