Transcript Document

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
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The Amazing Brain
Dr. Rick Woodward
“Your conscious life is an
awake dream.”
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Organization of the Nervous System
I.
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
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Central Nervous System
A. Composed of:
1. The Brain (called the Cerebrum)
2. The Spinal Cord
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Your Brain
A. 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)
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The Neuron: One neuron dies
every second starting at birth,
which means we lose 31 million
neurons every year.
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Your Brain
D. The average brain weighs about 3 pounds.
(1) Male brains typically weigh 10% more
than female brains.
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Your Brain
E. People who drink alcohol
heavily, have, on average, 1.6%
less brain volume than those
who don’t drink alcohol.
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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
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Your Brain
G. 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.
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Your Brain
H. 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.)
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Overview of the Parasympathetic &
Sympathetic Nervous Systems
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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
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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.)
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Types of Memory
Short-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.
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Types of Memory
b. Working Memory: Deliberate thinking
takes place.
-Limited Capacity (about 7 items)
-Limited Duration (about 20 seconds)
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Working Memory as a Filter or Screen:
Working Memory has three choices:
(1) Disregard the information
(purge it from memory)
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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).
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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.
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Special Areas of the Brain
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Special Areas of the Brain
A. 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.
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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)
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Special Areas of the Brain
d. Thalamus: Regulates the flow
of sensory information.
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The Neuron is the functional unit of the brain.
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The human brain consists of a trillion
(1,000,000,000,000) neurons.
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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.
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What’s the matter?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What’s the matter?
Nerve Transmission:
Healthy Myelinated Nerve versus Damaged Nerved
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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.”
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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.”
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What’s the matter?
5. “Myelin responds to the
environment and participates
in learning, in part by
strengthening neuronal
connects.”
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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.”
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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!!!)
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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.
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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.
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Active Learning
2. The first time you
attempt to cross a
deep ravine may be
quite challenging.
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Active Learning
3. After you cross the ravine once,
it becomes easier and easier.
-journeys across get easier and
easier as with learning.
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Active Learning
4. As the signal crosses the gap again and
again, we get a more solid pathway.
(i.e. building a bridge across the gap)
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Active Learning
5. 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.
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Neurotransmitters
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Neurotransmitters
Chemicals that transmit information.
A. Serotonin: Active in maintaining
waking EEG patterns.
Decreased; related to depression
Increased; related to obsessivecompulsive disorder.
O.C.D. = Excessive concern with
order, rules, and trivial details.
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EEG Brain Waves
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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)
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Current Research
a. 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.
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Effects of Drugs on the
Nervous System
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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.
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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).
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Advances in Technology
II. Visualizing Brain Activity
b. Positron Emission Tomography
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Advances in Technology
III. Visualizing Brain Activity
c. DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging)
-Shows white matter in action.
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Sleep
How important is sleep?
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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.
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Maslow’s Hierarchy
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Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Dr. Howard Gardner’s
Multiple Intelligences
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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.
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Limitless (2011)
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Pharmaceuticals that Can
Potentially Enhance Memory
1 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)
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Oxford University Study
Get 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.
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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.
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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.
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Memorizing Facts
A. 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.
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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.
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Memorizing Facts
C. Creating simple “original” stories
to remember facts allows up to
build several neural pathways as
opposed to just one.
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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.
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Memorizing Facts
B. 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
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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)
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Memorizing Facts
D. New learning must make
sense to the learner.
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Memorizing Facts
E. “Authentic rehearsal moves the learner
beyond mere memorization by
encouraging students to analyze,
synthesize, and evaluate knowledge
through novel and challenging activities.”
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Pneumonic Devices
P.M.A.T
Stages of Meiosis in Sequential Order
Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase
-Please Make Another Taco
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Pneumonic Devices
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King
Philip
Came
Over
For
Great
Spaghetti
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
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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.
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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.
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When are you most likely to
have an original thought?
A. Normally our brain is constantly
being stimulated and bombarded
by extraneous stimuli.
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When are you most likely
to have an original thought?
B. You are most likely to have an
original thought when you are
relaxed.
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Historical Original Thoughts
A. Issac Newton: Relaxing in an
orchard when he came up with
theory of gravity.
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Historical Original Thoughts
B. Galileo: Thought of a
pendulum to measure
time as he sat quietly in a
church.
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Historical Original Thoughts
C. Niels Bohr: Thought of the
structure of the atom while
he watched horses racing
around a track.
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Original Thoughts
A. Where and when do you have
your original thoughts?
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Conclusion
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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)
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