Daily Brain
You hear a song you love, and suddenly, you feel chills down your spine. This surge of pleasure is caused by the release of this neurotransmitter in the brain’s reward system.
Who is Dopamine?
In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank begins to realize that his whole life is a scripted show. Which brain process would help him start to make sense of his new, shocking reality?
What is the frontal lobe?
The grooves of the brain are called these.
What are sulci?
This neurological disorder, primarily affecting the elderly, is marked by cognitive decline, including memory loss, impaired reasoning, and difficulty performing everyday tasks.
What is Alzheimer's Disease
This method involves introducing a virus carrying a genetically encoded fluorescent calcium indicator into the brain, allowing researchers to visualize neural activity in real-time.
What is calcium imaging?
You hear your name across a noisy cafeteria and instinctively turn your head. This effect, named after a party setting, helps you focus on important sounds.
What is the cocktail party effect?
In the movie Inside Out, the characters represent different emotions. Which part of the brain would be most active when controlling emotions like joy and sadness?
What is the amygdala?
Drinking alcohol can cause you to lose your balance mainly because it acts on this structure that is crucial to coordination.
What is the cerebellum?
Individuals with this condition have difficulty forming words even though they can understand what they read or what others say to them.
What is Broca’s Aphasia?
What fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) directly records.
What is blood flow/ oxygenation?
After pulling an all-nighter, you feel groggy and unfocused. Which part of your brain, responsible for decision-making and impulse control, is struggling the most?
What is the prefrontal cortex?
In A Beautiful Mind (2001) mathematician and Nobel laureate John Nash was temporarily banned from teaching because he had this.
Considered the fifth lobe of the brain, this structure is hidden deep within the lateral fissure.
What is the the insular lobe?
A person with this disorder may experience one sense (e.g. sound) but interpret it as another (e.g. light).
What is Synesthesia?
This technique allows for the mapping of brain activity using small electrodes attached to the scalp, often employed in studying sleep, seizures, and brainwave patterns. What is it called?
Electroencephalography (EEG)
If you’ve ever felt your heart race when watching a horror movie, this almond-shaped brain structure is to blame for processing fear!
What is the nucleus accumbens?
In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash’s experience with schizophrenia is depicted. This mental health disorder is often linked to an imbalance in which neurotransmitter, which can lead to hallucinations and delusions?
What is dopamine?
This structure, located in the midbrain, is rich in dopamine-producing neurons and is crucial for movement control; its degeneration is linked to Parkinson’s disease.
What is the substantia nigra?
This condition, often mistaken for Parkinson’s disease, is caused by repeated head trauma and is commonly associated with athletes and military veterans.
What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)?
This technique allows neuroscientists to selectively switch neurons on and off using light.
What is optogenetics?
Damage to this region of the brain can result in an inability to recognize faces, including one’s own, despite the person having normal vision and intelligence. This condition is known as prosopagnosia.
What is the fusiform gyrus?
In Split (2016), Kevin Wendell Crumb suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID), where multiple distinct personalities control his actions. Research suggests that different identities may activate separate brain regions. Which brain structure, linked to the integration of multiple personality states, may be involved in this condition?
What is the anterior cingulate cortex?
The main input region to the hippocampus, this structure is named after its notched or tooth-like appearance.
What is the dentate gyrus?
This rare prion disease is a fatal, rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disorder that can be inherited, sporadic, or acquired through contaminated medical instruments or consumption of infected tissue.
What is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)?
This technique not only identifies gene expression but can also detect novel transcripts and alternative splicing events, all by sequencing cDNA. What is this method known as?
What is RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq)