Activities in Neuroscience

Our Activity: Watching Television

The Medulla controls/regulates your heart rate. I sincerely doubt you’d enjoy watching Days of our Lives as much if your heart was beating out of control.

Without the Pons, you would be incapable of using the remote control.

The Reticular formation controls how interested in the program you are: how interesting is it to see Dr. House limp towards the camera for the 4rth time this hour?

The Cerebellum allows you to stay upright as you chill out on the couch. Heaven forbid you fall over and can’t read that Jeopardy question.

The Thalamus allows you to hear and see the program you’re watching.  It also allows you to feel the remote.

The Basal ganglia ensures you’re capable of operating the remote.

The Limbic System:
 Your Hypothalamus prevents you from freezing to death as you’re watching the Discovery channel.

And your Hippocampus is what lets you form memories about what you’ve just seen.

The Amygdala helps you to put emotions to those memories.

 

Processing Areas

The Corpus Collosum is the bridge between your hemispheres, watching television would be hard without communication between the two.

In your Motor Cortex, there’s a greater area relegated to the fine motor movements of your fingers manipulating the remote control than your arm pointing the device at the receptor.

Your Sensory cortex allows you to not crush the remote in your grip. Knowledge of your limb position allows you to manipulate the control without looking.

Your Visual cortex allows you to see the television, while your Auditory cortex allows you to hear the voices.

Your Prefrontal Cortex is impulse control. You’re not fun to watch television with if you change the channel every 2 seconds. (Seriously. Don’t.)

Broca’s area allows you to form language-essential for screaming at the characters in a horror movie for doing something you deem stupid.

Wernicke’s area is language comprehension-sure, you can watch the television, but this is what lets you understand it.

Neutrotransmitters:
Dopamine is related to movement and mood, mood being what might help you decide what to watch-and movement again relates to the remote control.

ACH is necessary to remember when and what channel your favorite shows come on.

 

The Somatic nervous systme is similar to the medula, in that it regulates involuntary things, such as heartbeat.