20 Time Reflection

For our 20 Time project never really had a final product for our discoveries and self experiment but we still had a lot to take away from it. You can watch our Ted Talk about our project here to see everything about it. Our experiment of sorts was to observe our own lives to find what aspects of a student's life cause the most stress and how our extracurriculars play into our stress levels. After we started this, it became a very large part of how we reduced stress because of how we were recording our feeling by ranting, that release relieved a huge amount of stress from our lives. On this blog post you can see our realization of how we were noticing pattern in our lives and when our project became what it is.

Making a Ted talk for the project was actually pretty fun to do because I got to work with Amelia, and I knew that we could rely on each other to carry the weight needed to have a good Ted Talk. Because we rehearsed the talk a few times it went quite well even if I forgot a few things since I get a little nervous. After re-watching our talk it was better than I thought but definitely was not as professional and comfortable as the real Ted Talks scientists do. I feel like we did pretty well because we payed attention to the rubric carefully even if we did forget a few things and did exactly what was required.

I completely plan on continuing to record my feelings to reduce my stress because it really did help. I hope other teachers can put something like this into their classes to get student more passionate.

Reflex Lab Analysis

For this lab we got to test and observe some of the reflexes our bodies have developed to protect ourselves. Involuntary reflexes happen when the information received doesn't pass through the brain, it hits the spinal cord, is very quickly processed and it sent strait back to the muscle that it needs to activate. We first tested one of my favorite reflexes, the photo-pupillary reflex, because it was one I messed around with and watched my pupil grow and shrink in a mirror. To test this and show exactly how it worked, I covered one eye for about a minute to really get it to adjust to no light, then I uncovered it and stared right into the flashlight of Amelia's phone while she recorded the pupil shrinking at the light. Now I am going to go further into detail about each of these reflexes. The first one of the photo-pupillary reflex happens because the eye needs to adjust to the amount of light provided so that it can see clearly and function in different amounts of light. Amelia took a short video of my pupil shrinking but you couldn't see it very well as my hair came down and obscured it.

This is the pupil when there is lots of light entering it. 

Next we did the experiment every kid knows about, the "hitting your knee with an hammer and kicking someone" or more scientifically, the patellar reflex. For this we took a rubber hammer as to not injure our knees, and tested the reflex and observed how vigorous the reflex was and then re-tested it after doing 30 squats. After the squats the reaction wasn't reduced too much but it definitely wasn't as fast or violent because all thing in the body require ATP, so when the ATP had been used up by the squats (contracting the muscles that would cause the patellar reflex) the reflex would not occur.

After testing that we went back to the eyes and tested our blinking reflex by throwing a cotton ball at our friends eyes, which were protected by cling film to see how we blink even with protection in front of us. Our corneas are very delicate and because they have no blood supply, they cannot heal themselves so it would be very bad if we hurt our corneas. That is why we instinctively blink, so that we protect our eyes from being damaged.

Next we tested a reflex not too many people know about which is used to test for brain damage, but if present is called Babinski's sign, where when a pen is drawn up the bottom of our foot, it will either curl up or spread out depending on our brain. If the person extends their toes, unless they are an infant, it is a sign of serious brain damage, but if they curl their toes, which I did in our experiment, they are healthy.

The final test was probably the most relevant to our lives today as teenagers who are glued to phones. We tested our reaction times, something that does require thought bc it is something that we need to think to do. We had our partner drop a ruler and we had to catch it as quickly as we could, and suing that measurement, estimate our reaction time. The first table below s the data from that control test and the one below shows the results of the same test, but we were texting while trying to catch it. As you can see, our reaction time was slowed significantly by the "multi-tasking" which does not technically exist as the brain can only do one thing at a time. Everyone in our class had a slower reaction time while their minds were preoccupied as you can see in our data tables as well as the graph that pooled together all of our classes data on response time as well as the difference between girls and boys.

Control Reaction Times

Reaction Times While Texting

Your Brain Map

Cerebral Cortex

What do the frontal lobes do?

The frontal lobes are the command center and leadership of the brain. They control our personality, our decision making, judgement, language and executive behaviors. The frontal lobes also control the animalistic instincts of immediate gratification to allow stronger willpower and organization. 

