Biology 30S Nervous System Trick Your Senses! Sense Test 1: Vision 1. After watching the PowerPoint presentation, what did you notice when you tried to read the colours the words were written in? 2. a) If you look at a picture, do you see the same thing each time? Look at the pictures on the following pages. For each picture, describe what you see. b) Do you see the same thing each time you look at it? c) If you see different images at different times, can you see the two different images at the same time? d) How do you interpret these results? e) How can you see different images while you are looking at the same pattern of black and white on the page? 3. Now look at the picture on the top of the second page of pictures. This is a picture of a mammal. What is it? 1
Transcript
Biology 30S Nervous System
Trick Your Senses!
Sense Test 1: Vision
1. After watching the PowerPoint presentation, what did you notice when you tried to read the colours the words were written in?
2. a) If you look at a picture, do you see the same thing each time? Look at the pictures on the follow-ing pages. For each picture, describe what you see.
b) Do you see the same thing each time you look at it?
c) If you see different images at different times, can you see the two different images at the same time?
d) How do you interpret these results?
e) How can you see different images while you are looking at the same pattern of black and white on the page?
3. Now look at the picture on the top of the second page of pictures. This is a picture of a mammal. What is it?
4. After you have figured out what mammal is shown in this picture, look at the picture again and try to not see this mammal. How do you interpret these results?
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These examples illustrate some of the many complex processes your brain uses to interpret visual stimuli. You know that the eyes play a crucial role in vision, but these examples illustrate that the brain is also crucial for vision. Do you have any questions about how vision works?
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Sense Test 2: Taste and Smell Part 1
Blindfold one member of your group. Have them sample all three items on the plate one at a time with their nose plugged. Record their observations below.
The peripheral nervous system is made up of everything to the
__________________________ of the body including ________________________.
The autonomic nervous system consists of the _________________________ and
__________________________ divisions.
The somatic nervous system consists of _____________________ and
_______________________ nerves. The motor nerves in the somatic nervous system control
_________________________ movements of _____________________. The sensory nerves
of the somatic nervous system innervate things like ________________________ and
__________________________.
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Concept Map
Fill in the concept map below using the following terms:Central nervous system SympatheticPeripheral nervous system ParasympatheticBrain MotorSpinal cord SensoryAutonomic Nervous systemSomatic
Nervous System
Central Nervous System Peripheral Nervous System
Brain Spinal Cord
Autonomic Somatic
Sympathetic Parasympathetic Motor Sensory
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Brain Anatomy
Lobes of the Brain
Structure Function
Frontal lobes
Parietal lobes
Temporal lobes
Occipital lobes
Cerebellum
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Interior Cross Section of the Brain
Structure Function
Corpus callosum
Thalamus
Pituitary Gland
Midbrain
Pons
Medulla oblongata
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The Limbic System
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Structure Function
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Hypothalamus
General Functions
Structure Location Function
Right hemisphere
Left hemisphere
Broca's area
Wernicke’s area
Limbic system
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The “little man” depicted is called ____________________
The name of the cortex this is located in is the
_____________________
____________________
This cortex is in the
__________________ lobe
Neuroscience Case StudiesRead the case studies below. From each case study, determine the function(s) of the affected region(s) and from these functions deduce the area(s) of the brain affected (if it does not already say).
Case Study 1: Phineas Gage
Phineas Gage was a man who worked as a respected foreman at a railway construction site. Waking up the morning of September 13, 1848, a humble, kind, hard-working 25-year-old Gage could not have possibly known there would be an accident that would dramatically change his life and the future of neuroscience. That morning, an ex-plosion caused a three foot eight inch iron rod to go through his skull. Gage’s coworkers picked up the iron rod a few feet behind him, smeared with bits of brain and blood. Gage miraculously survived.
The accident had left him relatively unharmed, except for the blindness he suf-fered in his left eye. However, upon further inspection, Gage’s friends and co-workers reported many behavioural changes. Before the accident, Gage was de-scribed as a respectable, hard-working, kind, logical person. After the accident, Gage became crude, disrespectful, and unkind. He was unable to perform any complex tasks and unable to plan. He ignored any social courtesies, and was un-able to tell the difference between right and wrong. Because of this, Gage was unable to hold a job. Gage’s case became so famous, that an anonymous poet wrote about his affected behaviour. “Amoral man, Phineas Gage, tamping powder down holes for his wage, blew the last of his probes through his two frontal lobes, now he drinks, swears, and flies in a rage”. Gage’s story also prompted Robert Lewis Stevenson to loosely base his story about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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on Gage’s case. What had happened to Gage’s brain that made him so unbear-able?
Case Study 2: Paterson and Zangwill 1944
Paterson and Zangwill in 1944 were the first to clearly define the symptoms of damage to a particular region of the brain in their summary of a case of a 39-year-old man. This man suffered brain damage from an explosion that sent a steel nut through his brain. Paterson and Zangwill administered several tests to determine the effect of the brain damage on the man’s behaviour. They found that this man neglected the entire left side of his body, and anything that was presented to him in his left visual field.
