Brain Map

Cerebral Cortex

What do the frontal lobes do?
The frontal lobe controls your personality and where memory, language, judgement, problem solving, and impulse occur.

What is the relationship between selective attention and learning?

Selective attention makes your working capacity greater and allows you to prioritize important information

What is the last part of your brain to develop and what can you do to prevent it from deteriorating? 

Your frontal lobe was the last part of your brain to develop and it you can prevent it from deteriorating with some exercises!

What does the neo cortex do?

The neo cortex controls your senses and awareness and motor skills. 

What is the role of the pre frontal cortex?

The pre frontal cortex controls your personality. It organizes thoughts and actions to match your goals.

What do we know about the pre frontal cortex’s relationship with multitasking?

This prevents you from doing more than 2 things at one time. Multitasking does not really exist.

Which part of the brain is associated with speech and language development?  Give an interesting fact about this region.

The Broca's area is the part of your brain that is responsible for those. This part of the brain is also associated with  learning a second language!

Which part of your brain is responsible for thinking the following: “Is it hot in here or is it just me?”

The somatosensory cortex is responsible for thinking this.

What does your visual cortex do for you?

The visual cortex helps differentiate colors and distinguishes people's faces.

State three interesting or significant facts about your occipital lobe.

The occipital lobe deals with imagination, and allows you to process long and short term memories. Also, it helps you visualize things.

What would happen if your temporal lobes were damaged?

Without your temporal lobe, you would not be able to remember the things you learned or remember things from the past and you would b e forgetful.

What is your “fast brain” and what does it do?

The fast brain ist eh eye field and it controls your eye movements and helps your brain to register information quicky.

Neuron

State 3 things that you could do that would influence your synapses, and have a positive affect on your life and health.

Sleep, excercise and a healthy diet would influence your synapses.

What is the relationship between multi-sensory or multi-modal learning and your dendrites?

The cross referencing of data stored in your brain may convert the new knowledge into something memorized or learned and this is known as multi sensonry or multi modal.

How does “big picture thinking” and mnemonics affect dendrites and/or learning?

you need to use big picture thinking to fully comprehend a subject and then break it down into relevant parts.

Describe a neurotransmitter that you feel is very important.  Justify your reasoning.

I think glutamate is important because it is used for how you learn. It helps with long term memories.

Limbic System

What does the corpus callosum do?

It has to do with communicating between the left and right hemisphere and it deals with motor and sensory fintion between the two hemispheres.

What is the relationship between music and the corpus callosum? 

Music can strengthen the connection of the 2 hemispheres. The brain communicates more effectively.

Why is the thalamus important?

The thalamus is responsible for sensory information and even conciousness. It deals with your awareness and emotions and memory. It has a lot to do with the information you receive.

Relate and Review:
The brain has so many functions and responsibilities. It basically controls your whole body. The frontal lobe is one of the most important. It controls things like your memory, personality and so much more. Different parts of the brains have so many different tasks. The neurons of the brain are important too. Sleep, excercise and a healthy diet would influence your synapses. Lastly is the Limbic System. It involves the corpus callosum which has to do with communication between the left and right hemisphere. 

An interactive infographic by Open Colleges

Brain Dissection Analysis

Today we dissected a sheep brain!
1.

 2. brain stem: regulates heart rate, breathing, sleeping, and eating.
cerebellum: recieves information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord and regulates motor movements
cerebrum: has 4 lobes- Frontal Lobe ( has to do movements, emotions, and reasoning), Pariental Lobe ( has to do with movement, recognition, and orientation), Occipital Lobe ( has to do with vision), and Temporal Lobe ( has to do with memory and speech)
3. Myelin increases the speed at which impulses are produced along the myelinated fiber
4.

