today’s agenda: journal questions: a. what is the function of the frontal lobe of your brain? b....

Today’s Agenda:Journal Questions:

a. What is the function of the frontal lobe of your brain?

b. What is the function of your sympathetic nervous system?

*1. Lecture II: Neuron & Neurotransmitters

2. Homework: Read Chapter 50

04/21/23 Dr. Rick Woodward 1


The Amazing BrainDr. Rick Woodward

“Your conscious life is an awake dream.”


Organization of the Nervous SystemI. Central Nervous System consists of:

1. Brain

2. Spinal Cord

II. Peripheral Nervous System consists of:

1. Somatic Nervous System

(1) Cranial Nerves: 12 pairs

(2) Spinal Nerves: 31 pairs

2. Autonomic Nervous System

(1) Sympathetic Nervous System

(2) Parasympathetic Nervous System


Central Nervous SystemA. Composed of:

1. The Brain (called the Cerebrum)

2. The Spinal Cord

Your BrainA. The brain has roughly 100 billion

cells.

B. 10% of these cells are electrical conducting cells called neurons.

C. The brain’s left hemisphere controls language in most people, typically contains about 186 million more neurons than the right

(Science Illustrated March/April 2011)


The Neuron: One neuron dies every second starting at birth, which means we lose 31 million neurons every year.


Your BrainD. The average brain weighs about 3 pounds.

(1) Male brains typically weigh 10% more than female brains.


Your BrainE. People who drink alcohol

heavily, have, on average, 1.6% less brain volume than those who don’t drink alcohol.


Your Brain

F. What is the brain made of?

(1) 77 – 78% Water

(2) 10 - 12% Fat

(3) 2% Other Organic Compounds

(4) 1% Carbohydrates

(5) 1% Inorganic Salts


Your BrainG. 8 to 10 Seconds is the time it

takes to lose consciousness when the brain is deprived of blood.

(1) After 40 to 120 seconds, brain damage becomes more likely.


Your BrainH. Brain Imaging: Advances in Neuroscience

(The area of the brain’s surface if it were unfolded would be 22 square feet or 34 pages of your textbook laid end-to-end.)



Overview of the Parasympathetic & Sympathetic Nervous Systems


The Process of Memory

-Receiving Information:

A. Short Term Memory

1. Immediate Memory

2. Working Memory

-Encoding: Transforming Short Term Memory into Long Term Memory


Types of Memory Immediate Memory:

Lasts only 1 to 2 seconds.

a. Sensory Memory: Briefly holds stimuli from the environment.

(in about .5 to 1 second for vision and 3 to 4 seconds for hearing.)


Types of MemoryShort-Term Memory: Loss of information

occurs within 1 minute unless the material is continually rehearsed.

a. An fMRI image of the areas used for executive functions such as short-term memory tasks.


Types of Memoryb. Working Memory: Deliberate thinking

takes place.

-Limited Capacity (about 7 items)

-Limited Duration (about 20 seconds)

04/21/23 17

Working Memory as a Filter or Screen:

Working Memory has three choices:

(1) Disregard the information (purge it from memory)


Working Memory as a Filter or Screen:

2) Retain the information by repeating it over and over (rehearsal).

(3) Transfer the information into long-term memory though rehearsal or by connecting it with information already there (encoding).


Long-term Memory is our Permanent Information Store

(Reference library) It is the conversion of short-term memory into long-term storage –this process is called consolidation

(1) Declarative Knowledge: Knowledge of facts, definitions, and rules.

(2) Procedural Knowledge: Knowledge of how to perform activities.


Special Areas of the Brain


Special Areas of the BrainA. Hippocampus: Learning & Memory

(processing from short-term to long-term memory)

-Researchers have discovered that Alzheimer’s Disease begins here; initial site of specific protein production that eventually forms amyloid plaques.

B. Hypothalamus: Various day-to-day body functions (homeostasis), including appetite, emotional expression of pleasure, rage, fear.

The Amygdala C. Amygdala (The Primitive Brain): Plays

a vital role in social behavior (impulse control); interpreting facial expressions. Memory of fear involves the amygdala.

(Recall: Teenagers tend to use their amygdala rather than their frontal lobe)

04/21/23 22


Special Areas of the Braind. Thalamus: Regulates the flow

of sensory information.


The Neuron is the functional unit of the brain.

