When we are stressed, the lower part of the brain takes over.

When we are stressed, the lower part of the brain takes over. 

I'm freaking out. My boss is bellowing, my kids are klamoring, I'm stuck in a maze, and I can't find my chocolate chips. I think I'm losing my mind. What's a poor rat like me to do?

Dear Stressed:
You're not alone. I get this kind of letter every week. Whether it's final exams, impatient pups or writing applications for research grants, many of us feel stressed these days. I suggest you take time off work, visit a rodent retreat, and check your protein kinase C levels.
- Amy Arnsten

 

Department of Neurobiology Yale Medical School

Blaming the messenger
Everybody laughs about stress, but stress can change your brain. In a psychology lab, it's easy to show that stress interferes with your working memory, making you temporarily dumb. But stress can also trigger serious mental illnesses like bipolar disorder (manic depression) and schizophrenia.

Stress affects the prefrontal cortex, the executive section of the brain that regulates thought, behavior and emotion. But how? Perhaps through a messenger compound called protein kinase C (PKC).

When Amy Arnsten of Yale Medical School and her colleagues increased PKC levels in rats and monkeys, the animals got stupid. Before the test, they had an easy time finding a chocolate chip they had seen before. But after getting a chemical that increased their PKC levels, they had trouble finding this critical food.

Then, when the researchers blocked PKC, the rats could again find the chips.

In a second experiment, the researchers created the same picture by administering a chemical that simulates stress. As before, the decline was reversed by a PKC-blocking chemical.

Major maladies
If you konstantly kvetch about stress, you might greet these results as interesting, but not terribly significant. But stress and PKC also factor into the most severe mental disabilities among young adults:

Photo: OSHA

Bipolar disorder causes profound mood swings in 1 percent of adult Americans.

Schizophrenia causes hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking, bizarre speech or behavior, and social withdrawal in 1.1 percent of American adults.

Curiously, both these brain diseases, according to Arnsten, "involve profound dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex, the most highly evolved part of the brain, which lets us concentrate, organize, plan for the future." The prefrontal cortex is the home of working memory, a short-term storage that helps you recall where you left your keys.

But there's more: The prefrontal cortex also "inhibits inappropriate thoughts and lets you act appropriately socially," Arnsten adds. So a problem with the prefrontal cortex can prevent you from finding chocolate chips in a lab -- or impair impulse control, distraction, insight and judgment.

The present study grew from the observations of scientists like Husseini Manji of the National Institute of Mental Health, who found excess PKC in brains of people with bipolar disorder. But there are other reasons to wonder about the role of PKC in brain diseases. For example, some drugs for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia "reduce PKC very markedly" in rodent brains, Arnsten says, even though they "are very disparate molecules... and seemingly have nothing in common."

Photo: Insurance Commission of Western Australia

Messing with the messenger
If stress raises PKC levels, and PKC changes how the prefrontal cortex works, Arnsten says PKC could explain the role of stress in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. "Often the first psychotic break happens when a teenager goes to college or to the military for the first time. Stress is often what puts them over the edge."

The research is starting to flesh out a more complete understanding of two grave brain diseases, she adds. "Genetic changes in the regulation of protein kinase C may cause some of the symptoms of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. In other words, we are coming to a rational understanding of irrational behavior."

Having identified how the messenger molecule PKC affects the prefrontal cortex, Arnsten hopes that blocking PKC might help bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Marinus Pharmaceuticals, of New Haven Conn., and the Stanley Medical Research Institute are now funding some of her research to see if PKC inhibitors can be used safely in humans. "We hope this might be a new direction for treating bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, because it would be acting inside the cell, and it might act more quickly," Arnsten says. "We hope that if it's more selective, there will be fewer side effects." 

David Tenenbaum

Bibliography
Protein Kinase C Overactivity Impairs Prefrontal Cortical Regulation of Working Memory, S.G Birnbaum et al, Science, 29 October, 2004.

http://www.whyfiles.org/shorties/163stress_memory/index.html

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Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                   The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

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Learning vocabulary with cards

The sun playing on the surface of the river in Skipton wood - UK.

Learning vocabulary with cards

An excellent* way to learn new words is to make vocabulary cards.

The diagrams below show an example using the word cat

Here's how you do it:

Write the word you want to learn on the front of the card (e.g. size A7 or A8).

On the back of the card, write either the translation of the word in your language,

or a definition of the word, or a gap sentence. If you write 2 or all 3 of these you will learn the word more quickly, and give yourself extra English practice. You could of course copy the definition

and example sentence from the web page, but writing your own is the better choice.