What is the relationship between selective attention and learning?

Selective attention is the minds action of keeping track and remembering only important details rather than as much as possible. It is a persons way to filter out unnecessary information and being able to remember what is needed, learning more efficiently. 

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

The frontal lobe is the last part to develop and to prevent it from deteriorating quickly you can actively think rather than be on auto pilot, and transform memories rather than pure memorization. 

What does the neo cortex do?

This part of our brain takes care of our spacial awareness and governs our senses by being the main receptor for them. 

What is the role of the pre frontal cortex?

The pre frontal cortex is the part of your brain that makes up your personality and how we act around others. It is referred to as the "central bottleneck" as to filter our thoughts to know what to do.

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

Multitasking does not really exist because our brain is really just constantly switching between the two tasks and takes much longer to complete then than if you were focusing on one. 

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

Broca's area is responsible for speech and language development and it is the part of the brain that allows you to learn a new language and be bilingual. 

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 the part of the brain responsible for processing temperature. 

What does your visual cortex do for you?

This is the part of the brain that discerns colors and complex objects such as faces.

State three interesting or significant facts about your occipital lobe.

The occipital lobe is not just where visual information is processed, it is also the place where the imagination originates, is stimulated when you "visualize" a situation, and is not fully developed in children meaning that they have a harder time telling the difference between real things and fake ones. 

What would happen if your temporal lobes were damaged?

If your temporal lobes were damaged we would not be able to learn, remember locations, or remember much of anything really because the temporal lobes don't interpret sounds but are in charge of recognition. 

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

The "fast brain" is the eye fields that can process information on milliseconds.

Neuron

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

You can exercise, eat a healthy diet with omega fatty acids, and socialize to influence the synapses and improve brain function. 

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

With multi-modal learning, you are stimulating the dendrites many times and also in many places simultaneously causing you to learn more. 

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

Thinking of the big picture stimulates different areas of the brain making more regions remember the information and be more effective at learning the information. 

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

Dopamine is a very important neurotransmitter because is is released when you are happy and most of the time if you are happy, you are healthy. Dopamine increases alertness, energy, and learning abilities, and without it, you would not be interested in trying any new things in life.

Limbic System

What does the corpus callosum do?

The corpus callosum is the connection and communicator between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It also is the area that allows us to understand language and read because it is the part that understands handwriting.

What is the relationship between music and the corpus callosum? 

Scientists believe that music can help make communication between the two hemispheres more efficient and even more ambidextrous. 

Why is the thalamus important?

The thalamus is important because it is the main processor in sleep and consciousness. 

Relate and Review 

In this simulation we learned about the major parts of the brain and their function along with their association with learning. Many parts of the brain overlap in their functions making the multi-modal learning possible because when multiple areas are stimulated, the easier it is to learn and remember information. There are so many ways to stimulate the mind and make sure that information is remembered better but it does take effort that students are not always willing to commit. Most people do live their lives on autopilot and I always had thought that it was a good thing at times because it meant that you had gotten to used to that activity that you didn't need to think about it but this taught me that you shouldn't because it deteriorates your mind.

Looking in a Sheep's Mind

The anterior part of the brain is comprised mainly of the frontal lobe which mainly deals with higher function and decision making while the posterior part of the brain is mainly the occipital lobe which deals with eyesight and processing. The cerebrum is the area of the brain that surrounds it which is the section that humans have the most of because it is what makes us able to think and be different than animals. The cerebellum is one of the older parts of the brain that controls motor function and other basic bodily functions. Lastly the brain stem is the oldest part of the brain that controls essential bodily functions like respiration, circulation and those types of functions.

Myelin is the fatty tissue that surrounds the axon of the neuron and its purpose is to increase the speed at which the electrical signal pass down the myelinated fiber.



