Secret life of the brain free essay sample

Neurons travel everyday in millions to carry out different task. It’s fascinating how they travel as if they are traveling across the country. They’re following cues along the way that are telling them exactly where to go. Evidence shows that young neurons have an idea about where they migrate to and can recognize their position within the brain. Neuroniologist Susan McCnell devised a series of experiment to track the destiny of a migrating neuron. Dr. McCnell found that the fate of the soon-to-become neuron was determined by his neighbor neuron. It travel beside its neighbor and took on the same function they did. The new neuron then goes on its own path, and takes on an entirely different function from the cells surrounding it. The Child’s Brain: Syllable From Sound Explain how the child’s brain is able to take a â€Å"great leap† and learn to master language? A young child has twice as many neurons than adults. We will write a custom essay sample on Secret life of the brain or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The child brain is plastic, a magnificent and flexible engine for learning. Children learn to crawl, reason, pay attention and remember. They learn to make friends, but nowhere is learning more dramatic than in the way a child learns to master language, the great leap that the brain makes that is nothing short of a miracle. I can relate being the eldest of my siblings’ language development represents one of the most profound mysterious changes. The Aging Brain: Through Many Life Explain how age affects mental performance? The lab at the University of Michigan studies shows how age affects mental performance. Its director, psychologist Denise Park, gathers evidence that presents a new view of brain aging. Aging begins in our 20s, as soon as we reach maturity, our data show clearly as we age from twenty to thirty, we get a little bit slower. We process information not quite fast. Then suddenly we turn seventy and start noticing that these continuous declines have aggregated our memory. The more unfamiliar the information, the more trouble we’re going to have remembering. We will also forget simple things such as where did I park my car. Explain the job of the hippocampus on brain activity? The hippocampus is a major component of the brain.. It plays important roles in long-term memory and spatial navigation. Like the cerebral cortex, with which it is closely associated, it is a paired structure in the left and right sides of the brain. The hippocampus is located inside the medial temporal lobe, beneath the cortical surface. In Alzheimers disease the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage; memory problems and disorientation appear among the first symptoms. Damage to the hippocampus can also result from oxygen starvation (hypoxia), encephalitis, or medial temporal lobe epilepsy. People with extensive hippocampal damage may experience amnesia which is the inability to form or retain new memories. What goes wrong in the brain to cause depression? The human brain operates, much like your automobile, on fluids called neurotransmitters. Just as your automobile have brake fluid, antifreeze, transmission fluid, and oil your brain runs on these neurotransmitters. Some give us energy, like those related to adrenalin, some control body movements (dopamine as an example), and some control mood. The brain neurotransmitter often associated with depression is called serotonin. Serotonin is the brains oil, a rather slow-acting neurotransmitter that is associated with sleep, appetite, energy, alertness, and mood just to name a few. Using the automobile as an example, if we drive our car to California at a speed of 120 mile per hour, running the engine hot for a long time, it would obviously use more oil. As long as we provided gas, however, it would continue to run. Now suppose in our trip that for every two quarts of oil we burn, we only replace one quart. By the time we reached California wed be several quarts low and our engine would be obviously overworked and overheated causing it to slow down.