Two years later in 1946, P.H. Sandifer detailed the effects of this type of damage in a famous publication. Sandifer published the results of a peculiar case of a 66-year old woman with a condition affecting this right brain region, called contralateral neglect. This woman’s symptoms were eerily similar to Paterson’s and Zangwill’s patient. This is an exact account of what happened during Sandifer’s curious examination:
“Examiner: ‘Give me your right hand’ (Patient presented the right hand.)Examiner: ‘Now give me your left hand.’ (Patient presented the right hand
again.)The right hand was then held.Examiner: ‘Give me your left hand.’ (Patient looked puzzled and moved neither arm.)Examiner: ‘Is anything wrong with your left hand?’Patient: ‘No doctor.’Examiner: ‘Why don't you move it then?’Patient: ‘I don't know.’The left hand was then held before her eyes.Examiner: ‘Is this your hand?’Patient: ‘Not mine doctor.’Examiner: ‘Whose hand is it then?’Patient: ‘I suppose it is your’s doctor.’Examiner: ‘No it is not; look at it carefully.’Patient: ‘It is not mine doctor.’Examiner: ‘Look at it—it is your hand.’Patient: ‘Oh, no doctor.’Examiner: ‘Where is your left hand then?’Patient: ‘Somewhere here, I think.’ (Patient made groping movements near her left shoulder.)Examiner: ‘Is this your hand?’Patient: ‘Not mine, doctor.’Examiner: ‘Yes it is. Look at that ring; whose is it?’Patient: ‘That's my ring, you've got my ring, doctor’
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Examiner: ‘No I have not. It's your hand. Look how different it is from mine.’ (Patient bewildered, felt her left shoulder, her left upper arm and follows downward to the wrist. Then she said: ‘It must be my hand.’)Examiner: ‘And do you still say there is nothing wrong with it?’Patient: ‘It seems I am wrong.’ ”
Case Study 3: SM
The neurological patient SM suffered extensive damage to a certain area of her brain. She had no motor, sensory, or cognitive deficits. When asked to identify photographs of a series of facial expressions, SM could identify every expression but one, she could not recognize fear. Similarly, when asked to draw facial expressions, SM produced accomplished pictures of each emotion, but she could not reproduce the expression of fear. When asked about her drawings, she explained “she did not know what an afraid face would look like”.
Case Study 4: Clive Wearing
In 1985, Clive Wearing, an English conductor, composer, and musician, contracted viral encephalitis, which caused extensive damage to a certain region of his brain. Although his intellectual and perceptual abilities are intact, he has severe memory impairments and has completely lost the ability to form new declarative memories. This causes him to assume he has just awoken from a coma, writing repetitively in his diary, “I am awake!” The inability to remember has severely debilitated his life – he cannot engage in conversation (he forgets the previous sentence), he cannot go outside alone (he forgets where he is going or coming from), and he is incapable of comprehending the events that essentially define his existence.
Case Study 5: Synesthesia
Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which information from different senses is blended. A common form is grapheme-colour synesthesia, where letters and numbers are perceived as having specific colours (e.g., “the number 7 is yellow”). A number of imaging studies highlight activations in the colour-processing regions of the brain when individuals view letters or numbers. An intriguing study by Wolfgang Kohler suggests that some forms of synesthesia (the bouba/kiki effect) may be extremely common in humans.
Case Study 6: Sleep
During rapid eye movement sleep (REM), the body becomes paralyzed. This prevents us from acting out movements during sleep. Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder is characterized by a loss of paralysis, which can lead to disruptive behaviour during sleep. Xi and Luning (2008) present a case study of a patient with a lesion in a certain brain region that was accompanied by
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screaming, thrashing arms, punching, and kicking during violent and vivid dreams. He was successfully treated with anticonvulsants.
Case Study 7: Phantom Limb Syndrome
It is relatively common for amputees to experience sensation in a limb that has been amputated. This experience is known as phantom limb, and in many instances can be quite painful. Studies have shown that the pain correlates to changes in a certain region in the brain, which is no longer receiving anticipated input from the amputated limb. An ingenious study by Ramachandran and colleagues (1995) treated phantom limb patients by placing a mirror at the patient’s midline. Looking into “seeing” the amputated limb can be highly effective in eliminating phantom limb pain.
Case Study 8: Synesthesia Revisited…
A 2007 case study by Ro and colleagues highlights the importance of a certain brain region to integrating information from different brain regions. They examined a patient with a lesion that caused synesthesia. Synesthesia is the blending of sensory experiences, such that people may hear colours or see sounds. In this case, the patient reported a relatively rare form of synesthesia (tactile synesthesia) that caused the patient to “feel sounds”.
Case Study 9: Aphasia
In Howard Gardner’s The Shattered Mind, the author compares case studies from two patients, one with Wernicke’s aphasia and one with Broca’s aphasia. Which one is which?
Patient 1: “I am a sig…no…man…uh, well,…again.” These words were emitted slowly, and with great effort. The sounds were
not clearly articulated; each syllable was uttered harshly, explosively, in a throaty voice.
Patient 2: “I’ve done a lot well, I impose a lot, while, on the other hand, I have to run around, look it over, trebbin and all that sort of stuff. Oh sure, go ahead, any old think you want. If I could I would. Oh, I’m taking the word the wrong way to say, all of the barbers here whenever they stop you it’s going around and around, if you know what I mean…”
These words were spoken fluidly, with little effort.
Case Study 10:
Patients who suffer from severe epilepsy may have a particular area of their brain cut. After the surgery, these patients have split brain syndrome, in which the right and left sides of their body act independently of one another.
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People will grab clothing from their closet with their left hand, and the right hand will take it and put it back in a continuing struggle.
