Compulsive Behaviors of College Students Cause Long Term Effects Related to Brain Damage and Risk of Addiction

Here's an infographic I made to
highlight the "take home" message
in this article.

The most extreme example of typical college student can be imagined as a mediocre student that spends most of their time drinking heavily, abusing other substances, and pulling the occasional all-nighter to complete all the schoolwork they've been putting off for months. However, the effects of behaviors like heavy drinking when performed by adolescents don't all go away as quickly as the hangover does. Many of these behaviors can cause irreversible changes in the genes that have long term effects that last long into adulthood. Compulsive, radical behaviors like binge drinking and smoking cause changes in the genes that lead increased risk for addiction, increased stress levels, increased risk of heart disease, and damaged brain cells. All of these effects become permanently embedded in the genes if the behaviors do not stop before late adulthood. 



Active genes are responsible for a function in the body, but active genes can become inactive.

Our genes each contain the information to make a specific protein. Proteins carry out the functions in our cells and in our bodies. Your eye color, the way your voice sounds, and the way your metabolism works each have a protein and a gene that is responsible for each of those. Scientists call this process Gene Expression. An active gene is a gene that is being expressed, meaning it is making a protein, and responsible for some functional process in your body. An inactive gene is not expressed; it will not make the protein that it is supposed to. An inactive gene is not always a bad thing though; the ability to inactivate genes allows us to have different cell types (skin cells, blood cells) for example. In the video to the right, Researcher and Professor of Genetics at the University of Maryland, Dr. David Straney, explains why we need some genes to be inactivated, or turned off. To learn more about genes, how and why they need to be activated or inactivated, try this interactive teaching module provided by the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah.

Genes can be activated or inactived by chemicals in our bodies that respond to a signal from the environment. 

Nature 441, 143-145 (11 May 2006) | doi:10.1038/441143a 

Since genes can be readily activated or inactivated, there must be a way for the body to turn on or off certain genes in response to different signals. It turns out, small chemical groups called methyl groups and acetyl groups can be added to certain places on the genes to activate or inactivate them. Scientists call this phenomenon Epigenetics. This video, also from the Genetic Science Learning Center, includes an excellent visualization and explanation of how this process works. Epigenetic changes can become permanent if they are not reversed within a certain time period. After a certain point, you cannot remove the groups that inactivate certain genes. Epigenetic changes are signaled by environmental cues or behaviors. These changes can be positive or negative. Dr. Straney explained one example of baby mice that experience more nurturing from their mother within the first week of life will have genes that act as the body's natural stress reducer activated, and those mice will grow up to be less scared and less anxious throughout adulthood. These genes cannot be influenced after the first week of life, so these changes are irreversible. If you want to see how that works, click here for an interactive module that lets you determine how much the pup is nurtured and how that effects the genes. On the other hand, behaviors like binge drinking or cigarette smoking can inactivate necessary genes, or even activate the wrong ones.


Binge drinking increases risk for Alcohol Addiction, Heart Disease, and Kills Brain Cells. 

An Infographic that represents the
amount of alcohol that college
students use. 8.5 million students
or 50 % of all college students
binge drink, and are can are
most likely affected by these gene
changes.

The effects of Binge Drinking may come as no surprise to us, but knowing exactly how this behavior manipulates a healthy body may convince binge drinkers to finally change their ways. In one study, alcohol abuse in adolescents was proven to cause irreversible changes in the genes that control parts of the heart called the cardiomyopathy signaling pathway. These changes increase susceptibility to heart disease which persists throughout the lifetime since the changes are irreversible. In another study, regular binge-drinking episodes were proven to increase the likelihood of alcohol addiction later by two different mechanisms. Binge drinking causes an increase in the activity of the genes in the part of the brain that controls addiction. Binge drinking also causes a decrease in the activity of the genes in the part of the brain that serves as the body's natural reward system. Deactivating the body's natural reward system causes addiction because alcohol becomes the body's external source of reward as a replacement, and the user needs alcohol to feel rewarded. Both of these strategies increase the likelihood of alcohol addiction throughout the binge-drinker's lifetime. In the same study, binge drinking was also proven to increase the activity of a gene that inhibits neuron survival, which basically means it prevents brain cells from surviving. All of these genetic changes are encoded by our cells and maintained, so the effects are long lasting and persist over the lifetime.

