Unit 3B: The Brain

Introduction

1. There’s little doubt that what makes you yourself and me myself

resides in our brains.

2. The mind is somehow a combination of body plus brain.

The tools of discovery: having our head examined

1. Early on, there were no tools to “map” the brain. Damages to the

brain and resulting symptoms enabled researchers to build a rough

“brain map”.

2. Today, we have several techniques to measure brain activity.

- Areas of animals brains can be destroyed and the results

analyzed. Or, brain areas can be stimulated and the results analyzed.

- An EEG (electroencephalogram) is a read-out of electrical brain

activity.

- A PET scan (positron emission topography) shows the brain's

"hot-spots" of action by measuring its consumption of sugar glucose 葡

萄糖, the brain's fuel.

- A CT or CAT scan (computed tomography) uses X-rays to

provide a 3D picture of the brain.

- An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), like a CT scan, provides

a picture of the brain’s soft tissue. MRI’s have shown brain differences

in things such as people who have perfect pitch or schizophrenia .

 - An fMRI (functional MRI) can show the brain ’ s structure and

function. An fMRI measures blood-flow to and within the brain and

therefore can show brain activity.

Older brain structures

1. Brain size-to-body weight ratio is important to an animal ’ s

intelligence, but it isn’t the only factor of intelligence.

2. Simple animals, like sharks, have brains that are concerned with

survival — breathing, resting, eating. In mammals and especially in

humans, higher order brain functions emerge, like emotion and memory.

Thus, we have two brain functions: “old brain functions” dealing with

survival and more complex brain functions dealing with thought.

The brainstem 脑干 is the oldest brain region.

The brainstem begins as the spinal cord enters the brain it swells in

width. This section is called the medulla 髓 质 . The medulla controls

heartbeat and breathing.

Above the medulla is the pons 脑 桥 位 . It helps to coordinate

movements.

The reticular formation 网状结构 is inside the brainstem. It looks a bit

like folded fingers and relays incoming stimuli to other areas of the brain

(also regulates autonomic functions, such as arousal 觉醒.)

Atop the brainstem is the thalamus 丘 脑 . It ’ s the hub that sends

incoming sensory impulses 传 入 感 觉 冲 动 (except for smell) to the

higher brain areas.

The cerebellum 小脑 is at the back of the brain. It’s baseball size, is

split into two parts, is wrinkled in appearance, and means “little brain”

which is what it looks like.

The cerebellum coordinates movement, manages emotions, and figures

out sounds and textures.

The limbic system 边 缘 系 统 sits between the older brain structures

and the cerebral hemispheres (the two large halves of the brain).

The hippocampus 海马体 is critical because it processes memory.

The amygdala 杏仁核 is made up of two bean-size nerve bundles 神经

束 . The amygdale manages anger and fear. It also is involved with

handling the emotions and memories involved here.

It ’ s important to note something here — we like to categorize things,

such as A does B, and X does Y exclusively. The brain, however, is far

more complex. Several parts of the brain handle things like emotions,

memories, learning, movement, etc.

The hypothalamus 下 丘 脑 (“hypo ” meaning below) is below the

thalamus. The hypothalamus is important in hunger, thirst, body

temperature, and sexual behavior.

As an example, thinking about sex in the cerebral cortex 大 脑 皮 层

activates the hypothalamus. It emits hormones that affect the pituitary

垂体 (the master gland) which affects other hormones to. These

hormones influence brain activity.

Remember the chain: Brain->Pituitary->Other glands->Hormones->Brain

As another example, a chance discovery had two scientists implant an

electrode in a rat’s “reward” or “pleasure center” of the brain

— the hypothalamus. This spawned experiments. Rats would similarly

press a lever to give a reward to its brain, up to 7,000 times/hour, until it

stopped from exhaustion.

Later rats were essentially driven, remote controlled, to turn left or right

by pleasure impulses to their hypothalamuses.

Animal research shows a release of dopamine 多巴胺 within pleasure

areas of eating, drinking, and sex.

People have shown mild, but not the same, frenzied results as the rats.

The cerebral cortex

Whereas the older brain parts carry out survival functions and less

voluntary things, the newer brain parts deal with more voluntary

functions, like perception, thinking, and speaking. The cerebrum 大脑 is

the largest section of the brain, about 85% of its weight. The cerebral

cortex is the gnarled “bark” that encompasses the rest of the brain.

Being wrinkly, the cerebral cortex looks like a giant walnut. It has about

20 to 23 billion nerve cells linked together by 300 trillion synapses 突触.

These nerve cells are supported by 9 times as many glial cells 胶质细胞.

These cells feed and insulate the nerve cells.

The cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes, separated by fissures, and

each with their own specialties…

1. The frontal lobe 额叶 is in the front, behind the forehead.

2. The parietal lobe 顶叶 is at the top and to the back of the brain.

3. The occipital lobe 枕叶 is at the back and bottom of the brain.

4. And the temporal lobe 颞叶 is near the temples, on the side.

The cerebral cortex has different functions centered on different areas.

The motor cortex 运动皮层 is a strip roughly between the frontal 额叶

and parietal lobes 顶 叶 . It handles our movements and motions by

sending impulses from the brain to the body. Tests where electrical

stimulation to this part of the brain would make animals or people move

in various ways.

