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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1981)
Page 6 THE BATTALION MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1981 Local Lo Brain implants help treat mental problems United Press International Brain pacemakers — battery- powered electrodes implanted just underneath the skull on the surface of the cerebellum — have been used for the first time to treat patients suffering from schi zophrenia, depression and brain damage, and epileptics with be havioral pathology. Dr. Robert Heath, chairman of Tulane University’s department of psychiatry and neurology, is the first to use the pacemakers in this manner, according to Science Digest magazine. They had previ ously been used to treat epilepsy. muscle-coordination problems and uncontrollable pain. Dr. Heath experimentally tre ated 41 patients by implanting pacemakers on the surface of their cerebellums, which he says is the area intimately connected to the pleasure and pain centers deep in side the brain. The “least gratify ing results” have been with schi zophrenics, Heath says, “but with aggressive or depressed patients, results continue to be en couraging. ” A new branch of psychology is taking Freud’s theory of personal ity a step farther back in time. Some birth psychologists say the roots of personality go back not to the first years of life but to birth and even back to the womb. “All patterns in life are metaphoric reenactments of birth,” says Leslie Feher, a psychologist and founder of the Association for Birth Psychology. In other words, Feher said, the way you were bom influences your personality. Babies bom by cesarean section miss labor con tractions, the “essential process of birth” says Feher. As a consequ- ence, they seek instant gratifica tion. Feet-first breech births promote aggression and overreac tion. Pressure of forceps on the head can lead to chronic headaches or mental illness. And insensitive handling just after birth can result in an aversion to human contact. It’s a highly con troversial concept but many ob stetricians, pediatricians and nurses are members of Feher’s association. A congressional study of the theory is underway. The heavy emphasis on popula tion control in China has had one highly useful, major side effect other than keeping the birth rate down. One child per family has become a widespread motto, and marriage is usually discouraged until men are 27 and women are 23. In some villages, couples form teams that decide each year the number of children the commun ity can afford to have and which families should have them. The government offers financial “dis incentives” to couples who limit family size. And along with the social pressure against large fami lies have come strong taboos against premarital and extramarit al sex — with the result that Chi na’s population of950 million has a remarkably low rate of venereal disease tions. compared to other na- Researchers from the Harvard Medical School may have disco vered the biological clock that tells us when to sleep and when to wake up: it’s a cluster of neurons in the hypothalamus in the brain. “We believe this pacemaker sends out nerve impulses — like a clock in a computer,” says R. Mar tin Moore-Ede, who headed the research group. “Destruction of the clusters in rodents and pri mates causes their periods of sleep and waking to be randomly distri buted through the day,”,\lotp Ede explains. “Weean'tpeiM human experiments that prove the cluster acts as apt maker. But the evidencestrorf suggests that it does.” When you take yournextslu er, you’d do well nottoscnil vigorously. Those 12to20s(]j feet of dead skin that cover body help keep out foreign m ances. bacteria, fungus and tion. ’The elbow replaces hits er layer every 10 days, bat inside of the forearm can tali long as 100. f'-'i D. R. 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Cain Company 3002 South Texas Avenue College Station Call 693-8850 weekdays 8:00 to 5:00 Call 693-8345 on Saturday VOGEL FOR SR. YELL LEADER YOUR OPTICAL SHOPPE 15% off All eyeglass orders and non-prescription sunglasses from NOW until the end of March! Hours: Mondoy-Fridoy 10-6 p.m. Thursday 10-8 p.m. Saturday 9:30-3 p.m. YOUR OPTICAL SHOPPE MANOR EAST MALL NEXT TO WARDS. BRYAN Phone: 779-1509 children learn mathematics as a language — just as they would learn French in France. “The mathematical concepts that are very laborious to teach in the classroom are picked up with out the child noticing them” when he uses the computer, the profes- “The mathematical con cepts that are very labo rious to teach in the clas sroom are picked up without the child noticing them” when he uses the computer. sor of mathematics and education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology said. "It’s just like a child learning to talk — he doesn’t consciously think, ‘Now it’s time to learn how to talk,’ it just comes naturally,” Papert said. “We’re moving towards the time when every child has a per sonal computer. It will be as natu ral as having a pencil; it’s some thing that’s just there. They can use the computer for everything they write, calculate, draw, even to compose music.” However, Papert said such ex tensive use of computers will not make a child lazy about calculating in his head. "Children having difficulties with arithmetic usually don’t like the subject, because they don’t see the point of doing it," Papert said. "But get them to using the computer and they like learning. They are sufficiently intrigued ab out the computer that they start thinking about why and how it does things.” Papert’s LOGO computer lan guage system is different from the way computers usually are used in education. Instead of a “clever” computer teaching a “dumb” stu dent, LOGO requires the student to teach the computer to carry out tasks. He recently won the $25,000 Marconi International Fellowship for the development of LOGO. Papert’s project, developed at MIT during a 10-year period, is now being used by the Lampligh ter School, a private Dallas school offering preschool through the fourth grade. But to insure the system’s credibility of being able to work with all children, it is being tested in 15 classrooms of the New York public school system. And even though the New! students are from a wide r» backgrounds and i "we’re seeing very muchthes: sorts of results as at Lampliei:; Papert said. Lamplighter SchoolhasSj sonal computers for its 11(1 ‘We re moving tom: the time when m child has a personalm — puter. It will be asni ral as having a pencil; something that’s ji there. They can use !■ computer for eveijtk they write, c, draw, even to conn k-.r > music. dents to use during time. Papert’s association plighter was instigated Jonsson, one of the foi Texas Instruments and dir. pf the board of Lamp School. TI worked with) developing LOGO. Mike ]V1 nd fisf ith a eggs in JOHN DUNGAN for PRESIDENT '84 Paid for by John Dungan. * * j(L LET’S KEEP DENISE WHIM 1 ^ and T MARK A. VAR/ in the Senate Jf COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDK “An Experienced Te01 yA Working for You" ! -¥■-¥-¥-¥■*4#: MONDAY EVENING TUESDAY EVENING WEDNESDAY SPECIAL Salisbury Steak SPECIAL Mexican Fiesta Dinner EVENING SPECIAL with Two Cheese and Chicken Fried Steak Mushroom Gravy Onion Enchiladas w cream Gravy Whipped Potatoes w chili Whipped Potatoes and Yout Choice of Mexican Rice Choice of one other One Vegetable Patio Style Pinto Beans Vegetable Roll or Com Bread and Butter Tostadas Roll or Corn Bread and81® Coffee or Tea Coffee or Tea One Corn Bread and Butter Coffee or Tea Now Better Than Ever. 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