5. corpus callosum: connects the 2 hemispheres of the brain
optic nerve: transfers visuals from retina to center of brain
thalamus: correlates important processes like sleep and consciousness
hypothalumus: links nervous system to endocrine system
medulla oblongata: center for respiration and circulation. regulates breathing, vessels, digestion, etc
pons: nerves originate here
6.

Relate and Review:
We dissected a sheep brain. The sheep brain had most of the parts that the human brain had. It was easy to tell the different lobes: frontal, pariental, occipital, and temporal. We were able to so so many different parts of the brain that really relate to the human brain that we have learned in class. We labeled each part that we found and we looked up the function. (info and pictures above!) This dissection was really cool and I would love to dissect it again someday, even another animals brain would be cool!

Sheep Eye Analysis

Sheep Eye Analysis using pictures!

Here are pics from out lab!

The blackish blue fluid area is the cornea
Around the cornea is the sclera

The stem like thing sticking out of the back of the eye is the optic nerve
Around are white soft tissues and these are fatty tissues which act as a cushion to the eye and around the eye also consists of extrinsic muscle

The vitreous humor is in the posterior part of the eye. It is the jelly semifluid part as shown above. The retina is the white thing in the center in front of the choroid (not shown in picture) and shown directly in the center is the lens.

This blue thing is the choroid and it easily peels

The lens!

Clay Brain

We created a sculpture of the brain using play-doh! After roughly getting the shape of the 2 hemispheres of the brain, we labeled each part. It was difficult finding the locations but it was definitely a fun assignment!

"The Woman with a hole in her brain"

This article is about a 24 year old woman who had realized she was living without a cerebellum. This woman lived most of her life normally aside from her unsteady walking and her not being able to normally speak until she was 6. This article vaguely mentions that there are very little people in this world that deals with the same thing she does. The cerebellum plays a role in movement and balance which explains her difficulty to walk. Its suggested that the cortex takes the place of the missing cerebellum.
The Central sulcus is a fold in the cerebral cortex in the brain. It separates the pariental lobe from the frontal lobe and the primary motor cortex from the primary somatosensory cortex. Although it is not really clear, but, I think we would not be able to live without it. It is an important part of the brain and keeps the brain funcioning in a way.

Unit 7 Reflection

In this unit we learned a lot about muscles and their movements. A big part to what we learned was the function of muscles. Muscles do so many things such as movement, maintaining posture, stabilizing joints, and heat generation. Muscles are so important for our body because we use it in everyday activities. My favorite thing we learned was the muscle movement. We learned about different movements suck as contraction, abduction, adduction, and so many more! We even made a song and dance for it during class and it really did help my understanding of each muscle movement. I struggled on learning the different performance enhancing substances. It was hard for me to memorize the side effects and benefits of each but it was okay because I already knew about some of them prior to the lesson.
I would love to learn more about the movements of the body because it was fun to do each movement and it seems easy in a way to learn about them.
This unit, we did a chicken dissection lab which was really cool because it was something people eat everyday and I didn't that the things I saw were things people actually ate and it was so cool! (pictures below!)

Performance Enhancement Reflection

Performance enhancements have its benefits and its risks. Some benefits include short term alertness and enhancement of athletic performance. Some of their risks include possibly skrinking of body parts, nausea, diahrhea, and if really bad, death. My advertisement was specifically on gene doping. Gene doping is a permanent way of inserting steroids into your body. It helps your muscle growth and athletic performance. It is still experimenting so we don't know if it is comepletely safe to use or take in yet. Below is our advertisement!