(If you write down a verb, it's best to put its infinitive form.

So for example it's better to write "to purchase" than "purchased" or "to strike" than "struck".)

Now imagine you have a stack of 20 words that you want to learn. To do this, you can test yourself

in many different ways. For example, you can look at the word and try to remember the translation 

or definition; you can look at the gap sentence and try to think of the word that fits in it;

you can look at the word in your language and see if you know the English.

If you get the answer right, write a tick in the left corner on side one of the card, put the card

at the back of your "To learn" stack, and take the next card. If you get it wrong, write a cross and put the card ten places from the front of your stack. When you have three ticks in a row on your card, you know the word and can put the card into a second stack, called the "Done" stack.

You should try and look at about 10-20 words each week in your "To learn stack";

and every few months you can look at some of the cards in your "Done" stack,

just to make sure you haven't forgotten them. If you have, then you can return the card 

to the "To learn" stack and start the process again!

---

* Paul Nation, one of the most renowned researchers in the field of vocabulary learning, states:

"There is a very large number of studies showing the effectiveness of such learning

(i.e. using vocabulary cards) in terms of the amount and speed of learning."

http://esl.fis.edu/learners/advice/voccards.htm

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You can TCR music, poetry or self development material for internal knowing.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

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How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

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Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                  The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

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Could have, would have, should have - modals of lost opportunity

Margarites or dog daisies in a wild meadow.

You had your chance... but you lost it. Now you have the chance to learn how to talk about lost opportunity in English! Master the usage of the modals could, should, and would. Learn how native speakers use these three modals to talk about what they could have, would have, or should have done -- but didn't! Then take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/could-would-sho... .

Turbo Charged Reading: Read more>>>Read fast>>>Remember more>>>Years later

Contact M’reen at: read@turbochargedreading.com

You can TCR specialist and language dictionaries that are spontaneously accessed.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube  

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

https://www.facebook.com/TurboChargedReading/

https://www.instagram.com/turbochargedreading/

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

 To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                    The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”   

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Confusing words – affect & effect, compliment & complement, and more!

Wild dog rose.

affect v effect

compliment v complement

moral v morale v mortal

personal v personnel

principle v principal

compliment v complement

Today you're going to master words that even native speakers confuse!

You'll learn common words that you can use in academic and business situations.

Whether in conversation or in writing, if you use these words correctly, you'll sound smart.

But if you use the wrong word, you won't sound so smart. So join me and learn these words,

as well as how to use them properly. We'll look at the following sets of words: affect & effect, principle & principal, compliment & complement, moral & morale & mortal, personal & personnel, censor & sensor & censure.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam, and today's lesson: "Commonly Confused Words" is very important for those of you trying to learn vocabulary,

but especially for those of you who need to write better. It's very important to write the correct word that you mean, and sometimes, the only difference between words is one letter,

and this one letter makes a huge difference. Okay?

So we're going to look at six sets of commonly confused words.

Now, we're going to start with "affect" and "effect", and the difference being the "a" or the "e". Now, this is one of those pair of words that all teachers in every ESL school,

in every ESL class always teach students, but they don't necessarily teach it completely,

so that's what we're going to look at today.

"Affect", verb, in any situation you're looking at it, but it basically has two different meanings.

One is to have an influence or to influence something, someone. It basically means to have some sort of power over something to make some sort of change.

The noun, they go together, if something affects someone or something,

then the result of that is the effect.

Now, I'm stressing the "e" here just so you hear it, but in reality, in spoken and natural spoken English: "affect", "effect", "affect", "effect". It sounds almost the same,

so you have to be very careful. You especially have to think about the context. Okay?

Context is very important in... With all these words, to know which one is being used,

because the situation that you hear or read the word in will tell you which meaning it is.

So the context is everything that is around the word. So "affect", to influence something;

"effect" is the result or what that influence has done to something or someone.

"To affect" also means to move someone emotionally.

So if you affect someone, it means you have an emotional...

You create an emotional reaction in them. Okay?

You can affect them to the point of tears, means you're making them sad,

you're making them so happy that they're crying.

Now, here's the surprising one that many people don't realize: "effect" can also be a verb.

So most ESL teachers will tell you "affect" is a verb, "effect" is a noun, that's it.

But "effect" can also be a verb, it means to bring about. Okay?

I'm actually going to write this down for you. Now, we especially talk about change.

So, for example, a new manager comes into a department and he wants to effect a change,

a corporate culture change. He wants to bring about or to cause a change.

