Hormones
Glucocorticoids and what other steroid hormone, which is responsible for muscle growth, have similar chemical structures?
Testosterone – If a fetus has a lot of glucocorticoids in circulation, the glucocorticoids can begin to block receptors for testosterone and make it impossible for testosterone to have its effects.
True or false – Adults still release growth hormone?
True – Growth hormone facilitates the bone remodeling process.
What is the process of the body turning food and drink into energy?
Metabolism – Metabolic “programming” can occur in a fetus, where if they are born during a famine or don’t receive enough nutrients, the fetus’s metabolism shifts permanently as a response to having to conserve food. That individual is more at risk for hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later on in life. Metabolic “programming” has generational effects because the mother becomes better at storing nutrients, and the fetus gets less and shifts its metabolism as well.
A study was conducted in two different orphanages in Germany after WWII. Orphanage A was run by a mother figure who played with the children and comforted them. Orphanage B was run by a woman who minimized her contact with the children and constantly criticized them. Do you think that orphanage A or B had slower growth rates?
Orphanage B – This study highlights the cause of stress dwarfism and the importance of children receiving comfort. An interesting fact is that J.M. Barrie, who is the writer of Peter Pan, is thought to have had stress dwarfism and wrote a lot about children who don’t fully grow up.
Cortisol is an example of which class of steroid hormones discussed in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers? This same class of hormone is also administered to women who are at risk of delivering prematurely.
Glucocorticoids – Heavy administration of them during pregnancy has been reported to result in children with smaller head circumferences and emotional and behavioral problems in childhood. No long-term effects were known at the time the book was written, but a recent study I read said that it can put the child at risk for reduced growth later in life and a higher chance of developing hypertension.
Does the presence of a high level of glucocorticoids inhibit or accelerate the growth of new bone?
Inhibit – Glucocorticoids disrupt the division of bone-precursor cells and block the uptake of dietary calcium in the intestines. This is the case in people with Cushing’s syndrome, where glucocorticoids are secreted at high levels because of a tumor. In these patients, bone mass decreases significantly, and they are at greater risk for osteoporosis.
What is the most highly evolved region of the brain?
The frontal cortex – children who have been abused have elevated glucocorticoid levels, and decreased size and activity of the frontal cortex.
A study was done on a child who entered a hospital and was diagnosed with stress dwarfism. The following three measurements of growth hormone were taken during the child’s stay at the hospital:
13.0, 6.9, and 15
Which measurement do you think represents the time period when the child’s favorite nurse was on vacation?
6.9 – Having proximity to a loved one significantly increased the kid’s growth hormone production. This shows that stress dwarfism is reversible in a different environment.
Which class of hormones is triggered to be released by growth hormone and promotes cell division?
Somatomedins – Other hormones involved in growth include thyroid hormone, estrogen, and testosterone. Thyroid hormone promotes growth hormone release, estrogen and testosterone promote the growth of long bones along with testosterone enhancing muscle growth.
Growth hormone is secreted by the _________ gland, which in turn is regulated by the hypothalamus in the brain.
Pituitary - The hypothalamus controls the release of growth hormone through the secretion of a stimulatory hormone and an inhibitory one. In stress dwarfism, the overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system can cause excessive release of the inhibitory hormone. On top of the body being signaled to inhibit the release of growth hormone, the body becomes less responsive to the little growth hormone that is actually secreted.
What is the name of the psychological concept that animals or humans do something more frequently because it was rewarded in the past?
Behaviorism – Behaviorists in the in the mid 1900s believed that infants' attachment to mothers was because they supplied food. Later research by Harry Harlow discovered that love and comfort are the driving force. Love is important for healthy development in children.
Based on studies in rats and humans, what is the main mechanism that helps infants release growth hormone?
A. Smelling the mother
B. Actively being touched
C. Seeing the mother
D. Receiving breast milk
B. Actively being touched – A study found that when premature babies were held, stroked, and moved daily, they grew 50 percent faster and matured faster behaviorally than the premature babies that were left in sterile conditions.