Taylor Brackner Davis Faulkner Nicole White Jake Martin

Studying The Brain  Case Studies involve the thorough investigation of a single person or small group of people.  Brain damage has provided insight into behavior such as memory, speech, emotions, movement, and personality.

Lesions  lesions—surgically altering, removing, or destroying specific portions of the brain—and observing subsequent behavior.

Electrical Stimulation  Involves implanting bipolar electrodes in a specific brain area.  Electrical stimulation causes activation of the neurons in the area around the tip of the electrode and usually produces the opposite behavioral effect of a lesion in the same brain area.  A graphic record of the brain’s electrical activity is called a electroencephalogram(EEG)

The Developing Brain  3 weeks after conception, sheet of primitive neural cells has formed  Sheet curls to make the hollow neural tube  Neural tube lined with neural stem cells Stem cells are cells that can divide indefinitely

Neural Tube  Top of the neural tube thickens into three bulges Hindbrain Midbrain Forebrain  As the neural tube expands, develops cavities called ventricles Found at the core of fully developed brain

 During peak periods of brain development, new neurons are being generated at 250,000/ minute  Triggered by chemical signals and guided by the fibers of specific glial cells, the newly born neurons travel to other parts of the brain  About halfway through the prenatal period the production of new brain cells is virtually complete

 After specific neurons are differentiated, they begin to develop the nervous system  The development of dendrites and synapses begins before birth and continues throughout lifespan  Fetal brain forms as many as 2 million synaptic connections/second  By the end of fetal development, the forebrain structures eventually come to surround and envelop the hindbrain and midbrain structures

 At birth, the infant’s brain is only about ¼ the size of an adult brain Less than a pound  After birth, dendrites are formed as the neurons grow in size  Axons grow longer an the branching at the ends of the axons become more dense  A fully developed adult brain weighs about 3 pounds

neurogenesis  the process where neurons are generated from stem cells most active during pre natal development “birth of neurons” hippocampus, the part of the brain that plays a central role in the ability to form new neurons.  It effects the ability and rate of learning new information.  Neurogenesis is also believed to play a roll in the regulation of stress through the production of antidepressants.  Neurogenesis continues into ages as old as 70