Chicken Dissection

In this lab, we dissected a store bought chicken carcass. I thought that this lab was really cool and fun because this is chicken that we eat and the stuff that we saw when dissecting it was so unexpected and cool to see! Muscles of the chicken help with the movement. When dissecting, we saw so many different muscles like the pectoralis major and the trapezius. We also say tendons which connects muscles to bones. Something I thought that was really fascinating was when i pulled the upper arm of the chickens arm, the bottom moved too as if it was waving and I found that so intriguing and it looked as if the chicken were waving! The movement was caused by the tendons connecting the muscle and the bone together. The tendons were kind of stretchy and soft and was pretty hard to find. But with help, we were able to see it clearly. (Pictures below!) The chicken muscles were similar to the human muscles in a way but were also different! They were similar in that the sternum was directly in the middle of the body and totally visible just like ours. Also, the under the skin of the chicken, there was a lot of connective tissue which was used to protect the muscles. So, when peeling of the skin, we also had to peel off the connective tissues to get a better view of the muscles and bones. In some animals, like a mole, the ulna and radius are in reversed order compared to humans but in the chicken, it looks just like ours! In anatomical position, the ulna and radius are in the same position as they would be in humans. I learned so much in this lab yet it was so fun to do. I would love to do this again in the future.
Below are pictures from the dissection!

pectoralis major

pectoralis minor

Trapezius 

Latissimus dorsi

Deltoid

Biceps brachii

Triceps humeralis

Flexor carpi ulnaris

Brachioradialis

Satorius

Iliotibialis

biceps femoris

semimembranosus

semitendinosus

quadriceps femoris

gastrocnemius

Peroneus longus

tibialis anterior

What Happens When You Stretch?

Relate and Review:
Muscle stretching starts with the sacromere. The area increases between the myofilaments. Collagen fibers align themselves with the presence of tension. When muscles are stretched, fibers can lengthen. Proprioceptors have to do with nerves. They're the source of ones own body positiona and movement. They are located in the tendons and in muscle fibers. The basic functiion of the golgi tendon is to help protect muscles, tendons and ligaments from injuries. Recipricol inhibition is when the agonist contracts and forces the antagonists to relax. A muscle spindle records the change in length when a muscle is stretched and sends signals to the spine.
Quotes:
"This basic function of the golgi tendon organ helps to protect the muscles, tendons, and ligaments from injury". This was interesting because it shows the importance of the golgi tendon. I have never heard of it until now and I can see how it benefits our body.
"It is easier to stretch a muscle that is relaxed than to stretch a muscle that is contracting". I did not think it mattered when to stretch your muscle until now. I now can relate this to my workout and only stretch when I am relaxed.
"This basic function of the muscle spindle helps to maintain muscle tone and to protect the body from injury". This is similar to the golgi tendons in that they both help protect us from injuries yet their functions are so different.

Unit 6 Reflection

Unit 6 was primarily about the skeletal system. I found this unit really interesting because I felt like I was enjoying what I was learning more than usual. I learned that the skeleton has 206 bones and that there are different types of bones: long bone, short bone, flat bones, and irregular bones. The skeletal body has 2 divisions: axial and appendicular. We also learned about joints. A joint is the point of connection between 2 bones or elements of the skeleton.
We also did a really cool lab, the owl pellet lab. We observed and used tools to look inside an owl pellet, which is something an owl vomits that could not be digested. We found remains of a dead mole and vole in out pellet which was really cool!
Below are pictures from the lab.

In this unit, I did wonder how so many bones could work in the body and the function of each. I will definitely look into the bones in the body when I have free time because it really was captivating.

Owl Pellet Lab

We dissected an owl pellet which is basically what an owl throws up. In the pellet, we saw many things like fur and bones and what looked like dirt. The organisms in our pellet were a mole. We knew that there was a mole because we saw the pelvis bone and it looked just like the one in the manual. This was really cool because we found a socket and imagined as if it were actually being a joint.

 
We also found parts of the mole's vertebrae and we know is was a mole and not a bird because the pieces were bigger than those a bird would have.

The skeleton of a mole could be similar and different to those of a human. Its different in a way that the pelvis is lower and different because the animal goes on four legs whereas the humans are on two. Also, the vertebrae of the animals are smaller and there are less bones to it. The pelvis and joints thought work in the same way as humans in that the socket is what helps the movement. Also, they both have ulna and radius and tibia and fibula in the arms and legs that one looks smaller than the other. The moles, though, are on opposite sides where the radius and ulna are switched. In the mole and in the human, the skull looks the same.
Below are some pictures from the dissection!

