Braaains!!!
Facts & Methods
Applying Knowledge
(LAST)
Zombies & Neuroscience
Random
100
This LOBE is known for: decision making, planning & working memory. (Hint you all gave it a nickname)
What is the Frontal lobe ("the Big Cheese")
100
The Brain is never "OFF," and has what is called a Resting State - True or False
What is True
100
In the ADHD study, participants (or their parents) have complete a phone interview to determine their eligibility (no mental illness, health problems, etc.). If eligible, participants come in for their first visit and complete some intelligence tasks and games, before coming in again for an MRI or to have their Heart Rate measured, each while completing different thinking and emotional type tasks. Why do studies record Brain or Heart-rate activity while doing different activities?
For Brain activity - we want to see different areas that are used, how much so, and what others areas they work with! For Heart-rate, we want to see how excited or not a particular task makes you, and if it affects your performance.
100
Besides movement problems, zombies aren't very bright. What LOBE is affected? This lobe also keeps developing into adulthood!
What is Frontal or "the Big Cheese"
100
This structure is involved in making memories Hint: nicknamed for looking a seahorse in some brain pictures
What is the Hippocampus
200
This lobe is home to the sensory cortex, and is involved in attention, spatial navigation. (Part of the "where" pathway)
What is Parietal Cortex
200
This method uses magnetization and radio waves to take pictures of the brain.
What is MRI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging So how does MRI work - in simple terms? Electromagnetism & Radio waves! + MRI is a Big "doughnut" shaped machine 1. A strong magnetic field is created by passing an electric current through the wires looping in the machine + when placed in a magnetic field, the atoms line up in the direction of the field ( = "magnetic moment") 2. Other wires or "coils" send and receive radio waves. This triggers protons or H+ atoms in the body to align themselves. + concerned with the hydrogen atom in MRI, which is abundant since the body is mostly made up of water + randomly spin on their axis, like a top, or the earth - but... in random directions! 3. Once aligned, radio waves are absorbed by the protons, which stimulate spinning again releasing energy after "exciting" the molecules 4. Signals that are picked up by the coil are sent back to computer + like image pixels, different intensity values are represented by numbers 4.Bam! 3-D image representation!!! (x, y, and z axis) http://youtu.be/MiL0wCZr0Mw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DzyvHb0zb4
200
Working memory, means to keep a thought(s) active in the Brain (you're "working" with it). We said that the: + Frontal Lobes are like the CEO of the Brain, because they direct signals, are large in area, and are still developing well into adulthood and... + Parietal lobes are for spatial thinking and keeping attention. Describe the in-class activity we did to test this working memory, and also what strategies worked or not.
The number game (called digit-span). + sometimes you can keep repeating them in your head over and over + you can "chunk" or group items together, and so on This test is used in the ADHD study, as many (but not all!!!) people with attention disorders struggle with this task, to compare cognitive skills (or thinking).
200
Robots have an input, a central computer, and an output. What were the names for these in humans representing a simple neural network like the reflex? So going from body to spinal cord/brain back to body. (Hint: Remember the slide about a Zombie burning itself on the stove?)
What is Sensory Neuron, Interneuron, Motor Neuron
200
How many Brain cells (or Neurons) do we have approximately? How many connections?
What is a 3 billion brain cells, and a trillion connections. "as much as the Milky way galaxy!" I will except a couple or a few billion neurons, and a couple or a few trillion connections
300
How many lobes of the Brain did we study, and what are there names?
What is five. Frontal, Parietal, Temporal, Occipital, and Insular lobes. (I will accept four - minus the inusla)
300
Why do some Neuroscientists study the Nervous systems of invertebrates like the Giant Squid. Hint: Remember the video we watched of the "famous" giant squid and the weeks topic
What is to study simple neural networks, and simple mechanism like automatic reflexes. Do you remember the snail "learning" to withdraw its gill?
300
If a research study wants to study ADHD/ADD, why might the study also except people into the study that don't have adhd or any attention difficulties.