Surprisingly, nicotine usage has no substantial effect on brain development, but the imposed food restriction causes increased stress levels.

Researchers were unable to find any substantial evidence that Nicotine has any effects at all on brain development or brain signaling pathways. Nicotine is the active ingredient in cigarettes, a common substance abused by college students, and it make sense that Nicotine would be the thing that to cause any negative effects on the brain due to cigarette smoking. However, one of the major side effects of Nicotine abuse is a decrease in appetite. In the same study that disproved nicotine to affect the brain, this "induced food restriction" was proven to cause major genetic changes that inhibited the brain's natural stress response pathway, and led to significantly increased stress levels that lasted throughout adulthood.

Finally, succoumbing to these compulsive behaviors amplifies the effect on the genes. The effects are additive, so with every yes, it becomes harder and harder to say no. 

Listen to Dr. Straney's final thoughts on how compulsive behavior can be examined genetically.

David30 says Multimedia Techniques are Important to Learn in Preparation for Entering the Workforce

Article about Itch Scratching Research featured on Science Daily is an exemplary model of all four PICK concepts

Featured research article “Why scratching makes you itch more,” is an excellent example of all four PICK Concepts. The article features personalized language that engages the reader, and a contiguous graphic that provides readers with an easy to understand breakdown of the neurological processes behind itching. Reducing the scientific language to a format that readers are more likely to understand helped to minimized kick-outs. The article includes less interactive material, yet remains one of the best articles that displays all four concepts.

Diagram for brain process after an itch is easy to understand and contiguous with text.

            The graphic included in the itch-scratching article is a model that displays visually how the brain processes the act of scratching an itch. The color-coding of the arrows and the bold faced words are pleasing to the eye and reduce cognitive stress, making the graphic much easier for readers to process. The graphic alone provides a great abbreviated version of the brain process that would provide enough information to someone who didn’t read the article how the brain processes an itch-scratch.  The caption aids processing and increases contiguity by explaining the graphic in greater detail and relating it to the text.

Personalized language helps to engage readers to learn about this already personalized concept.

            The principle of relativity is a psychological phenomenon that explains students learning and understanding increases when the information can be directly related to the student. The principle of relativity is a fundamental concept of a personalized article and is utilized in this article to personalize the material. The article used phrases like “makes you itch more” and “your mom was right.” This personalized language engages readers in the material, causing readers to instinctively search for deeper meaning within the material, facilitating a deeper understanding of the material. The concept of itch scratching is already a concept that everyone is familiar with, and the increased familiarity of the topic also enhances learning.

More familiar and simpler language reduces cognitive load and minimizes Kick-Outs.

            The article replaces difficult scientific terminology with much simpler and easy-to-understand language to reduce cognitive processing, which helps readers to learn more and also allows them to finish reading the article. Language that is difficult to understand is a major potential kick out, since most people don’t want to read an article full of words they cannot understand. This article does a terrific job of minimizing scientific language. For example, the article uses phrases like “pain signals” and “itch signals” instead of including the specific neurotransmitter and cellular receptor that distinguish the pathway for those signals. The article also uses words like “carry” instead of axonal transport, and “sensation” instead of physiological response. There are several other scientifically intense words that have been refrained from usage in this story.

Sharing options and graphic display minimal interactivity, which is still better than nothing.