Unit 5 Reflection

This unit was mainly about some of the different systems inside of your body and other things inside the body.We learned about the digestive system, fuel metabolism, endocrine system and the lymphatic system.

The digestive system actually really fascinated me. I learned that many things go on in the digestive system like ingestion and absorption. Also that people may think that not eating will help them lose weight but its actually really bad for you. It can stress you out and actually do harm to your body.

We also learned about fuel metabolism. There are 3 important stages: Fed state, which is the absorption state, Fasting state, which is the post-absorptive state, and Starvation state, which is when you have fased for 4-5 days. Something interesting I learned was that when you no energy or fuel to burn off food, the brain switches to ketone bodies for fuel.

The endocrine system talks a lot about different glands such as posterior and anterior pituitary glands.

My favorite one to learn about was the Lymphatic system. This talked about capillaries, vessels and nodes. The Lymphatic system does a lot such as immunity, lipid absorption, and fluid recovery.

In this unit, I struggled to learn about fuel metabolism because a lot of the terms confused me and it was difficult to understand, but I would love to learn more about it so I do plan on researching more about it when I have time. I enjoyed learning about diabetes and the lymphatic system. They really interested me and got me wondering about what goes on in the body when diabetes occurs and also about the different organs int he lymphatic system like spleen and tonsils.
We did many activities in this unit like making the digestive system out of yarn and making a poster of one of the important stages (picture below). I really had fun making the digestive system out of yarn. 

In my New Years goal, one thing I said was that I wanted to pay more attention during lectures and I actually have been. I take more notes and I am more alert when the teacher is teaching a lecture. Also, I have been a lot more organized this year, which is another thing I mentioned that I needed to work on.

Digestive System Lab

1. In this lab, we recreated the digestive system using colored ribbons and a string. We measured our body parts to the length of the ribbons/string and tied them together to created the digestive syster. Below is the length and color of each ribbon/string.

2. My digestive track is 8.76 meters whereas I am 1.651 meters. My digestive track is much bigger than my height. I think the digestive system is really condensed together and bent in order to fit in my abdomen.
3. I think it takes about 1-2 hours for the food to travel through the digestive track. It actually takes about 6-7 hours. It must go through the colon, absorb water and to many other parts of the body before it fully digests.
4. Digestion breaks down food into smaller components whereas absorption is where ingested food is absorbed. Digestion involves mouth, stomach. Absorption is in the intestines.
5. I would love to learn more about why it takes so long to digest food and what other things are involved in the digestive system.

New Years Goals

This year I have a lot of goals that I do plan on achieving. Two of which include being more organized and paying more attention to lectures in class vodcasts for anatomy and physiology and being and eating healthy and staying in shape.

First, I want to do whatever I can to be more organized in class and being more attentive in class and at home. Although I do work hard in this class, I will work even harder and do my best. I will start keeping all my papers and organizing my notebook better and I will take as many notes as I can. Anatomy and physiology is really interesting to me so it will not be hard, I just need to be more alert an organized with my things.

Another goal I will obtain is staying healthy. First, I need to eat healthier so I do not damage my body get sick in any way. I will also try and stay fit so that I ca do better at what I do such as competitive cheer. I want to be fit to have more energy and to look more presentable in a way. Not only do I plan on staying physically healthy, I will work on being mentally healthy too. I will sleep more and be as social as I can. Being interactive makes me happy and I plan on doing more than I already have. I will join clubs inside and outside of school and maybe even start volunteering to help out and make new friends through that. Being healthy overall is really important to me.

In conclusion, I will do everything I can to achieve these goals to make me an overall better person. I will be more organized and attentive and I will stay healthy and improve myself mentally and physically.