Starting from left to right in the diagram we first have the medulla oblongata. This
is responsible for our unconscious body function like circulation, digestion, and other essential system that we do not consciously control. Next the pons is the center for many different nerves and acts as a sort of bridge between the medulla and the midbrain. The midbrain is associated with basic functions like speech, movement, sleeping, and body temperature regulation. The thalamus is a major cross road in the brain that sends many signals to the appropriate part of the cerebrum. By itself it deals with sensory input and sleep. The hypothalamus is small but essential to the endocrine system as it is connected to the pituitary gland. The corpus callosum is the bridge that connects the two hemispheres to the brain to allow for contralateral control. The optic nerve is a continuation from the eyeballs that bring the visual input to the occipital lobe to be organized and analyzed.


Here you can see the white matter and the gray matter, the gray is darker and the white is lighter because it has myelinated fibers while gray matter does not.

Relate and Review
In this lab we got to look at a non color coded brain so we could test our ability to identify structures in a real brain. It was not as difficult as I had thought it was going to be because the brain is very unique and actually does have relatively clear parts and markers to give hints as to the location of the structure. When we first got the brain it was very interesting to see how it separated so easily after peeling the meninges off, seeing how the brain truly is two hemispheres. Compared to the eye dissection they were equally entertaining and both surprisingly easy to look through even if the eye was slightly harder to slice through than the amazingly soft tissue of white and gray matter. Different parts of the brain overlap in function which goes to help explain plasticity and plasticity is a great word for it because the brain feels like a very soft plastic material. Of course that is not why it is called plasticity but I feel like it is a perfect term.

Seeing From a Sheep's Perspective... sort of

This is the sheep eye that we got to dissect once it was cleaned of all of the fat tissue and as much of the external muscles that Amelia could cut off. You can see the cornea, sclera, and the nub of the optic nerve. 

We cut it open in have to make anterior and posterior hemispheres (which was tricky because the sclera is quite tough to puncture and cut through since it is meant to hold the eye's shape).

Here we have taken out the vitreous humor and the lens and we noticed that even though it is jelly like, they both have a lot of structure to them. The lens was also very hard but still has a little bit of give to it because it does need to be able to change shape and focus our vision on stuff.

Here are the two hemispheres completely separate. On the left you can see the vitreous humor filling the eye and the slightly yellow orb is the lens. On the right you can see the layer of the retina on the choroid and the green color of the tapedum lucidum which is something humans don't have.

For this we have carefully scraped the retina off of the choroid (black layer) and then peeled part of the choroid off of the sclera to expose the 3 layers. Notice how the retina is attached at one point because that is where the optic nerve is and creates our blind spot.

This is an outer view of the eye with the clouded cornea cut out to expose the iris and the rectangular pupil.

Play-Dough® Brain

We got to do a super fun activity of modeling the the major parts of the brain using Play-Dough® and then labeling them. Using the many different colors we had to create a representative of the internal structures of the left brain (on the left) and the outer structures of the right brain (on the right).

A Missing Piece in the Brain Puzzle

This article told the story of a 24 year old woman who managed to live her whole life without a cerebellum, aka the little brain. This part of the brain is very important for basic functions like walking and speech, but because of the amazing plasticity of the brain, her brain was able to minimize the affects of that and cause her to have only slight trouble gaining those basic skills. We learned about the brain and its functions and plasticity in my psychology class and went over how the brain is able to transfer responsibility from one area to another if the area is missing or damaged but it is really cool to read a story of it happening so dramatically and with a huge section of the brain. With most cases of people missing their cerebellum not living to adulthood, her case is very interesting to learn about and take note of because it does show scientists the amazing capabilities the brain has. I think it could hint the scientists at how to help people with other missing parts with a bit of studying on what other parts took over for her.

The somatosensory cortex is the part of the cerebral cortex that interprets almost all of our sense of touch. If someone were to be missing their somatosensory cortex they would most likely not be able to receive any information form their skin like heat, pressure, and just feeling everything around us. A person should be able to live without the somatosensory cortex because it is the thalamus that directs sense to the different parts of the brain so the sense of touch could possibly be transferred to another section of the brain. If that were to happen then the persons sense of touch would still be severely affected because of the lack of a specific part of the brain working on that sense and organizing those impulses. Basically, a person would be able to survive pretty well without their somatosensory cortex because of the brain's plasticity and the essential role the thalamus has in sorting info and most likely being able to reroute the sense to another part of the brain.