Week 7: Brain Drain

The point of today's lesson is 3-fold:

• understand that particular functions are localized to specific areas of the brain,
• appreciate that imaging techniques, like PET,  allow scientists to study activity in the brain, and
• recognize that normal behaviors can activate the reward system in the brain and that drugs of abuse affect those same reward circuits.

I. --- Particular brain functions are localized to specific areas of the brain,  This site from our classtime

 If you have lost it already...Analyzing the Brain/Interpreting PET images worksheet - do all parts and finish the worksheet.  For question 5, you need this information:  Set #1 - Subject is resting  Set #2 - Subject is listening to music  Set #3 - Subject is looking at a picture showing both pattern and color.  Set #4 - Subject is performing a thinking task.  Set #5 - Subject must remember an image for later recall./  Set #6 - Subject is hopping up and down on the right foot.

And do also the other sections on that site:
 How is PET Done? / What Does this Part of the Brain Do?/ Looking at the Human Brain    25 pts. for all

Brain scans (reading) 5 pts.
Read this handout: Whatever Happened to Phineas Gage? 
(and answer the questions). Look up any words you do not know and write them down with their definitions.  15 pts.

BrainPOP.com -  pcshome/ilearnathome -10 pts each for video, FYI, quiz & activity sheets  Nervous System,      Brain

Different Parts Do Different Things: This video, which names the parts of the brain,  is by a "Bwitish" teacher explaining in a cool accent, and with way too much detail, the parts of the brain.   You can follow along by drawing a sketch and writing down some of the parts--although you are not expected to remember all!  Still, listening to the names will help with pronunciation and remembering. 2 parts, 10 minutes each.  Take some notes in your science journal.  10 pts. each

Basic Parts of the Brain - Part 1 - 3D

Basic Parts of the Brain - Part 2

 III.
Recognize that normal behaviors can activate the reward system in the brain and that drugs of abuse affect those same reward circuits. -- Addiction and the Brain/ Reward Centers  

This page leads to two more pages, Natural Reward Pathways Exist in the Brain  and DRUGS ALTER THE BRAIN'S REWARD PATHWAY which each have several links to go to.  Be sure to read each link from these two pages.  20 pts.   Fill-in the worksheet : Drugs of Abuse  (print out page 3) 5 more points.

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1. Is Addiction Really a Disease?

Lastly, a series on Addiction, which includes information on Dopamine, the neurotransmitter that functions in the Reward system of the brain.  if you follow parts 1-8, it will take about 30 minutes.  25 pts.