Now, this is a little bit of a formal word, it's a big of a high-end word. If you're writing the IELTS,

or TOEFL, or SAT, this is a very good word to use as a verb, but make sure that you know

how to use it correctly before you try. Cause, bring about. So, that's these ones.

Next, we have "principle" and "principal". They sound the same, but obviously, different endings. This "principle" is basically a fundamental truth. Something... Like, for example, if you're talking about a scientific principle, this is the truth, and from this truth, we can make other truths

or we can have other investigations into other areas. It's a fundamental truth.

Now, when a person says that he or she has principles, and something goes against their principles, that means that they have a very, very strong belief, and they have a very strong way of doing something or looking at things, and other people can't change that. Okay? So that is a principle.

Turbo Charged Reading: 

Read and Release Time. Read and release your Personal, Professional and Social Potential

Contact M’reen at: read@turbochargedreading.com

You can TCR software and engineering manuals for spontaneously recall – or pass that exam.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube  

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

https://www.facebook.com/TurboChargedReading/

https://www.instagram.com/turbochargedreading/

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                   The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

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Need to, have to, have got to, must - modals of necessity

This is a kingcup.

Turbo Charged Reading: Read more>>>Read fast>>>Remember more>>>Years later

Contact M’reen at: read@turbochargedreading.com

You can TCR music, poetry or self development material for internal knowing.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube 

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

https://www.facebook.com/TurboChargedReading/

https://www.instagram.com/turbochargedreading/

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                   The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

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A simple idea to improve children’s written work

Broom looks like gorse to those just beginning to recognise bush flowers.

A simple idea to improve children’s written work

Deborah Sutton. Headteacher, Bassett Green Primary School

Our ‘Work Proud’ guidelines are giving students confidence in their handwriting.

Putting pen to paper should be a natural instinct for children by the time they reach Key Stage 3:

the gateway into articulating their thoughts, expressing complex ideas and answering questions

with confidence and fluency.

After four years working at a large secondary school in a pretty tough area, I'd seen four cohorts

of fresh-faced Year 7 children arrive and settle into life in secondary education.

It always surprised me that they seemed relatively lacking in confidence, particularly when it came to written work. A simple spelling mistake could cause a total meltdown out of the blue,

and torn out pages or screwed up worksheets were far too common for my liking.

This year, in my new role as headteacher of one of the largest feeder primaries, the penny dropped.

They had never been allowed to use a pen before.

Despite an elaborate system of handwriting schemes of work, certificates and pen licenses,

not one child in my current Year 6 was writing with a pen at any point.  

Handwriting, and indeed basic letter formation,

had lost its way after the early years foundation stage, and simply not been a priority. 

It was no wonder that no child ever achieved the complex criteria for a pen licence.

"We held a whole school INSET on handwriting,

and launched a school-wide handwriting font which is displayed in all classrooms."

Without basic training in letter formation and cursive script, our children are being limited

to printing for the rest of their writing careers.  If we don’t help them to develop the basic skills

 to write down their thoughts quickly and easily, we are limiting their communication for all time.

Imagine how difficult it must be to be thinking constantly about what the next letter looks like, 

rather than focusing on the content of the writing, or the great ideas that you want to express.

Having discovered this fundamental writers’ block, at our school we have produced

 ‘Work Proud’ guidelines to upgrade the quality of the children’s written work.

Drawn up by year teams, these aim to ensure high quality presentation across the year group.

Each reflects the stage of development and age-related expectations for those children. 

The guidelines include simple rules: in maths we write one digit in each square in our book;

if we make a mistake we put a single line through it and write the word again;

we always underline titles and then miss a line.

We held a whole school INSET on handwriting, and launched a school-wide handwriting font which is displayed in all classrooms. All staff are trying hard to model this font to children, either in their own handwriting, or by using the electronic versions that can transform a word document in one click!

None of this is radical or earth shattering; indeed, many schools will have had this in place for years.

There’s still some work to do in managing mistakes and building fluency, but we have taken steps

to give our children confidence in their writing, preparing the ground for them to be expressive, articulate writers for the rest of their lives. 

http://www.future-leaders.org.uk/insights-blog/simple-idea-improve-childrens-written-work/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw9tW5BRDk29KDnqWu4fMBEiQAKj7sp2L3ZkrFS5OlsCt0g7gIFZLAG2boDFQ201x2ZnmLQg4aAokB8P8HAQ

Turbo Charged Reading: 

Read and Release Time. Read and release your Personal, Professional and Social Potential

Contact M’reen at: read@turbochargedreading.com

You can TCR specialist and language dictionaries that are spontaneously accessed.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube 

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

https://www.facebook.com/TurboChargedReading/

https://www.instagram.com/turbochargedreading/

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                   The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Privacy Policy.

