Exploring your brain! Splash! April 12, 2014 Find cool picture of brain for background Splash! April 12, 2014
What are we doing today? Who are we? Brainstorming Introducing your brain Cool things we like about the brain Sensation Memory Attention Real human and animal brains!
Introducing Your Brain
What does your brain do? ?
What can go wrong?
What’s a Brain Made Of? 100 billion neurons! Even MORE glia 10^11 Picture of brain made of cheese? Get current estimate of number of neurons, number of glia? Even MORE glia
The Neuron input processing communication output Good picture of a neuron - label axons, dendrite, cell body communication
How Does the Brain Work? 1 quadrillion synapses!! 1020 connections? Messages get sent from neuron to neuron primarily in 2 ways Electrical signal from one end of the cell to the other end - digital Chemical signal from one cell to another cell - analog
Electrical Signals: Digital Action potential The brain as a circuit The Action Potential - how a message gets passed inside a cell from the dendrites to the axon; all or nothing - there either IS a message or there IS NOT
Chemical Signals: Analog Synapse - where the axon of one cell passes its message on to the dendrites of another cell using neurotransmitters Action potential (electrical signal) Neurotransmitters (chemical signal) Animation of neurotransmitters getting passed across a synapse Neurotransmitters How drugs can affect the brain Synapse
From Sensation to Action Picture of baseball player - or relay runners handing off the baton Timing of where it goes Demo ruler dropping reaction time measurement Relay race handing the message off to the next cell Event in the world --> receptors in the eye register change in the world --> gets an electrical signal that causes it to release chemical signal to the next cell in the path --> gets to brain - consciousness? --> within brain - from memory you figure out what you are supposed to do with this sensory information --> send that message to the “desire to act” part --> sends message to right muscles --> act Your nervous system is like a relay race - passing on messages from one neuron to another, going from sensation to action
Your Brain is Specialized Parietal lobe Attention Touch Frontal lobe Reasoning and planning Emotions Personality Occipital lobe Vision Cartoon of different lobes - arrow pointing out the different lobes and what they do Different parts of the brain are specialized to do different things In the next stations we’ll talk in more detail about what regions of the brain are responsible for those particular behaviors but here’s an overview Memory Hearing Cerebellum Temporal lobe Motor coordination Balance
On to more cool brain stuff! Interactive Demos 1. Sensation 2. Memory 3. Attention
And now the best part! Brain stations Whole human brains Human brain slices Animal brains
What is one cool new thing about the brain that you learned today? Thanks!