1. Lesson 1: The Brain: The Control Center 1Ecole Edward Schreyer School

2.  The Brain Controls: ▪ Thinking ▪ Feeling ▪ Behavior  Changes in the brain’s activity result in changes in each of these responses.  Why is their change in brain activity?  Mental illness is a health condition that changes: ▪ Thinking (worthlessness) ▪ Feelings (sick) ▪ Behavior (spending uncontrollably)  This will cause: ▪ Distress ▪ Difficulty with every day functions. 2Ecole Edward Schreyer School

3.  Step 1: Read the following email.  Step 2: How did you react to the video?  Jumped, increased heart rate, screamed, nervous, laughed, wondered, yelled, concentrated, afraid, scared, anxious (these are some examples)  Step 3: Group the responses into three categories. Look for similarities.  Category 1: Behaviors or actions.  Category 2: Feelings or emotions.  Category 3: Thoughts 3Ecole Edward Schreyer School

4.  Questions to consider?  Do your muscles make you jump for no reason? What controls whether your muscles cause you to jump?  What caused your voice box to become active and make you scream?  The brain regulates all of these responses.  Muscles control jumping while the voice box controls screaming.  All of this is controlled by the brain.  Now that the video is over, what do you think of it now? How do you feel? 4Ecole Edward Schreyer School

5.  The video caused you to think, behave, and feel something different.  Are there things that might cause the brain to work differently for a long period of time? (hours, weeks, months or years) 5Ecole Edward Schreyer School

6.  What do you know about mental illness?  You will be handed a worksheet that contains open ended questions.  These questions will provide you with an opportunity to express what you may already know about mental illness.  There are many misconceptions about mental illness, and this activity will draw your conceptions to the surface. (10 min.) 6Ecole Edward Schreyer School

7.  This activity reinforces the idea of mental illness, which is a health condition that changes the way a person thinks, feels, or behaves, is tied to changes in the way the brain works.  What would it be like if you were thinking, feeling, or acting like you did during the surprise event for weeks, months, or years instead of just a few seconds or minutes?  Would you be able to live your life as normally as you do? 7Ecole Edward Schreyer School

8.  Mental Illness could be one type of long-term change in the functioning of the brain.  Mental illness by definition:  Health condition that changes a person’ thinking, feelings, or behaviour (or all three) and that causes the person distress and difficulty in functioning. ▪ This does not mean that mental illness is long term or short term. It will depend on the individual.  Short term, instantaneous events can change a person’s thinking, feeling, and behaviour.  Eg  Heartache and loss brought on by a break up in a marriage or death of a loved one. 8Ecole Edward Schreyer School

9.  What are some ways scientists might investigate changes in the brain that happen with mental illness?  electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain, use of imaging techniques such as MRI or CT scans.  One technique that is used is called PET  Positron Emission Tomography  Scientists are the only people allowed to use these machines.  It is an optical slice through the brain. 9Ecole Edward Schreyer School

10.  PET Exercise  Watch the animation and respond to the following questions. PET Exercise  What is happening in image 2 of the PET scan? ▪ Is this long term or short term brain function? ▪ The second image is of someone with schizophrenia at resting point.  Conclusion to the activity:  Color is added to the images.  Dark areas mean low brain activity.  PET images are at the given time, not over time.  During a surprise event, activity changes. 10Ecole Edward Schreyer School

11.  Mental illness actually changes something about how the brain works.  PET images of a person who has a mental illness show that the activity in the brain is different.  Some areas may be higher while others are lower as that compared to a healthy brain. 11Ecole Edward Schreyer School

12.  You are required to keep a journal for this module. This journal will become part of your portfolio. Be sure to indicate Module C – Lesson 1 – Date in your journal as well as writing out the question below.  Question #1 ▪ Write a paragraph to summarize what you believe are the major ideas conveyed in the activities in this lesson. 12Ecole Edward Schreyer School