March 16, 2022
The human brain remains one of the biggest mysteries in science, but we’ve learned a lot about how it works over the years. In this episode, Patrick breaks down all things brain.
In order to get accurate and precise data on the human brain, we need to use a piece of technology like functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. fMRIs are extremely common in modern neuroscience studies because the advanced tech can give us information about what kind of activity is happening in different parts of the brain in response to different tasks or just at rest. fMRIs work by showing us where blood is flowing in the brain, but they can’t tell you what someone is thinking.
The brain is a key component in our central nervous system (along with the spinal cord); it has to interpret and process information it receives from the outside world, and then coup with responses for it. When we look at the brain from the side, we can see three big structures. The cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the spinal cord. So today, we’re going to learn the regions of the brain, what happens in each one, and how to correctly interpret a headline that makes a claim about your brain.
“The human brain is the command center for the human nervous system. It receives signals from the body's sensory organs and outputs information to the muscles. The human brain has the same basic structure as other mammal brains but is larger in relation to body size than any other brains.”
How Your Brain Works https://science.howstuffworks.com/lif... “Your brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves make up a complex, integrated information-processing and control system known as your central nervous system. In tandem, they regulate all the conscious and unconscious facets of your life.”
Learning How Little We Know About the Brain https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/sc... “So many large and small questions remain unanswered. How is information encoded and transferred from cell to cell or from network to network of cells? Science found a genetic code but there is no brain-wide neural code; no electrical or chemical alphabet exists that can be recombined to say ‘red’ or ‘fear’ or ‘wink’ or ‘run.’”
Human Brain: Facts, Functions & Anatomy https://www.livescience.com/29365-hum...
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