1. September 26/29, 2014
OBJECTIVE: Students will define different tools of examining the brain in order to create a summary of 1 specific tool/procedure in a group, for a carousel note-taking activity.
WARM UP: Turn in your PsychSim5 Activities and any late work. Take out your Neuron Coloring Book. Review the final page and complete to the best of your ability: - Neural Communication and The Nervous System.
HOMEWORK: 1) Continue work on the Brain Project; (Due A-10/2, B-10/3)
And 2) Work on Unit 2 Cornell Notes (Due A-10/8, B-10/9)

2. Investigating the Brain and Mind:
Strategies for finding out what is different about the mind when part of the brain isn’t working normally:
case studies of accidents (e.g. Phineas Gage)
case studies of split-brain patients (corpus callosum cut to stop seizures)
lesioning brain parts in animals to find out what happens
chemically numbing, magnetically deactivating, or electrically stimulating parts of the brain
How did we move beyond phrenology and get inside the skull and under the “bumps”?
by finding what happens when part of the brain is damaged or otherwise unable to work properly
by looking at the structure and activity of the brain: CAT, MRI, fMRI, and PET scans
Questions about parts of the brain:
Do you think that the brain is the sum of its parts, or is the brain actually about the way they are connected?
What do you think might happen if a particular area of the brain was stimulated?
What do you think might happen if a particular area of the brain was damaged or not working well?

3. Studying cases of brain damage
When a stroke or injury damages part of the brain, we have a chance to see the impact on the mind.
No animation.
Instructor: Some examples of brain areas we learned about thanks to patients with brain damage: the frontal lobes (as with Phineas Gage, pictured here), Broca’s area, and Wernicke’s area. Broca’s area is named after French physician Pierre Paul Broca ( ) . Wernicke’s area was named after German physician Carl Wernicke ( ).

4. Intentional brain damage:
Lesions (surgical destruction of brain tissue)
performed on animals
has yielded some insights, especially about less complex brain structures
no longer necessary, as we now can chemically or magnetically deactivate brain areas to get similar information
Click to reveal bullets.

5. Split-Brain Patients
“Split” = surgery in which the connection between the brain hemispheres is cut in order to end severe full-brain seizures
Study of split-brain patients has yielded insights discussed at the end of the chapter
Click to reveal bullets.

6. Clinical Observation
Clinical observations have shed light on a number of brain disorders. Alterations in brain morphology due to neurological and psychiatric diseases are now being catalogued.
Tom Landers/ Boston Globe

7. Microelectrode Techniques
Very small electrodes inserted into individual neurons
Used to study activity of a single neuron

8. We can stimulate parts of the brain to see what happens
Parts of the brain, and even neurons, can be stimulated electrically, chemically, or magnetically.
This can result in behaviors such as giggling, head turning, or simulated vivid recall.
Researchers can see which neurons or neural networks fire in conjunction with certain mental experiences, and even specific concepts.
Click to reveal bullets.
Hopefully students will understand that brain stimulation is less dramatic than the use of a bolt of lighting; it involves only small electrodes. Although people feel like the stimulation of certain brain locations produces vivid memories, research has proven that this impression is false; the memories feel vivid, but are inaccurate.

9. Tools of Discovery: Poster Activity
Directions: With your group, design a poster that displays (1) all relevant information and (2) an illustration or creative design about the brain monitoring tool you have been assigned. Be sure to include the following:
How does the tool function?
What is the purpose for this tool?
How is this tool helpful in psychology?

10. Structural Imaging Can show the structure of the Brain
Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT-scan)

11. Structural Imaging Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT-scan)
Uses X-rays to create a 3-dimensional image of the brain
CT scans can often show the size and locations of brain abnormalities caused by tumors, blood vessel defects, blood clots, strokes and other problems.

12. EEG: electroencephalogram PET: positron emission tomography
An EEG (electroencephalogram) is a recording of the electrical waves sweeping across the brain’s surface. It is useful in studying seizures and sleep.
The PET scan allows us to see what part of the brain is active by tracing where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task.
No animation.
EEGs use electrodes placed on the scalp.

13. Functional Imaging Shows the brain working (functioning in real time)
EEG imaging
21 Sensors on the scalp record changes in electrical activity and feed them into a computer. The computer translates them into color and motion on a map of the brain displayed on a television monitor

15. Functional Imaging Shows the brain functioning in real time (movies or series of images)
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)
Use radioactive glucose to determine location of greatest brain activity
PET Scan of Alzheimer's Disease Brain
PET Scan of Normal Brain

16. CT Scan vs. MRI
CT may be less expensive than MRI. In addition, it is less sensitive to patient movement.
CT can be performed if you have an implanted medical device of any kind, unlike MRI.
MRI contrast materials used for image enhancement have very low incidence of side effects

17. MRI: magnetic resonance imaging
fMRI: functional MRI
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) makes images from signals produced by brain tissue after magnets align the spin of atoms.
The arrows below show ventricular enlargement in a schizophrenic patient (right).
Functional MRI reveals brain activity and function rather than structures.
Functional MRI compares successive MRI images taken a split second apart, and shows changes in the level of oxygen in bloodflow in the brain.
Click to reveal Functional MRI information.

18. Functional Imaging Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Shows function and structure by measuring movement of blood molecules within the brain
Click here

19. Areas of the brain and their functions
The brainstem and cerebellum:
coordinates the body
The limbic (border) system:
manages emotions, and connects thought to body
The cortex (the outer covering):
integrates information
No animation.