The human brain consists of a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) neurons.


Parts of the Neuron:a. Axon: Sends out information

(conducts impulses)

b. Dendrite: Receives information

c. Cell Body: Contains the nucleus

d. Myelin: Insulates axons so that transmission of impulses is rapid.


What’s the matter? There are two types of matter:

1. Gray Matter (Composed of Neurons & Cell Bodies)

a. Place where computation takes place and memories are stored.

2. White Matter (Axons)a. Determines the speed at

which information can be processed.3. The density of gray and white matter in the brain are determined by genes and environmental factors, such as experience.


What’s the matter?A. There are two types of matter:

(1) White Matter (millions of communication cables, each one containing a long, individual wire, or axon, coated with a white, fatty substance called myelin.)a. Like the trunk lines that connect telephones in different parts of a country, this white cabling connects neurons in one region of the brain with those in different regions.


What’s the matter?Recent Research “White Matter

Matters.” –Scientific America (March 2008)

2. “For decades neuroscientists exhibited little interest in white matter. They considered the myelin to be mere insulation and the cables as passive passageways.”

-Most research has been on the synapse.


What’s the matter?Nerve Transmission:

Healthy Myelinated Nerve versus Damaged Nerved


What’s the matter?3. New studies show changes in

myelin as one learns and practices.

a. Myelin is produced until age 25.

-The brain does not finish wrapping human axons until early adulthood.

“Critical Windows for Learning.”


What’s the matter?4. The importance of myelin:

a. “Modern investigation has revealed that nerve impulses race down axons on the order of 100 times faster whey they are coated with myelin.”


What’s the matter?

5. “Myelin responds to the environment and participates in learning, in part by strengthening neuronal connects.”


What’s the matter?6. “White matter abnormalities have

been found in people affect by ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Language Disorders, Autism, cognitive decline in aging and Alzheimer’s disease and even in individuals afflicted with pathological lying.”


The Synapse: The point where information is transmitted from one neuron to the next. (Synapse = Gap)

A. The number of possible different combinations of synaptic connections among the neurons in a single human brain is larger than the total number of atomic particles that make up the known universe.

(Don’t you feel smart!!!)


Active Learning

A. Learning is about creating and strengthening the neural pathways in the brain.

B. Electrical signals most jump across the synapse (gap) in order for us to lean anything new.


Active Learning

C. The first time that we learn something, demands the most effort to cross the gap (synapse).

(1) Analogy: Crossing a deep ravine.


Active Learning

2. The first time you attempt to cross a deep ravine may be quite challenging.


Active Learning3. After you cross the ravine once,

it becomes easier and easier.

-journeys across get easier and easier as with learning.


Active Learning4. As the signal crosses the gap again and

again, we get a more solid pathway.

(i.e. building a bridge across the gap)


Active Learning5. After you build a bridge, learning becomes

almost effortless.

a. To learn better, we need to make it easier to cross the synaptic ravine by building and strengthening our bridges.


Neurotransmitters


NeurotransmittersChemicals that transmit information.

A. Serotonin: Active in maintaining waking EEG patterns.Decreased; related to depressionIncreased; related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.O.C.D. = Excessive concern with order, rules, and trivial details.


EEG Brain Waves


Neurotransmitters B. Dopamine: Active in maintaining

normal motor behavior.

-Decreased; muscles are rigid and movements are difficult.

i.e. Parkinson’s Disease (T.R.A.P.)

-Increased; May be related to schizophrenia (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech)


Current Researcha. The brain changes physiologically

“plasticity” as a result of experience .

b. IQ is not fixed at birth. –Higher development of white matter is correlated directly with higher IQ.

c. Children who suffer severe neglect have up to 175 less white matter in the corpus callosum (structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain).

d. Some abilities are acquired more easily during certain sensitive periods, or “critical windows of opportunity.”

e. Learning is strongly influenced by emotion.


Effects of Drugs on the Nervous System


Developmental Disorders of the Nervous System

a. Major deformities of the nervous system occur before week 20 of pregnancy.

b. Anencephaly (no brain) can occur during weeks 3-4.


Advances in Technology I. Visualizing Brain Activity

a. Colored magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the axial section of the human brain showing a metastatic tumor (yellow).


