Arnold, Nick; Tony De Saulles (ill.);
Bulging Brains (Horrible Science)
Scholastic, 1999, 160 pages
ISBN 0590113194, 9780590113199
topics: | brain | neuro-science | humour | history
Hilariously informative. =Excerpts== 10^11 (100 bn) neurons [15] 150K km of nerves (~ 4 times around the earth) 45 each neuron - axon between 1mm and 1m long - cell-body - about 0.03mm across (30 microns) - at mag 10^4x appears like a tree with over 5000 branches error? p.72: same num of synapses - but each cell has 10 thousand (10**4) connections or synapses. Thus, the brain has 10**15 synapses. [M.Sur talk] routes through synapses = circuit - more combinations than atoms in the universe
Seen in profile, the human brain looks something like a BOXING GLOVE. The
temporal lobe is where the thumb would be. The frontal cortex is the front
part, and the palm area is the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobe is near
the wrist at the back. The cerebellum is the fleshy bottom part of the
palm, beneath the occipetal lobe.
PARIETAL :: c.1425, "pertaining to the walls of a cavity in the body," from
L.L. parietalis "of walls," from L. paries (gen. parietis) "wall," of
unknown origin.
OCCIPITAL :: 1541, from M.Fr. occipital, from M.L. occipitalis, from
L. occiput (gen. occipitis) "back of the skull," from ob "against,
behind" + caput "head."
CEREBELLUM :: 1565, from L. cerebellum, little brain, dim. of L. cerebrum
"brain," from PIE *keres-, from base *ker- "top of the head."
EEG: invented by German Dr Hans Berger (1873-1941) - wanted to
determine what people were thinking - five years
measuring electrical brain activity via electrodes - including his
children - reported many papers - but failed. Ignored until Edgar
Adrian (British, 1889-1977) showed that unusual wave patterns were
indicators of brain disease [39]
EEG curves:
alpha-rhythms - dreamy thinking
delta rhythm - very slow - deep sleep - irregular large peaks
1-4 hz - associated with deep [slow-wave] sleep, last stage (3) of
non-REM sleep
[+mu rhythm = sensori-motor rhythm: 8 to 14 Hz.
strongly suppressed during the performance of contralateral motor
acts. Modulation of the μ rhythm is believed to reflect the
electrical output of the synchronization of large portions of
pyramidal neurons of the motor cortex which control the hand and arm
movement when inactive. In [Pineda, J.A. (2005). The functional
significance of mu rhythms: translating "seeing" and "hearing" into
"doing". Brain Research Brain Res Rev. (1):57-68] it was proposed that
mu rhythm could reflect visuomotor integrative processes, and would
"translate seeing and hearing into doing." Indeed, fluctuation on mu
rhythm during the observation of a motor action is highly similar to
the one seen during the direct performance of the action by the
individual.
[+gamma wave : 40hz - can be between 26 and upwards of 70
Hz; continuously present during low voltage fast neocortical activity
(LVFA), which occurs during the process of awakening and during
active rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
Transient periods of synchronized firing over the gamma waveband, of
entire banks of neurons from different parts of the brain, have been
proposed as a mechanism for bringing a distributed matrix of
cognitive processes together to generate a coherent, concerted
cognitive act, such as perception. For example, it has been suggested
that gamma waves are associated with solving the binding problem
[Buzsaki, György, Rhythms of the brain, OUP 2006, chapter=Cycle 9, The Gamma
Buzz] [/books?id=yVz4d4d9ZzsC]
ANOSMIA: inability to smell PAROSMIA: all food tastes disgusting 49 * Siblings given t-shirts to sniff. Can identify those belonging to sibs. [Vanderbilt U] * 16 out of 18 parents could identify their children by smell * after someone walks across floorboards in dirty socks, can detect the places by lying on floor and sniffing the floor. PAIN: the deeper the pain receptor the weaker the signal. No pain in the brain itself. * Pain signal speeds: prick on skin - 30 m/s. Burning or itching pain 2 m/s [58] * rubbing a banged shin with other hand (or lump of ice) - confounds signals [pain/pressure/temp] REFLEXES - go to spinal cord and back (0.3s) instead of to cortex (0.8sec) cough / sneeze / dribble --> reflexes dogs - if back is rubbed, uses hind legs to scratch its back - reflex discovered by Charles Sherrington (British, 1857-1952 Nobelist) 63
* Dominant brain half: babies don't have them (ambidextrous) - arises around age 2 * Right-handed people read, write (language) and work out maths (logic) with left-brain; drawings and music usually on the right brain; expts on putting Rt-brain to sleep --> can't sing * LAZY-EYE: put finger 12cm (5in) in front of face until out of focus - wink each eye and see which view is retained ==> DOMINANT EYE. RH people --> usually right eye is dominant. [for me as well 06jul, 09oct] EDUCATION: BF Skinner in the 60s invented a machine, Didak, that gave you sentences you had to complete; if correct it gave you tougher sentences. 85 Psychologist JOHN B WATSON (1878-1958) was poor in school, involved in crime, but at 16 started to study - had diff understanding teachers in the Univ --> expt on rats (behaviourism) - blocked off way to cheese with a glass barrier - and after some failures, rat would not approach the food. 87 BAD PUN 88 "Rats are just like us" : "Squeak for yourself" Watson eventually went into advertising, and his reward notions worked - he became a millionaire guru.
BRAIN growth: neuron links formation 6 months - brain doubles in size. can roll and smile. 1 year - first word, learning to walk 2 years - 270 words - can run 3 years - 1000 words in short sentences. Feed yourself. Learning to draw. 4 years - brain is 4x than at birth - asking lots of q's - 1500 words 5 years - tell stories, hop, skip, 2000 words --> school/reading Einstein didn't learn to talk until he was four. 93 Girls - speech cortex areas evelop earlier - learn to talk sooner
1. boys quicker at math: gifted boys use only right-brain, girls use both (maybe converting to words?) 2. boys better at guessing what 3D puzzles will look like 3. girls better fine finger motions - better at assembling the puzzles 4. boys - better sense of direction / building up route 5. girls - better at remembering landmarks FEATS OF MEMORY p.104-109
Solomon Veniaminoff came to Luria's office in 1928, saying that he could remember every single thing from the age of one on. A disbelieving Luria read out to him 30 numbers: 62, 30, 19, 41... After some time, Solomon repeated them perfectly. And he read them out backwards as well. 30 years later, he was still able to repeat the numbers. The reason for his ability was the synesthesia, (did Luria call it a "disease"? p. 109) - he experienced sounds as colours, and then rememberd them visually. The only way he could forget something was by imagining it being written and then burning it.
In 1995, Horiyuki Goto recited PI from memory - to 42,195 digits over 17 hours. In 1967, Mehmed Ali Halici of Turkey recited 6,666 lines of religious text over 18 hours. Hans von Bulow, German Conductor, 1850-1894. Phenomenal musical memory. Read the music of a new symphony on a train from Hamburg to Berlin. Conducted it from memory that very evening, without any errors.
SIX principal emotions:
1. Happiness/Joy,
2. Sadness,
3. Anger,
4. Fear,
5. Surprise,
6. Disgust, [no "anxiety" ? requires planning? - Stumbling on Happiness
DOPAMINE:
makes neurons more active and fire more signals. Released under cues from
brain stem under emotional situations --> affects the limbic system -->
cortex can calm things down.
made by area of brain called Retirular Activating System (RAS)
SEROTONIN: Calms down neurons - released by neurons linking limbic systems
and cortex.
cartoon: Dizzy dopamine (smiling) vs sensible seratonin (serious)
cartoon: eating cream buns:
dopamine: "go on grab another two"
seratonin: "that's enough - you've already had three"
Low seratonin situations --> bad temper / violent behaviour --> harder to
control feelings.
people feel more cheerful when they chew things.
medium anger: adrenaline glands (above kidneys) squirting adrenaline
hormone, which causes:
- lungs panting in air
- stored sugar pouring from liver into blood - for brain
- Fat being dissolved and sent to muscles to provide energy for
violent physical action
very angry: even more adrenaline
- heart pumping so hard that beats become irregular
- blood vessel swell up in the eyes - they look red
- muscles locked
- blood goes to hands - ready to grip things
Fear also pumps adrenaline, but in addition:
- hair standing on end
- shoulders drawn up, eyes closed, body bent, knees locked - all part
of STARTLE REFLEX - by bending the body one is protecting the vital
organs in case of impending physical hurt
extreme Fear:
- face turns white (blood drains away from skin - so woulds will
cause less bloodshed)
- spit dries up
- heart speeds up and beats louder
STRESS: when you feel fear but you can't run away,
adrenaline glands making the hormone cortisone --> prepares muscles for
action later; sugar pours into blood, brain feels more alert - nerves
firing away - making one nervy and jittery ...
Brain condition that makes one miserable - makes you want to go to bed and cry - scientists think it may be the result of a shortage of brain chemicals like serotonin. MAY BE HELPFUL: take a deep breath. Let it out slowly and relax. For some reason relaxing helps one feel better.
Paul Costa and Robert Mc Rae (70s): interviewed lots of people. Main results: 1. if you enjoy meeting new people 2. don't expect too much from life. that way good things come as a surprise 3. always look at the bright side of every situation [COMIC: man on sinking ship - thought bubble - "oh goodie! I love swimming!"] SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS: p.126-128 A: JOINING IN: NYU Psychology Profs - late 1960s: Playing frisbee in the Grand Central Station. Laughed and joked and got in the way. After a while they threw the frisbee to a third scientist pretending to be a stranger. She joined in the game. Next, other people started feeling good and joined in too - in fact, it was difficult stopping the game. In another version, the third person pretended to be grumpy and no one else got involved. B: SOCIAL CUES (same NYU team): Three people in a room filling out forms. Smoke comes in through the window. Two people (accomplices) ignore it. Third also ignores. C: COERCION MAKES FEEL-GOOD: CONVINCING DECENTLY vs BY FORCE (Philip Zimbardo): Complete strangers being persuaded to eat fried grasshoppers. a) by nice friendly scientist, b) by rudely ordering scientist. Not true: that people were more likely to eat when asked nicely; But those asked nicely felt worse - they said they ate them because they did not want to upset the nice scientist. The one's ordered to eat, said they felt like trying the grasshoppers anyway.
beneath skull, three layers of fluid-filled cushioning - abt 150ml
clear CS fluid.
CONSCIOUSNESS: can be knocked unconscious and still perform simple
actions - Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann was knocked
unconsc in collision during 1956 FA cup final - but still managed a
save to win the game.
[ from Pain, Volume 124, Issues 1-2, sep 2006, p.234]
On the first Saturday of May, 1956, in the North London Borough of
Wembley, goalkeeper Bert Trautmann took an insane dive into the feet of
opposing striker Peter Murphy and dislocated five vertebrae in his
neck. It was the 74th minute of a 90-min game:
The physio came on with the magic sponge and I came round a few
minutes later but I couldn't recognise anybody or see properly. There
were 15 minutes of the match remaining and, in those days, you were
not allowed substitutions, so I had to continue playing.
It was such a strange sensation. I wasn't seeing any colour -
everything around me was grey and I couldn't see any of the players
properly. I could only see silhouettes. It was like walking around in
fog and trying to find my way.
I can't remember what happened during the rest of the match. I know
now that I made one or two more good saves but it must just have been
my subconscious taking over; everything was a blur of black and
white. - Guardian 2006
According to legend, Trautmann did not experience pain during
the final minutes of the cup final and continued to be pain free until
the following morning.
Unfortunately it turns out that Trautmann’s injury was never pain
free. In a recent article for (The Guardian, 2006, Trautmann
explains his experience during the final moments of the game:
“I collapsed two or three more times in those last 15 minutes. I was
in absolute agony and I was having to support my neck with my right
hand. I couldn’t move my head at all - if I wanted to look at
anything, I had to turn my whole body around with my hand on my
neck.”
As well as being disappointed, however, perhaps we should also be
concerned that a good story remained untouched by the facts for so long.
1997: Vicky 10 year british girl - banged her head and started writing
backwards and upside down. She could read her own writing. A year
later she got excited watching a football game and banged her head
again - and the day after she was writing normally again. 132
HEADACHES: caused by excessive blood (stress-induced) stretching the
blood vessels ... [HIGHS??] - frowning makes it worse by squeezing
more bloodvessels. Best to relax 134
Phineas Gage: railway foreman from Vermont, 1848: while dyamiting a new path for a railway, an iron bar went through Phineas' head. He was knocked out, but quickly came around and even managed to walk to the doctor's. The hole was big enough for the doc to put his fingers inside PG's skull. He was ill a few weeks, but then he lived. But his personality had changed from lively happy go-lucky to moody, foul-mouthed, rude, and often drunk. But his wits were sharp - earned money by exhibiting the iron rod running through his head. Sold his body to several med schools for experimentation after he died. Postmortem: Frontal Cortex was damaged. but not vital for life. The iron bar can be seen at Harvard Med School museum. SLEEP: Staying awake for two weeks can kill you. 140 SOMNILOQUIST: talking in your sleep (SOMNAMBULIST - walking)
Martin O'Brien in http://popularscience.co.uk/kreviews/rev13.htm Just think for a moment about opening someone's skull and poking around in their brains. Slight reaction along the lines of "yuck!"? ... that gives Nick Arnold a superb excuse to revolt and fascinate in equal measures. There's something ideally Horrible Science about looking into the brain, as evidenced by the display of equipment for brain surgery and even a short DIY brain surgery course. Don't worry, though, if you are a squeamish adult - the majority of the book isn't about dissection but about the remarkable wonders the brain is capable of, and the relatively current theories on what's going on in there - with plenty of "we're not quite sure", because that's way it is with brains. If that "relatively current" sounds like faint praise, it's just a fact of life. Whatever you write down about the brain, something about it is liable to be proved wrong a few years later. The only decidedly out of date bit in Arnold's book is the assertion that all your brain cells are in place when you are born. To quote Matt Ridley in his Nature via Nurture, "now it is certain that all primates, including human beings, can grow new cortical neurons in response to rich experience." There are also a couple of missed opportunities. We hear about horrible headache cures, along the cutting a hole in the head line, but not how modern painkillers work. And though there's a rather vague memory technique, it would have been nice to give readers the chance to amaze friends and relatives by memorising numbers using the much more specific and effective number rhyme chain method. But hey, let's not be too hard on the man. It is a good book, it makes you think about what's going on in your skull (which is, of course going on in your skull...) and it's a topic that isn't covered enough at the moment. As usual the cartoons help a lot and are particularly (and appropriately) yucky.