1. Who am I? Matt Where am I from? Georgia State University Center For Behavioral Neuroscience

2. What do I do? I am a neuroscientist What do neuroscientists do? We study the brain and nervous system.

3. The Amazing Case of Phineas Gage “The man who hurt his brain” Did he live? Accident happened in 1848 with a steel tamping rod 1.25 inch (3cm) thick and 3.5 feet long What happened to him after the accident?

4. Frontal Lobe reasoning planning parts of speech movement emotions problem-solving Temporal Lobe Hearing or audition memory Parietal Lobe perception related to: touch pressure temperature pain Occipital Lobe Vision or sight The Cerebrum

5. The Cerebellum Functions: Involved in the coordination of balance, locomotion and movement

6. What Do Our Senses Tell Us? 1. What is out in the environment 2. How much is out there 3. Is there more or less of it than before 4. Where it is 5. Is it changing in time or place

7. How Do You Interact with the World Around You? What are your senses? 2. Hearing (auditory or aural) 3. Touching (tactile) 4. Tasting (gustatory) 5. Smelling (olfaction) 1. Seeing (vision)

8. AMAZING ANIMAL SENSES Bats Can detect warmth of an animal from about 16 cm away Can find insects up to 18 ft. away and get information about the type of insect using their sense of echolocation Birds of Prey—Hawks, Buzzards and Eagles Retina has 1 million photoreceptors (to detect light) per square mm. Can see small rodents from a height of 15,000 ft and has 20/5 vision

9. Sharks Have specialized receptors for sensing the electrical field put out by prey Can detect smells in the water at concentrations lower than one part in 10 billion Some sharks sense light directly through the skull Snakes Pit-vipers have a heat-sensitive organ that responds to very small temperature changes A rattlesnake can detect a mouse 40 cm away Snake tongues have no taste buds. It brings smells and tastes into the mouth which are then detected in two pits on the roof of their mouths. Snakes have no moveable eyelids. Instead, they have a clear, scale-like membrane covering the eye.

10. Brain Diversity and Adaptations  Understanding an animal’s behavior or how it interacts with its environment can help you make predictions about what its brain might look like  Knowing about an animal’s brain can help you make predictions about its behavior or sensory systems  Relative brain size is more important than overall brain size  Brain Regions:  Cerebrum  Sensory systems  Cerebellum, Brain stem

11. Dog vs. Cat How do they behave or act? How do they move? Who is smarter? What senses do they use?

12. Dog vs. Cat

13. Brains and Behavior of Aquatic Mammals: A Comparison of Dolphins, Sea Lions and Manatees ComparisonDolphinSea LionManatee ClassMammal 1  foraging mechanism (how they find food) echolocationvisualtactile Dietshrimp, fishfishsea grasses Vocalizationscomplex--mother-pup I.D. Territorialnoyesno Dominance hierarchy yes no Tricks Acrobatic/balance -- Olfaction Lobes and nerves absent Pup I.D.probably Cerebral cortexGuess!

14. Sea Lion Bottle-nose Dolphin

15. Marine Mammal: Florida Manatee

16. Compare Marine Mammal Brains

17. Why Study the Brain and Behavior? Many complex behaviors can be better analyzed and understood by looking at the brain regions that control these behaviors.

18. He lost almost the entire left side of the frontal lobe He lost his left eye His personality changed He went from being mild-mannered, polite and likeable to crude, rude and unable to make or follow through with plans He live for 11 years after his accident What did we learn from the brain of Phineas Gage?

19. “Build-A-Brain” Use colored play-doh Work in groups Model a real or imaginary animal Think about: –Where does it live, how does it move, what does it eat, when is it active………. Put in the cerebrum, cerebellum, sensory systems and any other brain regions you can make predictions about

20. Good websites for learning about the brain Neuroscience for Kids website: –http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.htmlhttp://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html Brainy Kids by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives: –http://www.dana.org/kids/http://www.dana.org/kids/ Center for Behavioral Neuroscience: –http://www.cbn-atl.org/http://www.cbn-atl.org/