Recently
my wife
and I
have
taken to
listening
to CDs
from the
Teaching
Company,
a group
that
provides
topnotch
lecture
series
from
renowned
university
professors
on a
wide
variety
of
topics.
They’re
available
online
to
purchase
and
public
libraries
have
many of
them.
Most
of the
lectures
are 30
minutes
long,
perfect
for
listening
in the
car.
We’ve
found
them to
be a
great
way to
pass the
time on
long
road
trips.
The
most
recent
one we
listened
to – and
we’re
still
not
finished
with it
– is
Biology
and
Human
Behavior:
The
Neurological
Origins
of
Individuality,
a series
of 24
lectures
by
Professor
Robert
Sapolsky
at
Stanford
University.
The
series
starts
out with
a look
at the
nervous
system,
beginning
with a
single
nerve
cell,
the
neuron,
and then
proceeding
to how
chemicals
known as
neurotransmitters
link
neurons
to other
neurons
and then
to
neural
networks
and
finally
how
neural
networks
connect
to
various
parts of
the
brain
and
produce
behavior.
These
lecturers
reminded
me of
the
Family-to-Family
class on
brain
chemistry,
and
people
who have
taken
the
course
will
find
parts of
the
series
very
familiar
but in
greater
depth.
The
series
is
absolutely
fascinating.
In
describing
how the
neural
systems
work,
Professor
Sapolsky
also
shows
how they
can work
incorrectly,
resulting
in
mental
illness.
If you
every
doubted
that
mental
illnesses
are
biologically
based
brain
disorders,
these
lectures
will
certainly
clear
that up
for you.
Sapolsky
talks
about
schizophrenia,
for
example,
and says
that the
most
current
research
holds
that the
main
problem
in this
illness
is that
neurons
in key
areas of
the
brain
produce
too much
of the
neurotransmitter
dopamine.
An
oversupply
of
dopamine
in these
areas
leads to
problems
with
coherent,
linear,
logical
thinking
– a
major
symptom
of
schizophrenia.
So drugs
that
block
dopamine
receptors
in
neurons
reduce
the
symptoms
of
schizophrenia.
But
the
problem
is that
a lack
of
dopamine
in other
areas of
the
brain,
the ones
that
control
muscle
movement,
leads to
the
muscle
trembling
known as
Parkinson’s
disease.
The
treatment
of that
illness
is a
drug
called
L-Dopa,
which
causes
all
areas of
the
brain to
produce
more
dopamine.
But
since an
excess
of
dopamine
in the
first
logical
thinking
areas of
the
brain
results
in
schizophrenia,
doses of
L-Dopa
which
are too
large
have a
side
effect
-- major
psychotic
symptoms,
disordered
thinking
and even
hallucinations,
in other
words
what
would
appear
to be
schizphrenia.
Similarly,
since we
need
dopamine
in
muscle
control
areas of
the
brain to
produce
smooth
muscle
movements
and
prevent
trembling,
anti-psychotic
drugs
that
reduce
the
effectiveness
of
dopamine
and
therefore
reduce
the
symptoms
of
schizophrenia
can have
the side
effect
of
increasing
muscle
trembling,
a
condition
known as
tardive
diskinesia,
but
which
might
better
be
called
induced
Parkinson’s
disease.
Anyway,
I can’t
summarize
the
whole
lecture
series
here,
but it
is
fascinating
and
useful.
If you’d
like to
listen
to the
series
yourself,
try your
local
public
library
or check
out the
Teaching
Company
website
at: (http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=1597).
This
particular
series
of
lectures
is
pretty
pricey,
but the
Teaching
Company
has
frequent
sales
and we
were
able to
buy it
for 70%
off! If
your
local
library
doesn’t
have it,
you
might
ask them
to order
it. And
if that
fails,
when
we’re
done
listening
to it,
let me
know and
you’d be
welcome
to
borrow
it
