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A-24-Clara Nolan-Period 5- Reading Notes Modules 12 and 13 (Module 12 (The…

- - - - Each of the brain's hemispheres is divided into four different lobes, which are separated by fissures/folds. These lobes are called the
        
        temporal lobes- the portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear
        
        frontal lobes- the portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind
        the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and
        in making plans and judgments
        
        parietal lobes- the portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position
        
        occipital lobes- the potion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields
      - Within the cortex are association areas
  - - - plasticity- the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience
    - - The effects of brain damage are usually a result of how severed brain and spinal cord neurons, unlike cut skin, usually do not regenerate and some brain functions seem preassigned to specific areas
        
        Luckily, some of the brain's tissue can reorganize in response to damage. If the brain doesn't respond to damage by reorganizing, it will instead respond with
        
        neurogenesis- the formation of new neurons
  - - - About 1/4th of the brain's wrinkly cover is composed of small cortical areas that either receive sensory input or direct muscular output
        
        The rest of the brain's wrinkled cover is made up of
        
        association areas- areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather they are involved with higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking
        
        These association areas can be found in all for lobes of the brain along with the prefrontal cortex
        
        The prefrontal cortex is in the frontal lobes and it enables judgement, planning, and processing new memories
        
        Damage to the frontal lobes in general can also result in and altered personality and lower inhibitions. This is displayed in the case of Phineas Gage
        
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        There has been a false claim that states we only use 10% of our brain since there has been "silence" in regards to association area activity
    - - Wilder Penfield identified an area which specialized in receiving information from skins senses (tough, temperature, etc) and from the movement of body parts
        
        This would be now known as the
        
        somatosensory cortex- an area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body and touch movement
    - - The motor cortex was able to be mapped by stimulating different cortical areas and observing the subsequent responses
        
        Studies where a monkey's motor activity was measured allowed researchers to predict it's arm movement.
        
        Brain-Computer Interfaces
        
        Cognitive neural prosthetics are now underway in clinical trials with individuals who have severe paralysis or who have a missing limb.
        
        Machine learning can help individuals move their paralyzed limbs since brain signals from their motor cortex feed into a computer which will then stimulate the muscles wanting to be used
        
        Findings like these have allowed for further advancements with brain controlled computer technology
        
        Areas that require precise control (fingers, mouth, etc.) occupy the greatest amount of cortical space
    - - Motor Functions
      - They discovered the motor cortex
        
        motor cortex- an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movement
- - - - Splitting the Brain
        
        Phillip Vogel and Joseph Bogen speculated that epileptic seizures were caused by abnormal brain activity going back and forth between the two cerebral hemispheres. If this was true, they wondered if they could end the activity by severing the connection between the two hemispheres, also known as the
        
        corpus callosum- the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them
        
        Vogel and Bogen did an operation but the seizures did all but disappear. Instead, the patients were left with
        
        split brain- a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers connecting them
        
        .
      - Right-Left Differences in the Intact Brain
        
        When a person does a perpetual task there is more activity in the right hemisphere but if a person speaks or completes a math problem there is more activity in the left hemisphere
        
        With that said, the left hemisphere may be skilled at interpreting language expediently, but the right hemisphere excels in making inferences, helps us modulate our speech, and helps us orchestrate our self awareness
  - - - consciousness- our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment
        
        Conciousness allows us to comprehend different situations and to focus on our long term goals instead of seeking short term pleasure and avoiding pain. It also promulgates our survival by anticipating how others perceive us and helping us understand their thinking
    - - Scientists believe "the mind is what the brain does", but they don't know how it does it. With that said, cognitive neuroscience still serves to relate specific brain states to consciousness.
        
        cognitive neuroscience- the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition
        
        Cognitive neuroscientists are also exploring and mapping the conscious functions of the cortex, and along with that conscious experience comes from synchronized activity across the brain.
    - - One major idea of cognitive neuroscience is that much our brain work occurs out of sight. Perception, memory, thinking, language, and attitudes all operate on two levels, a deliberate, conscious "highroad" and an unconscious, automatic "low road". High road is reflective, and the low road is intuitive. This is now referred to
        
        duel processing- the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
        
        Vision is actually a duel processing system, and a visual perception track enables us to recognize things and to plan future actions while a visual action track guides our moment to moment movement. These tracks can thus explain the existence of
        
        blind sight- a condition in which a person can respond to visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it
        
        Unconscious parallel processing is faster than conscious sequential processing, but both are still important
        
        sequential processing- processing one aspect of a problem at a time; generally used to process new information or to solve difficult problems
        
        parallel processing- processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; generally used to process well-learned information or to solve easy problems