Unit 2 – The Brain Myth 3 and Myth 4

March 14 The Divided Brain – ian mcgilcrist Handout (after test) Begin Myth 3 The Divided Brain March 14

Updates/Note-taking info Updates: Tests Grades Upcoming Unit Notes: Answer the questions on the notes guide Add examples to the notes guide OR to your own notes Everything we discuss in class is fair game for the test, even if it isn’t on the notes guide

1. Reflection questions: Are you left-brained or right-brained? How do you know? What does this mean?

1. Left or right-brained? Attachment: Which one “speaks” to you? Why? On last two pages – descriptions of right/left brain Are You “Left-Brained” or “Right-Brained”? Inventories (test day) A. Visual preference test Wagner preference inventory Have you taken any others …?

Some people are left-brained, others are right-Brained Myth #3

2. Exaggeration of a kernel of truth Are some people actually “left-brained” and others “right- brained?” What are these tests actually testing? Are these inventories actually measuring brain-based differences or stereotypes? What do we know? There is good evidence that two sides of brain differ in their functions. Injury Brain imaging techniques = differences in activity when doing cognitive tasks

3. Patient has damage to their Right hemisphere (ignores left) Draw a clock Arrange the hands for half past 11 The right hemisphere perceives the left half of space. When damaged, patients neglect the left half of space. In this example, patients were instructed to "draw the face of a clock, put all the numbers in, and make it say 10 after 11."

4. The left hemisphere controls the right and the right controls the left

Demonstration *Have a pen/pencil in BOTH hands

“Split-brain patients”: Researchers Roger Sperry Michael Gazzaniga

5. Corpus callosum

Research Evidence for superiority of one or other hemisphere for performing certain tasks: “Split brain” patients 6. Patients have their corpus callosum severed because of epileptic seizures Sever nerve tracts connecting left/right hemispheres

7. Longitudinal fissure (LONG) 8. What does The Corpus Callosum do?

9. Scientific american frontiers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfGwsAdS9Dc

Corpus callosum… your information highway 2 hemispheres share information extensively Two hemispheres are much more similar than different in their functions “Pop-psychology’s” take… too simplistic

10. Left is processed by right. Right is processed by the left. 11. The Optic Chiasm is the region for cross-over. 12. Visual Cortex – at the back.

12. What do you see?`

13: Multiple choice question A word “key” is briefly flashed in the left visual field and the word “ring” is briefly flashed to the right visual field of a split-brain patient. The individual will be able to a. say “key” b. say “ring” c. pick out a key from a box using the right hand d. draw a picture of a key using the right hand B. Say “ring”

Finalize Myth 3 Begin Myth 4 March 16th Finalize Myth 3 Begin Myth 4

End of term schedule Reminders/updates Monday will be the term cut-off DUE MONDAY: leftover multipasses for extra credit missing/late work Test make-up Myth 3 notes Tardy Make-up If you have a U, extra credit does not count Get absences excused Make up tardies (see me for details)

Hemispheres in the brain 14. Left 15. right Language Logic Spatial Facial recognition

Conclusions? 16. Left & right hemisphere are RELATIVELY better at different mental activities. Differ in HOW they process tasks rather WHAT they process.

Conclusions 17. Example: Language Left: Better at specifics of speech (grammar and word generation) Right: Better at intonation and emphasis of speech

18. Spatial (visual) right? Right : Better at dealing with a general sense of space, navigation through space, visualization. Left : Better at mentally planning/contemplating when the person locates objects in specific places.

19. Language centers (language/left)

20. The Brain #6 Language & Speech: Broca’s & Wernicke’s areas http://www.learner.org/resources/series142.html?pop=yes&pid=1574 Paul Broca Tan’s brain

Hemispherectomy: cameron mott/Brain plasticity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MKNsI5CWoU

Research on creativity & the brain Creativity does not involved a single brain region or single side of the brain. Creative people aren’t “right” brained, they are whole brained! Depending on the stage of the creative process AND what you are trying to create, you use different brain regions. These brain regions WORK TOGETHER…a TEAM!

21. Conclusions…you are whole-brained! It is not that one hemisphere or the other can’t perform a given task; It’s just that one of them can perform it faster and better than the other! And neither takes over your personality and makes you fit a stereotype in any way.

September 29 1. Let’s watch some Ted Talks about the brain: http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight http://www.ted.com/talks/suzana_herculano_houzel_what_is_so_special_about _the_human_brain Skip this one … we didn’t watch it http://www.ted.com/talks/oliver_sacks_what_hallucination_reveals_about_our_ minds