What is because we need "controls" to compare all testing measures and results to. So we have an idea of what the average persons behavior, brain structure and function is like and how ADHD children and adults differ
300
A zombie can't focus or maintain attention, but can easily be distracted, say by fireworks, this is called orienting and involves the visual system and what Brain lobe (Hint: the "where" pathway, up top)
What is Parietal
300
the Brain has "grey" matter and "white" matter. We know the grey matter is the cell bodies. What is the "white" matter?
What is the Myelin Sheath coating or insulating the axons and connections in the brain. Lets look at another amazing image...(DTI) Diffusion Tensor Imaging DTI allows up to see the number and the strength of connections in the brain - the warmer colors represent stronger connections - represented by greater water and blood flow in a particular direction!!!
400
This part of the Brain is "inside" or deeper in the cortex and receives sensory information from the body.
What is the Insular lobe (the inusla)
400
Why is the Mindflex sensor placed where it is? So where is it placed and why?
What is placed on the left frontal area/lobe, because that is where the signals can be picked up during concentration, since the frontal lobes are responsible for directing cellular traffic
400
If during the heart rate study, you watch a movie and it makes you feel really really happy and maybe excited, what do you think happens to your heart rate? Do you think the Brain may need more or less oxygen?
Heat-rate goes up, or gets faster. Your body, and your Brain need more oxygen, as your heart is speeding up to pump more blood to them!
400
What is the "Homunculus?" What brain area does it refer to, and what did we learn about? (Remember the clay model we built!)
What is the name for the sensory cortex, in the Parietal Lobe that means "Little Person."
400
Some of you noted early on some symptoms Alcoholics show. What are they, and what parts of the brain may be affected. Hint: Think about the main symptoms and then the 2 main brain areas
What is the Fronto-cerebellar network or more simply the Frontal lobe and the cerebellum.
500
A person with "blindsight" is technically blind, but can often catch a ball thrown him/her. Since this is the case, where do you think the neurological problem is? Is it in the: a. Eyeball or the lens, where light comes in b. Retina, back of the eye with rods/cones - where light is changed to an electrical impulse that travels down the optic nerve c. Optic nerve d. The Occipital Lobe
What is d
500
fMRI or Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging allows to see "activity" in the Brain! This gives us cool pictures with colored areas representing active Brain regions & cells or neurons. This activity is dependent on a particular and "essential" chemical in order to work - what is the chemical.
What is Oxygen This is known as the BOLD signal in fMRI: Blood-Oxygen Dependent Level Brain - + only 2% of your TOTAL body weight (approx 2-4 pounds) but.... + receives 15-20% of the body's blood supply + uses 30% of calories consumed
500
An action potential fires when the threshold is reached at approx. -50mv. Sodium (Na), Potassium (K+), and Chloride (Cl-) are the three primary molecules that are exchanged in and out of the cell. The compound NaCl stands for what?
What is Salt One way of detecting physiological changes is by using skin sensors that are pretty much just inactive "stickers" that use a conductive gel which can be read by a computer - just like EEG, but on the body. Two methods used on the non-imaging side of the ADHD Study: 1. Heart Rate = (ECG) Electrocardiogram 2. Sweat/Perspiration = (GSR) Galvanic Skin Response
500
What is a phantom limb? Describe what happens in the brain briefly...
What is a part of the body that has been removed or lost, yet the person can still "feel" it like its there. In the Brain, the sensory cortex (homunculus), we talked about how groups of cells can take over another part
500
Face blindness is a real thing! The two "main" lobes involved in recognizing and remembering faces are the visual (occipital) and temporal lobes. Which network or "pathway" is this? Hint: We talked of two pathways, one going "up" and one "down," both start with a "W"
What is the "what" pathway (going down) ! Remember the "where" pathway going up to the parietal lobe (spatial, attention) ! Remember "the Man who mistook his wife for a hat" by Oliver Sacks ?
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