Guided Tour of the Brain

1. Taylor Brackner Davis Faulkner Nicole White Jake Martin Guided Tour of the Brain

2. Studying The Brain • Case Studies involve the thorough investigation of a single person or small group of people. • Brain damage has provided insight into behavior such as memory, speech, emotions, movement, and personality.

3. Lesions • lesions—surgically altering, removing, or destroying specific portions of the brain—and observing subsequent behavior.

4. Electrical Stimulation • Involves implanting bipolar electrodes in a specific brain area. • Electrical stimulation causes activation of the neurons in the area around the tip of the electrode and usually produces the opposite behavioral effect of a lesion in the same brain area. • A graphic record of the brain’s electrical activity is called a electroencephalogram(EEG)

5. The Developing Brain • 3 weeks after conception, sheet of primitive neural cells has formed • Sheet curls to make the hollow neural tube • Neural tube lined with neural stem cells • Stem cells are cells that can divide indefinitely

6. Neural Tube • Top of the neural tube thickens into three bulges • Hindbrain • Midbrain • Forebrain • As the neural tube expands, develops cavities called ventricles • Found at the core of fully developed brain

7. During peak periods of brain development, new neurons are being generated at 250,000/ minute • Triggered by chemical signals and guided by the fibers of specific glial cells, the newly born neurons travel to other parts of the brain • About halfway through the prenatal period the production of new brain cells is virtually complete

8. After specific neurons are differentiated, they begin to develop the nervous system • The development of dendrites and synapses begins before birth and continues throughout lifespan • Fetal brain forms as many as 2 million synaptic connections/second • By the end of fetal development, the forebrain structures eventually come to surround and envelop the hindbrain and midbrain structures

9. At birth, the infant’s brain is only about ¼ the size of an adult brain • Less than a pound • After birth, dendrites are formed as the neurons grow in size • Axons grow longer an the branching at the ends of the axons become more dense • A fully developed adult brain weighs about 3 pounds

10. neurogenesis • the process where neurons are generated from stem cells • most active during pre natal development • “birth of neurons” • hippocampus, the part of the brain that plays a central role in the ability to form new neurons. • It effects the ability and rate of learning new information. • Neurogenesis is also believed to play a roll in the regulation of stress through the production of antidepressants. • Neurogenesis continues into ages as old as 70