Advances in TechnologyII. Visualizing Brain Activity

b. Positron Emission Tomography


Advances in TechnologyIII. Visualizing Brain Activity

c. DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging)

-Shows white matter in action.


SleepHow important is sleep?

Sleep

A. As we age, we spend less time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

B. During REM is when we dream

c. New born babies spend half their sleeping hours dreaming.



Maslow’s Hierarchy


Bloom’s Taxonomy


Dr. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences


Pharmaceuticals that Can Potentially Enhance Memory

Using drugs to amplify the brain’s natural capacity to remember

1. Cortex Pharmaceuticals: Developing a new class of molecules known as ampakines, which facilitate the transmission of the neurotransmitter glutamate.

Limitless (2011)



Pharmaceuticals that Can Potentially Enhance Memory1 a. Glutamate is one of the primary

excitatory chemicals passed across the synapses between neurons. b. By amplifying it effects, Cortex hopes to improve the brain’s underlying ability to form and retrieve memories. c. When administered to middle-age rats, one ampakine was able to reverse their age-related decline in the cellular mechanism of memory.

(National Geographic November 2007)


Oxford University StudyGet Smart: Learning to Learn (2-07-08)

A. Case Study performed on middle school students:

1. Typical Student Profile:

a. Poor concentration.

b. Not stimulated by school lessons

(Thought they were boring)

c. Watched lots of television.

d. Not interested in reading.


Oxford Study

B. Found that by giving students Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oils) may allow the neural signals to jump more easily across the synaptic gap.

1. Found increases in reading, motivation, memory and concentration.


Visualization

A. Enhancing athletic performance.

1. Scientists have discovered that if you imagine specific body movements, this stimulates new pathways in the brain that may enhance that specific body movement when actually performed.


Memorizing FactsA. Memorizing: Setting up a neural

pathway is like setting up a row of dominoes.

1. Commit a fact to memory and we create a new neural pathway.


Memorizing Facts

B. To retrieve a fact, we just simply need to stimulate that specific pathway.

-Sounds easy!

-Not so easy if that pathway breaks down somewhere along the way.


Memorizing Facts

C. Creating simple “original” stories to remember facts allows up to build several neural pathways as opposed to just one.


Memorizing Facts

D. By increasing the number of neural pathways, you increase the probability of recalling stored information.

-The advantage of storytelling allows us to create lots of pathways.


Memorizing FactsB. Flash Cards

1. One question, one fact per card.

a. What is the function of the

brain?

b. Answer:

To control and coordinate the activities of the body.

2. Advantages to Flash Cards:

a. Portable

b. Memorizing small chunks of

information


Memorizing Facts

C. Students need to practice and review new content information at least twenty-four times to obtain 80% competency.

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock, 2001)


Memorizing FactsD. New learning must make

sense to the learner.


Memorizing FactsE. “Authentic rehearsal moves the learner

beyond mere memorization by encouraging students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate knowledge through novel and challenging activities.”


Pneumonic DevicesP.M.A.T

Stages of Meiosis in Sequential Order

Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase

-Please Make Another Taco


Pneumonic Devices King Kingdom Philip Phylum Came Class Over Order For Family Great Genus Spaghetti Species


Intuition

A. Subconscious memory is often called intuition.

1. An area in the frontal lobe continuously scans everything around us subconsciously.

2. It compares previous experiences with the present.


Creating an Original Thought

A. Scientists can now measure the moment when you create an original thought.

1. Also known as the “aha” moment

2. A sudden burst in electrical activity in the brain.


When are you most likely to have an original thought?

A. Normally our brain is constantly being stimulated and bombarded by extraneous stimuli.


When are you most likely to have an original thought?

B. You are most likely to have an original thought when you are relaxed.


Historical Original ThoughtsA. Issac Newton: Relaxing in an

orchard when he came up with theory of gravity.


Historical Original Thoughts

B. Galileo: Thought of a pendulum to measure time as he sat quietly in a church.


Historical Original Thoughts

C. Niels Bohr: Thought of the structure of the atom while he watched horses racing around a track.


Original Thoughts

A. Where and when do you have your original thoughts?


Conclusion

Just by attending this class today, you have stimulated countless new pathways in your brain!

You should begin studying for Exam III (Next Thursday)

Last topic before Exam III(Endocrine System)

today’s agenda: journal questions: a. what is the function of the frontal lobe of your brain? b....

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