Phrasal Verbs with TAKE: "take to", "take in", "take after"...

TRANSCRIPT
I'm Adam. Today's lesson is, again, phrasal verbs; everybody's favourite lessons.

Today, we're going to look at phrasal verbs using the verb "take".

Again, a quick review: what is a phrasal verb?

A phrasal verb is a verb and a preposition, when put together, giving different meanings.

Sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes more.

So, today, we're going to look at "take out", "take in", "take over", "take up",-excuse me-

"take after", "take back", "take off", "take on", "take down", "take to".

Let's start with "take out". All of you, of course, know takeout food.

You go to McDonald's, they ask you if you want to eat in or take out.

So, take out means to take your food to go. That's one meaning.

Another meaning of "take out" is the literal meaning; exactly what the words mean.

For example, you have a turkey in the oven. It is finished cooking. You take it out of the oven.

Then, there is also the slang. If you want to take someone out, you kill them.

You see this in kind of the mob movies. They want to take someone out; they want to assassinate. Assassinate. I'll have to... Yeah, I'll leave that for now. Okay.

"Take in". What does "take in" mean? A few meanings as well.

The first is the most common one. If your clothes are too big, if you've lost some weight,

you might want to take in your shirt, or your dress, or your pants.

You take it to a tailor, and he or she will take it in; make it smaller, tighter.

Another meaning of "take in", for example, if you go outside your house and you see a cat,

and the cat is sitting there: "Meow, meow", you know, it's all sad and lonely. You take it in.

It doesn't mean you take it into your house. It, of course, means that.

But more, it means like adopt. You take it into your house; you give it a home, it’s part of the family.

So, you accept, you take in, you adopt something or someone.

"Take over". "Take over" means assume control of something.

So, for example, if I own a big company and you own a slightly smaller company,

but you're my competition, one way I can beat you is I can take over your company.

I can buy a lot of shares in your company, and I take over. I take control.

If we're going on a long road trip, and I'm driving and I'm getting tired,

I say: "Oh, can you take over the driving?" Means we switch, and you continue driving.

"Take up".

If you take up space, for example, it means you use. You use space. You take up space in a room.

Another way to say "take up" is you start to do something new, like a new hobby, or you start learning something new. So, recently, I took up Spanish. It means I started going to Spanish classes, and I started to learn Spanish.

Now, if you add "with", you can take something up with someone. It means you can discuss.

So, if you have a problem in your class and you're falling behind, and you're not doing so well,

take this problem up with your teacher. It means go to your teacher and discuss the situation.

See how you can fix it. Okay.

"After". If you take after someone, means you behave like them. It's very similar to look like,

except it's not about physical features; it's about personality. So, if you take after someone,

you are similar to someone in terms of character or behaviour.

So, for example, I take after my mother. My sister takes after my father. My father was

a very hot-tempered man. My sister's a very hot-tempered woman, so she takes after him.

"Take back". Again, two meanings. There's the literal meaning, so I lend you my pen. You use it.

You finished. I take it back. You give it back to me, it returns to me; I take it back.

Now, if I said something really mean to you or something not nice, or I made a promise

and then I take it back, it means I cancel what I said. So, if I said something that made you upset

and I take it back, it means I apologize. I take back the bad words and everything's okay, hopefully.

If I made a promise then take it back, it means I'm not going to do this promise anymore. Okay?

So you have to be a little bit careful about take backs.

"Take off". I think most of you know the airplane takes off. It goes down the runway,

then "whew," takes off.

But "take off" can also mean to be very successful or very quickly to do well. So, a business starts and, you know, the owners are doing what they can, but suddenly the business just takes off.

 It becomes very popular, very successful, making lots of money, hopefully, again.

English phrasal verbs - take after, take back, take down, take in

English and Russian online

Aprende inglés online - Phrasal Verbs 10 - take off

Turbo Charged Reading: 

Read and Release Time. Read and release your Personal, Professional and Social Potential

Contact M’reen at: read@turbochargedreading.com

You can TCR music, poetry or self development material for internal knowing.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube  

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

https://www.facebook.com/TurboChargedReading/

https://www.instagram.com/turbochargedreading/

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life.

http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/   takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

                                                  The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Privacy Policy.