Basal ganglia calcification is a disorder that is characterized by abnormal deposits of calcium in the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex areas of the brain; affecting movement, awareness, memory, motor skills, as well as causing psychiatric and behavioral difficulties. Although considered rare, basal ganglia calcification is believed to be under-diagnosed since calcium deposits are only recognized through brain imaging tests. (Josiah, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Health). This condition can be very frustrating to the individual, as well as the family.
Since the age of five, my daughter, Brittany, began displaying several disabilities including attention deficit-hyperactive disorder (ADHD), learning difficulties, short stature, and hand tremors, all of which had no known cause or causal connection. However, at the age of thirteen, she was diagnosed with basal ganglia calcification, after a CT scan performed to diagnose a sudden onset of severe headaches revealed the existence of calcium deposits. Although the CAT scan was not a determining factor in the diagnoses of the root cause of her headaches, it was a key factor in determining the possible cause of her noted disabilities.
Although the cause of basal ganglia calcification is unknown, it has been associated with toxic exposure, such as carbon monoxide poisoning; infections, such as congenital conditions, tuberculosis, AIDS; metabolic imbalances, such as thyroid disorders, and genetic disorders, such as mitochondrial diseases (MELAS), Cockayne Syndrome and pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) also known as Hallervorden-Spatz Syndrome (Knipe).
Basal ganglia calcification can result in psychiatric and b...
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...nd Hearing Center, Plattsburgh State
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In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
Sherman Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member (Sherman Alexie). He began his personal battle with substance abuse in 1985 during his freshman year at Jesuit Gonzaga University. The success of his first published work in 1990 incentivized Alexie to overcome his alcohol abuse. “In his short-story and poetry collections, Alexie illuminates the despair, poverty, and alcoholism that often shape the lives of Native Americans living on reservations” (Sherman Alexie). When developing his characters, Alexie often gives them characteristics of substance abuse, poverty and criminal behaviors in an effort to evoke sadness with his readers. Alexie utilizes other art forms, such as film, music, cartoons, and the print media, to bombard mainstream distortion of Indian culture and to redefine Indianness. “Both the term Indian and the stereotypical image are created through histories of misrepresentation—one is a simulated word without a tribal real and the other an i...
Walton, Sir John. Brain's Diseases of the Nervous System. Oxford University Press. New York, 1955, pp. 365.
In Caucasia, by Danzy Senna, Birdie spends time in several different racial contexts and, in each one, adjusts the racial definition of herself. Through this process, she discovers much about the conception of race in contemporary American society and achieves the nuanced understanding that race, while merely a construction, is still (operationally) real. This is contrasted by the more dangerous, oversimplified understanding of race – that races are biological rivals, inherently different and unable to coexist without some sort of power structure – embodied by the character of Redbone, who is also a symbol of inauthenticity. This latter aspect of Redbone shows the emptiness inherent in the views he holds about race, an important reason for his inclusion in the novel.
Bobbie Ann Mason and Sherman Alexie are two modern authors who write about their different childhood experiences and their hopes and desires for futures outside of the customs they were accustomed to. In her 1999 excerpt “Being Country” from her book Clear Springs: A Memoir, author and essayist Mason describes her childhood on a farm in rural Kentucky. Despite her childhood being pleasant, she rebelled against the simplistic confines that type of lifestyle demanded (106). Alexie writes in his essay from 1997 “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” of life on the Spokane Indian Reservation where he was born. He tells us how he used his love of reading as a way to escape from the Indian world and found success outside of the reservation. Even though they came from different cultures, Alexie and Mason were exposed at a young age to similar outside influences that helped shape their self-identities. As a result, they both envisioned futures that were not only ambitious but different from the lives they had been born into.
While it is rare to have a diagnosis in children younger than 12 years of age, it does happen. Average age of onse...
that caused seizures, hemiparesis, and dementia normally in the first ten years of life. The seizures that
Hardship is everywhere but Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” is an amusing and intelligent novel that clearly provides the reader with perfect examples of poverty and friendship on an Indian reservation. Alexie incorporates those examples through the point of view and experiences of a fourteen year old boy named Arnold Spirit Jr.
American Indian students make up less than one percent of college or higher education students, and less than one third of American Indian students are continuing education after high school. In his memoir essay The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie recalls learning to read, growing up on a reservation where he was expected to fail, and working tirelessly to read more and become a writer. Sherman Alexie had to overcome stereotypes in order to be accepted as smart and become a writer, which shows that it is harder for people who are stereotyped to be successful because they have less opportunities.
Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” is a rather intriguing and emotion packed essay of a young Indian boy’s remarkable quest for knowledge.
The basal ganglia are part of the extrapyramidal system and work in conjunction with the motor cortex in providing movement and serve as the relay center. Damage to this area results in Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, the second most common form of cerebral palsy. Involuntary purposeless movements, particularly in the arms, hands, and facial muscles, characterize Athetosis. In addition, the individual can become “stuck” in abnormal positions or postures and require specific positioning to maintain more normal tome and
The cause of this is caused by a defect on chromosome 4. This gene is in control for building proteins called huntingtin. Chromosome is a construction of nucleic acids and protein. It brings genetic information in the form of genes. The defect on the gene defines that specific proteins are required to make brain substances that can’t be prepared in the brain normally. This is also the result to the harm and loss of brain cells and some portions of the brain. Also there a collection of chemical called dopamine. This also causes movement problems. This damage this leads to the symptoms to the disorder known as Huntington’s disease. (Patient.Co.Uk, 2011).
The basal ganglia, highlighted in blue on the diagram, is responsible for movement and emotions, and integrating sensory information. Schizophrenic patients’ basal ganglia in their brains function abnormally. These defects are thought to contribute and trigger the symptoms of paranoia and hallucinations.
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
In conclusion, Sherman Alexie created a story to demonstrate the stereotypes people have created for Native Americans. The author is able to do this by creating characters that present both the negative and positive stereotypes that have been given to Native Americans. Alexie has a Native American background. By writing a short story that depicts the life of an Indian, the reader also gets a glimpse of the stereotypes encountered by Alexie. From this short story readers are able to learn the importance of having an identity while also seeing how stereotypes are used by many people. In the end of the story, both Victor and Thomas are able to have an understanding of each other as the can finally relate with each other through Victor's father.