Gay men smell better...to other gay men.

So, as the title suggests, todays blog will consist of an article I read a couple of days ago about pheromones and how they are differ between Homosexual men and Heterosexual men.

Alright, so, let's begin with defining what a Pheromone is. By simply Googling "Pheromone" we get this definition: "A chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal, esp. a mammal or an insect, affecting the behavior or physiology of others of its species."


I did the same for Homosexual: "A person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex."

And for Heterosexual: "A person sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0510_050510_gayscent_2.html

If you were to click the link above, you would be sent straight to the article that I read a couple of days ago about Pheromones. 

According to the article, pheromones are not only a key factor in what smells/people we are attracted to in heterosexual individuals, but also in homosexual individuals. In the study, participants were asked to smell normal everyday things such as lavender, and cedar to which the scientist noticed only the area of the brain that reacts to smells activated, there wasn't an indication that sexual arousal or behavior came from smelling these items.  

This is how they began the study: "The scientists exposed heterosexual men and women and homosexual men to chemicals found in male and female sex hormones. One chemical is a testosterone derivative produced in men's sweat. The other chemical is an estrogen-like compound in women's urine." 

This is the new factor that came into play in this study: "The scientists added a sexual-orientation element, which revealed a difference in the brain activity of gay and straight men."

And this is what happened: "The researchers found that the testosterone compound activated the hypothalamus in homosexual men and heterosexual women, but not heterosexual men. Conversely, the estrogen compound activated the hypothalamus only in heterosexual men."

So, basically it works like this....

	AND	EST
Straight men	Irritation	Sexual response
Gay men	Sexual response	Irritation
Straight women	Sexual response	Irritation
Lesbians	Irritation	Sexual response

AND=ANDROGEN-LIKE PHEROMONES FOUND IN MEN

EST=ESTROGEN-LIKE PHEROMONES FOUDN IN WOMEN

http://www.gayexplained.com/homosexuality-response-pheromones/

Click the link for a full explanation of the chart.

I found this study to be incredibly interesting because I never thought that our pheromones would be programmed to be attracted to individuals that fall under our sexual preference. Blog question for the week, have you ever noticed yourself (sexually) attracted to a specific person or sex because of their smell? Are you conscious of this now?

Dyscalculia

         This weeks topic we are studying in chapter 13.1 is Learning, Memory and Amnesia...personally, I didn't particularly find any of that interesting so, I'm going to dedicate today's blog about a learning disorder called Dyscalculia. Now, before you say this blog is irrelevant to this weeks designated chapter, let me tell you, one of the symptoms that a person with Dyscalculia is having trouble remembering facts and sequences, so HA!  (neener, neener!)

    Anyways, on with my scholarly face. Let's define what Dyscalculia is: wide range of lifelong learning disabilities involving math. First and foremost, there is NO SINGLE type of math disability, and it varies from individual to individual. Individuals who suffer from Dyscalculia have Visual-spatial difficulties, which result in trouble processing what the eye sees and language processing difficulties, which result in trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears.

The following includes simple things such as counting money, telling time, organizing ideas, estimation, etc. that a person with Dyscalculia have a difficult time doing. One of the treatment of aiding difficulty with this disorder is memorizing a lot of thing, however, I find this to be silly being that one of the problems with this disorder is having trouble remembering and understanding patterns in numbers and such...it reminds me of the 10 Warning signs of Alzheimer's, in which the individual has trouble developing plans, ideas, keeping track of bills and such.

These are the 10 Warning signs of Alzheimer's

1) Memory loss that disrupts daily life

2)Challenges in planning or solving problems

3)Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure

4)Confusion with time or place

5)Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships

6)New problems with words in speaking or writing

7)Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps

8)Decreased or poor judgment

9)Withdrawal from work or social activities

10)Changes in mood and personality

I didn't really want to write about this, however, my boyfriend suffers from this and has a lot of trouble everyday with it. I'd say every day he suffers from 5-7 of these signs above due to the Dyscalculia. It wasn't until I started seeing the similarities...Do you think this disorder could be an indicator of early onset Alzheimer's? Do you think these symptoms are similar in the sense of memory?

Here is a link to aide you with more information on Dyscalculia:

http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/dyscalculia/what-is-dyscalculia

Here is a link with the 10 Warning signs of Alzheimer's:

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp

Here are a couple of short videos with a slight explanation of what it's like to have Dyscalculia:

broca's aphasia

Alright, guys, I want to start off with a video of a girl from the UK names Sarah Scott who suffered a stoke at 18. She has since had trouble remembering her age, and it seems to me that she struggles her name as well. She can't text or email someone without the assistance of her mother. I apologize, but Blogger wasn't able to find this link to imbed it into this blog, so I'm afraid it's going to be like last time...just click the link.

http://youtu.be/SFeFzm4GX6g

This is Broca Aphasia.

To describe Broca Aphasia in the simplest way would be to say it is an aphasia in which expression of speech by writing or speaking is severely impaired. This occurs when an individual has a stroke that damages the frontal regions of the left hemisphere of the brain. This is the side of the brain in which language occurs, so, you can only guess what would happen if this part of your brain were damaged.

Individuals suffering from Broca have trouble completing sentences, understanding them, confusing directions, and confusing word order in a sentence. 

http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/LifeAfterStroke/RegainingIndependence/CommunicationChallenges/Types-of-Aphasia_UCM_310096_Article.jsp

This link offers a vast amount of information on Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia. 

Some suggest speech therapy ASAP on stroke victims to reduce the severity of the language impairment. The therapy includes extensive reading, writing, repeating sentences spoken to them, reading directions, etc. Studies show that the younger the victim of a stroke, the less severe the damage is...generally the victim tends to recover most of his/her language skills with therapy and time.