Brain Dissection Lab

 

2. Cerebrum- takes information and processes it
cerebellum- motor control and muscle movement
brain stem- connects to spinal cord, breathing, digestion
meninges- separates blood and brain

3. Insulation around the neuron. Allows faster communication

4.






5.  Thalamus- relays sensory information, feels pain
Optic Nerve- connects the brain to the eye
Medulla Oblongata- controls heart and lungs
Pons- links the medulla oblongata to the thalamus
Midbrain- vision, hearing, and motor control
Corpus Collusum- joins the two hemispheres of the brain
Hypothalamus- controls the autonomic nervous system


6.








Relate and Review:

This lab was very interesting. I'm getting better at labs in terms of being able to find things easier and also not being grossed out. I think the most interesting part was seeing the corpus callosum separating the two distinct hemispheres of the brain. Doing a lab is different than reading a textbook or watching a vodcast because it isn't color coded and labeled. This leaves a lot of grey area for error, however once you focus on what you're looking for you're able to find it.

Unit 6 Reflextion

This unit was primarily about our brain and nervous system. We learned how the brain is separated into different sections, which control different actions and different parts of the body. We learned how a reflex is when sensory information travels down a synapse to the brain and the brain quickly responds. The brain takes information from our five senses; sight, smell, hear, taste, and touch  We us our eyes to see, nose to smell, ears to hear, mouth to taste, and our whole body to touch. In the brain dissection, we could clearly see how the brain is split in half. The eye dissection seemed complicated at times but i thought it was interesting and helpful. It's funny comparing that dissection to the simplicity of the Hana the Banana dissection. Some weaknesses i have in this unit would be remembering all the parts to the eye, and not getting my brain parts mixed up. A strength would be the five senses. For my New Years goals I have just started lifting.

Reflex Lab Analysis

1. For the Reflex Lab, we conducted experiments to further understand our reflexes. Reflexes, a mechanism to protect our body, is when sensory information travels down a synapse to the brain and the brain responds quickly. 

2. I) In experiment 1 the photo pupillary reflex contracts the smooth muscle of the iris to control the size of the pupil. When we cover our eyes to make it dark, our pupil expands in an attempt to allow more light in. When we are exposed back to the light our pupil then contracts to limit the amount of light getting in. Humans evolved this trait to increase vision in the dark.
II) The patellar reflex causes the knee to jerk in a monosynaptic reflex. It occurs so fast because there is only one synapse in the circuit needed to complete the reflex. Although after the squares were completed, the knee did not jerk because the muscles are tired and cannot react as fast. Humans evolved this reflex in order to react to danger immediately. 
III) The blink reflex is something humans developed to keep things out of our eyes. The cotton ball, or anything coming at our eyes, causes us to blink without thinking to protect our eyes.
IV) For the fourth experiment we used the Plantar Reflex. When we drag the pen on our foot, our toes are supposed to curl. However, people suffering from MS and Newborns spread their toes instead because their nervous system isn't myelinated, resulting in Babinski's sign. 
V) The last test doesn't measure a reflex, but rather your hand-eye coordination. Mine and John's were very similar, with my average time being 0.16 seconds and his being 0.18 seconds. A possible mistake we could have made in this experiment could have been holder the meter stick closer or further away from the hand, or perhaps miscalculation. 

3. Texting significantly slowed down our reaction time. I went from an average of 0.16 seconds without texting to 0.30 seconds with seconds, nearly doubling my time! This gives us significant evidence to prove that texting while driving is very dangerous. 

Sheep Eye Dissection Analysis

Light first travels through the cornea and then passes through the pupil, which is controlled by the iris(colored part of eye). Then the lens bends the light to the optic nerve, which is connected to the brain (left eye=right brain, right eye=left brain). The sclera is the white part. The vitrous humor is the liquid that fills the eye. Fatty tissue surrounds the sclera and protects the eye. Choroid is the second layer of the eye, and is colored black. The cilary body consists of muscles, which control and shape the lens. The tapetum lucidum is found in nocturnal animals. It reflects light and increase vision in the dark. The suspensory ligament attaches the lens to the optic nerve. Aqueous Humor is the rest of liquid that fills the eye.

A Woman Perpetually Falling

"Even when she has fallen, she feels she is still falling, perpetually, into an infinite abyss." I can't imagine how living like this would be. to be constantly having this feeling, even while sitting down would be awful.

"People with her disorder often fall to pieces psychologically, and many have committed suicide." I don't know how i would react if i had this disorder and was told that last sentence. It must be devastating living like that.

"We have senses we don't know we have-until we lose them." This is interesting to think about. We take balance for granted, and I'm sure there's many other things we take for granted too, like breathing.

Relate & Review: This reading was very interesting. A woman was a feeling of falling down, whether she was standing, sitting, or even laying down. Her vestibule apparatus had stopped working and also making her very tired and dizzy. It puts into perspective all of the things healthy people take for granted sometimes.

The Clay Brain

We used different colors of clay to show the different parts of the brain. We had two different views, left hemisphere along sagittal plane and lateral view if the right cerebral hemisphere. We numbered each part so that we could clearly label it.

The Woman With A Hole In Her Brain

This article was very interesting. It was discovered in China that a woman has been living with her entire cerebellum missing. In all other cases like this the person has died when they were a child. However, this woman has only been affect through minor skills such as slurred speech and dizziness. The doctors aren't really sure how to explain it.

The frontal lobe, located at the front of the brain, is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the mammalian brain. The frontal lobe plays a large role in voluntary movement. It houses the primary motor cortex which regulates activities like walking. The function of the frontal lobe involves the ability to project future consequences resulting from current actions, the choice between good and bad actions (conscience), the override and suppression of socially unacceptable responses, and the determination of similarities and differences between things or events. Strokes are common causes of frontal lobe damage in older adults. You can still live with frontal lobe damage, but may notice symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease.