A GOOD CATCH [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ] When the ball hits the glove, mechanoreceptors in the hand register the arrival as pressure. Those in the ear, attuned to the vibrations of sound waves, record the thwack of ball hitting leather. (And if the leather in the palm is too thin, cell damage in the…
GOOD FEELINGS / PLEASURE CENTERS [ NERVOUS SYSTEM ] GOOD FEELINGS Pleasure also has its centers In the brain. A Tulane University neurologist stumbled across one such center in the 1950s when he tried to electrically stimulate the brains of schizophrenics to break them out of their passivity. His patients told him their implanted electrodes…
BIG PAIN [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ] It turns out, the brain has automatic defenses cued up for a quick response to more serious pain. The perception of pain warns the brain of actual or potential tissue damage. The brain’s recognition of pain sets in motion actions to reduce or remove it,…
PAIN GATEWAY [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ] The nervous system does have natural responses that can ease minor pains, like the sting of a scrape or ache of a bump. When you were a child and trying to learn to roller-skate, perhaps you once fell and skinned your knee. To stop your…
RECEPTION [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ] A healthy brain needs a constant stream of incoming information. Picture what happens without it: When volunteers enter a sensory deprivation tank a body temperature pool of water in which they are forced to go without sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and skin sensations they begin to…
MESSENGERS – RELAYING INFORMATION TO & FROM THE BRAIN [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ] THE COMPLEXITY of the brain and how it collects data and reacts to them lies in the very integration of its many neurons. Neural integration not only results in the interplay of sensations associated with motor activity but also influences the…
PHRENOLOGY [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ( HARMONY ) ] PHRENOLOGY As A SCHOOLBOY of nine, Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) was intrigued by a classmate with large, protruding eyes and a knack for rote memorization. The student’s appearance and skills made a lasting impression, one that years later Gall would trace to his theory of cortical…
BRAIN MAPPING [ LOOKING INSIDE ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ] Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) gives a more detailed 3-D picture than a CT scan. An MRI relies on an intense magnetic field generated in a cylinder that surrounds the patient. It allows precise mapping of the physical shape of the brain. Its magnetic field…
FIRST GLIMPSE / A BETTER LOOK / COMPUTERIZED VISIONS [ THE AMAGING BRAIN ] FIRST GLIMPSE The first technology to peer into the brain was the x-ray, invented by Wilhelm Rontgen (1845-1923) in 1895. The German scientist discovered a form of radiation that could penetrate the body; the rays were absorbed by dense bones, which…
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE [ LOOKING INSIDE ( THE AMAGING BRAIN ) ] PERHAPS NO scientific book of the past half century stirred up as much controversy as The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The 1994 book, by Richard ]. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, begins simply: “That the word intelligence describes something…