Terry Sejnowski: Video Analysis

“The Human Brain”, by myPerspectives, is an informative article that claims that the brain is a complex organ that is truly impressive. The brain is a key part of the central nervous system, that controls the entire body’s activities, to simple things such as breathing. These actions are fired through neurons, that quickly travel through the spinal cord. Surprisingly, the brain transmits these messages at an unimaginable rate, at 150 miles per hour, through 85 billion cells, called neurons. These neurons can form up to 10,000 synapses, or connections to each other. By itself, the brain can create billions of synapses, which change the structure of the brain every time new information is learned. However, there is still much that scientists

In the article, “Building a Better Brain is within Every Student’s Power” author Judy Willis states that when people empower themselves with a basic understanding of how their brain learns and remember it gives them the most potent keys to success in school, careers, relationships, and every other aspect of their lives. Many things help the brain learn like influences on intelligence, emotional state, a positive emotional state, incremental progress, and knowing how to construct patterns.

For example, just like a child learning to ride a bike, your brain needs continuous practice and exercise in order to become larger and stronger. So when you think or solve problems you use the part of your brain called the cortex. It consists of billions of tiny nerve cells that are called neurons. The nerve cells connect together and grow dendrites (fibers) that grow when you listen write or talk, thus creating a very complex and complicated network. When you acquire knowledge and continue to challenge your mind to learn new things, the neurons and brain cells will begin to increase that enables your brain to retain more information.

The advocates of brain-based education support a varied group of educational practices and approaches, and they try to base claims about important practice in recently found facts about the human brain. They dispute that there has been remarkable new outcomes associated with the development and organization of the human brain and this work can enlighten educational practice in significant ways. (“Brain-Based Education”).

Carr goes further by exploring theories of the brain and mentioning several neuroscientists. Several monkey brains later, an important discovery was finally made. Brain plasticity is our brain's ability to adapt and change. Our brain can rewire and provide new pathways. Our brains simply put, are capable of extensive reconstruction.

The concept of neuroplasticity has long been questioned. The term of “neuroplasticity” did not even come about until the mid-late 20th century. When the term “plastic” was used to describe the brain by a select few neuroscientists, they were laughed at and the term was never thought of as a description for the human brain. The human brain was seen as a closed circuit and one that once you had it, you definitely had it. Scientists thought the brain would not develop anymore past a certain point in your life. Norman Doidge brings the concept of neuroplasticity into reality in his book “The Brain that Changes Itself,” a book about the triumphs in the frontier of brain science.

I suppose human brain is the most complex machine that ever existed! With over 7.146 billion models it is also the most ubiquitous. Despite the research and the studies, scientists are still unsure of brain complexity. Scientists still do not understand how the brain works. Regardless of defining the functionality of certain areas of the brain, and by understanding some of the mechanics at the neural chemical level, scientists remain ignorant of how the brain coordinates all its activities and develops language, thought and a sense of self. Thus, will human entirely or exactly understand how the brain cause the hearts to beat, or make people happy, breathe without thinking, fall in love, fear see, dream, learn, remember, taste, feel or smell? How could such a small organ that only weight about 3 pounds and around 15 centimeters long, become so complex and complicated?

The videos that I watched we very informative and intriguing. In the neuroplasticity video it told us that neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity is how we become better at problem solving, learning a new language, and increasing our ability to focus. An example, of my road to mastering a subject would be me learning how to play the clarinet. I vividly remember the first day I played the clarinet, I still remember that I had to look at my fingers to see if I they were on the right keys. Doing anything the first time most of the time is hard at first, but with time it becomes a habit. At first when I got my clarinet they told me to get reeds, when I saw them the first time I just saw thick strips of wood.

In the book, “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain,” David Eagleman challenges many ideas that we might have about our identities, mindset, perception and how they all come together to affect our actions and beliefs. Eagleman talks about how our brains work with our bodies to perceive our everyday life and tasks. He explains that the brain is a three- pound organ that takes control of our daily actions and alters our way of thinking and performing certain tasks. He states that it is easier for our brains to perform tasks like ride a bike or drive a car without thinking too much about it. In his book, he also talks about how the brain does not perform or think the same way someone else's brain might. The brain can automatically do a certain task without you even realizing it and is even able to make up a response when you don't remember exact details of a past event. This book has challenged many ideas that we may already have, or known about ourselves, and raises many questions about how our brain works to perceive and analyze information.

The brain is very complex and allows us to do different things. The part of the brain known as the

In this video Matt Cutts discusses how people can try something that they really always wanted, just for 30 days and, based on the experience of Morgan Spurlock, Matt Cutts proposes removing or adding things in your life for 30 days. He proposes to add things, like biking to work, 10,000 steps a day, take a picture a day or even write a book and also remove things, like TV, sugar, caffeine and twitter, just for 30

As time progresses so does the wearing down of our bodies and minds. Our reflexes slow, our sight may not be as precise as it used to be in youth. Age takes a toll on our bodies. One might argue therefore that the most complex organ should be the last to deteriorate. The brain is the most important part of one’ body. It controls vital body functions that once compromised can cause major changes in our daily lives as well as having many socio-economic impacts. More importantly the brain allows us to experience the human condition. The brain determines who we are, without it we are lost.

This video of Bobby McFerrin clearly stunned me, all he had to do was teach the audience just once the note and then based on his moments the audience could sing the notes on their own without any guidance, and not only that, the audience also knew the tune to the parts he did not mention and that was the most amazing sight I have ever come across. This shows the beauty of music has reached to heights that anyone can be a musicians and make beautiful songs and tunes, just like how Bobby McFerrin did so. This clearly shows the true power of Music and how it can be used in many beautiful

     One of the most complex and fascinating things in the human body is the brain. The body is “capable of almost everything, but it would not be possible, without the brain receiving information, and analyzing the information.”

In modern research scientists, educators, nutritionists, psychiatrists, and geneticists are constantly working together to find out how the mind-body connection affects learning. Scientists are researching how our ability to generate new brain cells affects our abilities to learn. Research has shown that our brain develops new brain cells every day. This continues until we die. According to Palombo-Weiss, R. (1997), “it's our ability to generate new brain cells that accounts for the brain's plasticity-its ability to continue to learn and update its database. Scientists generally agree that each human being has approximately 100 billion neurons, each of