The question then became, “ Could a person or animal control a

machine (like a computer mouse) using his brain?”The answer seems to

be, “Yes.” A monkey was “wired up” to control a mouse with only

his motor cortex.

Researchers are trying to use this technique with a paralyzed person who

cannot speak. The idea is to “wire up” the cortex to a machine, the

person thinks of the word, and the machine speaks for him.

The FDA gave the okay for a“neural prosthetic”神经假肢 in 2004. With

a computer chip implanted in his motor cortex, the man could control a

TV, draw shapes on a computer, and play video games.

Sensory functions

The sensory cortex 感 觉 皮 层 receives input from the senses to the

brain (the opposite direction from the motor cortex). The sensory cortex

is a strip just behind the motor cortex, at the front of the parietal lobe.

The more sensitive the area of the body (like the sensitive lips), the larger

that area of the sensory cortex.

The occipital lobe 枕叶 processes vision. Being bonked in the back of

the head can literally have you “see stars” or flashes because the lobe

gets jarred.

Sounds are processed in the auditory cortex 听觉皮层 in the temporal

lobe 颞叶(appropriately, just above the ear).

The areas described thus far in the cerebral cortex 大脑皮层 make up

only about ¼ of its size. The other ¾ of the cortex is harder to pin down

and label, but seems that it ’ s for thinking. It’s generally called

association areas 联合区域. These areas piece parts together and make

sense of things.

For instance, seeing a stick of dynamite and a lit match side-by-side

mean nothing until they ’ re associated with one another. The logical

conclusion – danger!

The frontal lobe 额叶 handles judgment, planning, and new memories.

It also impacts personality. Phineas Gage was famously injured in a

railroad accident in 1848 when a iron spike drove through his skull. It
injured his frontal lobe. He was largely okay, but his personality had

changed completely from friendly and mild-mannered to profane, cranky,

and dishonest.

The parietal lobe 顶 叶 seems to handle math and spatial reasoning

(Einstein’s were large).

The (right side) of the temporal lobe 颞 叶 seems to perform facial

recognition.

Despite these hot spots, the brain’s“map”really isn’t written in stone

and we should be careful to not think that it is.

The brain has a measure of plasticity, that is its ability to change itself

after being damaged.

Whereas something like skin can“grow back”or“heal over,”neurons

don’t regenerate themselves. A severed spinal 脊髓 cord stays severed.

But the brain seems able to reorganize or reassign jobs and functions.

Children’s brains are amazingly plastic.

People seem to heal fastest when their “good hand ”is tied behind

their back” and are forced to use their “bad hand.” This forces the

brain to reorganize.

There are many examples…

Blind people who read Braille have increased sensitivity in their fingertip.

Deaf people’s hearing area of the brain turns toward visual stimulation.

A lost finger ’ s area of the brain will take on the nearby fingers ’
sensation.

Contrary to popular belief, we do grow new brain cells in a process called

neurogenesis 神 经 发 生. Naturally, this is promoted by exercise, sleep,

and non-stressful but stimulating environments.

Our divided brain

We’ve known for over 100 years that the two sides of the brain have

different purposes. Damage to the left hemisphere resulted in problems

with reading, writing, speaking, math, and reasoning. Around 1960, it

was discovered that the right hemisphere had its specialties as well.

In 1961, patients with severe epileptic seizures 癫痫 had their corpus

callosum 胼胝体 cut. The corpus callosum links the two hemispheres.

The seizures stopped and the patients were very normal afterwards.

These patients were then subject to experiments. The patient stared at

the center of a screen and words or images were sent displayed to each

side and thus were sent to one half of their brain.

For example

HE . ART was flashed while staring at the center dot. HE went to the right

brain, ART to the left brain. When asked what he saw, he said “ART”

(left brain talking). Then he pointed to HE with his left hand (right brain

controlling).

Left brain – right brain research can get very confusing with its

criss-crossing nature, but the overall conclusions were

The left brain handles rational, logical thought, speech and words. Think

of Mr. Left, a boring, methodical, math teacher who carefully works

through complicated problems step-by-step and always gets the correct

answer.

The right brain handles images, emotions, intuition, and drawing

inferences. Think of Mrs. Right, a flaky, unpredictable art teacher who

can instantly tell when you’re having a down day.

Right-left differences of the intact brain

For nearly all people (those who don’t have a severed corpus callosum)

the hemispheres “talk” to one another instantly. Still, the halves have

their specialties.

A sedative 镇定剂 to patients that goes to the left brain will leave the

person’s right arm limp and they can’t speak.

A sedative to patients that goes to the right brain will leave the person’s

left arm limp but they can still speak.

Sign language is also dominated by the left hemisphere. One might think

the right hemisphere would handle this (being more spatial and visual in

nature), but not so. Language is language regardless of how it is

conveyed.

The right hemisphere handles our sense of self – who we are and how

we look.

90% of people are right-handed. 96% of these folks process speech in

the left hemisphere. But, only 70% of left-handers process speech in the

left hemisphere.

Left or right handedness seems to be genetic in some way.

Left-handers have more reading disabilities, allergies, and migraines. But

they seem better than righties at music, math, and art.

These facts illustrate the overall theme of this chapter –

biology influences everything psychological.