Finding an article that includes all four PICK concepts is incredibly difficult, especially since a lot of articles that come close often go overboard with contiguous graphics and animation and interactive design; this often causes cognitive overload, which is a major kick out. The examples of interactivity in this model are the social media sharing options, a tab on the left side that allows you to share the article over the web using different social media accounts and other forms of communication, and also the option to enlarge the graphic. The examples are amazing for interactivity, but adding any interactive material to this would have been excessive. I think the article is simple, to the point, and efficient. It tells readers what they need to know and give them exactly enough resources to understand the material and to provide the option to seek further information if they really wanted to. Overall, I think this article is an excellent example of the PICK model .

New Study Finds that Increase in Physical Activity leads to Increase in Academic Achievement

A Physical Activity Intervention Program was implemented in a Swedish Elementary school to see if increased Physical Activity would affect Academic Achievement. The program was held twice a week after school, and it included physical activities as well as health related educational programs. Markers were created to measure the academic achievement of students who were not included in the program (Control Group) and students who were included in the program (Intervention Group). Academic achievement was measured at the time just before the Program started, and again after 5 years of the program's installment. After 5 years of program participation, the students who participated in the Intervention demonstrated higher academic achievement than the students who did not. Read about this study, published in the Journal of School Health, here.

Digital Devices, Gender, Age, and Country all affect the Relative Amount of News Consumption.

By: Katie 11 and Michael 45

The University of Maryland recently celebrated its own News Engagement Day. What variables affect the news consumption of the public? In this post, we determine the effects of digital devices, gender, age and native country on the amount of overall news consumption.

Increase in the number of digital devices affects the mode by which Users engage their News.
Over the past couple of years the number of smartphones and tablets that people own has drastically increased. This has had several effects on the ways users engage in the news. For example, the number of users that read the news on their smartphone or tablet several times a day has increased over the past two years. This is most like because there are more users that have tablets or smartphones and therefore are available to check the news on their device more often. Accordingly, the amount of news consumed by using an app has increased in both smartphones and tablets over the past year, and the amount of news consumed by using a web browser on both smartphones and tablets over the past year has decreased. This is most likely because using web browsers on a digital device can be more frustrating for websites without a mobile mode; as the number of devices increased, the number of app developers also most likely increased, therefore more apps for news consumption became available for users, causing the news consumption over an app to increase as well. 

Men access news more frequently than women; but interest in types of News varies.
Universally, 72% of men access the news multiple times a day as compared to only 59% of women. Additionally, men make up the majority of the population of "News Lovers," or people who access news extremely frequently. Women make up the majority of the population of "Casual Users," or people who rarely every check the news. These findings may be related to the type of news both genders prefer. Women prefer health, local, or entertainment related news, while men prefer politics, sports, and business related news. Since the majority of news is related to politics or business, it could be that men check the news more frequently because the news is more frequently related to the interests of men.

Individuals of older age have greater interest in news, but consume less online.
Another finding reported that as age increases, the relative interest in the news also increases, However, as age decreases, the interest in fun or weird news increases. Additionally, as age increases, the percentage of individuals who consume news mainly by Television increases. Younger users are more likely to consume news online, which is most likely because the number of individuals with tablets are smartphones is greater among individuals of younger age. 

Occurrence of Access and Interest In News  

            The frequency of access doesn’t always map to interest. The Brazilians are the most interested when it comes to being interested in the news when it comes to the rest of the countries around the world. Throughout the world, men say that they are more interested in the news than women and that the interest of news rises with age. Across the world, TV remains on top as the main way people get their news. The people of France are the highest of any country in getting their news on Television. The younger generation of people prefers to get their news online than watching television, but the older generation still prefers to get their news through television.

Good Interactivity

listen to ‘Good Interactivity’ on audioBoom

What Factors Influence Students' Perceived Benefit of Technological Tools for Academic Use?

Here's an infographic I made using Piktochart that displays the major findings of a research study conducted at Towson University on the students' perceived benefit of using technological tools for Academic Purposes.