Your Best Brain YourBestBrain.pdf · LECTURE 3 Damaged Brain, ... LECTURE 17 How Adolescent Brains...

Neuroscience

SubtopicScience

& Mathematics

Course Guidebook

Professor John J. MedinaUniversity of Washington School of Medicine

Your Best Brain

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John J. Medina, Ph.D.

Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five

The New York Times

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and SchoolThe Genetic Inferno: Inside the Seven Deadly Sins The Clock of Ages: Why We Age, How We Age, Winding Back the Clock Depression: How It Happens, How It’s Healed What You Need to Know about Alzheimer’s The Outer Limits of Life Uncovering the Mystery of AIDS Of Serotonin, Dopamine and Antipsychotic Medications

Table of Contents

LECTURE GUIDES

INTRODUCTION

Professor Biography ............................................................................ iCourse Scope .....................................................................................1

LECTURE 1How Your Brain Works ........................................................................4

LECTURE 2Your Unique Thinking Abilities ..........................................................11

LECTURE 3Damaged Brain, Damaged Function ................................................18

LECTURE 4Neuroplasticity—Your Flexible Brain ................................................25

LECTURE 5How Your Brain Uses Memory..........................................................33

LECTURE 6The Advantages of Forgetting ..........................................................40

LECTURE 7Creativity and Fluid Intelligence........................................................49

LECTURE 8How Your Brain Uses Your Senses ..................................................57

LECTURE 9Seeing with Your Brain—Vision ........................................................64

LECTURE 10Feeling with Your Brain—Emotion ....................................................71

Table of Contents

LECTURE 11How Emotion Drives Attention ..........................................................79

LECTURE 12Pleasure and Your Brain ...................................................................86

LECTURE 13What Makes You Happy ...................................................................94

LECTURE 14How Your Brain Manages Stress ....................................................102

LECTURE 15Your Social Brain ............................................................................110

LECTURE 16How Infant Brains Work ..................................................................117

LECTURE 17How Adolescent Brains Work .........................................................125

LECTURE 18Sex and Your Brain .........................................................................134

LECTURE 19How Your Brain Ages ......................................................................141

LECTURE 20How Your Brain Copes with Grief ...................................................149

LECTURE 21How Self-Control Works .................................................................157

LECTURE 22The Power of Exercise ...................................................................165

LECTURE 23Improving Your Memory..................................................................173

Table of Contents

LECTURE 24Why Your Brain Needs Sleep .........................................................181

Answers to Questions to Consider .................................................189Bibliography ....................................................................................205

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Scope:

Unit One: The Evolving Brain

Your Best Brain

Unit Two: The Learning Brain

Unit Three: The Feeling Brain

Unit Four: The Developing Brain

Unit Five: The Optimized Brain

How Your Brain WorksLecture 1

Human Brain Myths

Evolutionary Considerations

Human Evolution

According to the social brain hypothesis, larger social groups led to the development of larger brains.

Homo sapiens

Evolution through Natural Selection

Origin of Species

Thinking Big

Suggested Reading

2. nota. b. c. d. e.

Questions to Consider

Your Unique Thinking AbilitiesLecture 2

Darwin and Thinking Animals

Language and Belief

predator status despite our lack of physical strength.

Theory of Mind

Suggested Reading

2. a. b. c.

Damaged Brain, Damaged FunctionLecture 3

The Mind and the Brain

A Tour of the Human Brain

Essentials of the Human Brain

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

Lecture 4

The Basics of Neurons and Wiring

Though neurons are responsible for a great deal of the brain’s heavy cognitive lifting, they only comprise about 10 percent of total brain cells.

How Molecules Allow Neurons to Communicate

Firing Together/Wiring Together

Anxiety Disorders

Neuroscience

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

How Your Brain Uses MemoryLecture 5

The variability of IQ tests is so strong that it is argued they are only useful in measuring your ability to take IQ tests.

Charles Spearman and Howard Gardner

The correlational scores of identical twins are not identical, driving the conclusion that both nature and nurture are responsible for intelligence.

Multiple Intelligences

a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

The Advantages of ForgettingLecture 6

Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory is generally divided into three stages: encoding, storing, and retrieving; forgetting is considered by some researchers to be a fourth stage.

Fallibility and the Evolutionary Reasons for Memory

Challenger

Sadly, memories are susceptible to degradation with time.

Practice overlearning

Don’t pull all-nighters

Don’t cram

Memory

Suggested Reading

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Creativity and Fluid IntelligenceLecture 7

Creativity

Working Memory

The Universal Sense

1. Washing your hands

2. Reimagining

Improve your sensory awareness by paying close attention to the sounds you make when washing your hands.

3. Repeat as needed, and with other senses

Your Creative Brain

c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

How Your Brain Uses Your SensesLecture 8

The Senses

Sensations and Perceptions

Transduction

Routing

The process of sensation begins when outside stimuli trigger sensory receptor apparatuses.

expect

Multisensory Processing

Learning and Memorization Techniques

1. Testing condition

2. Replication step

Sensation and Perception

Suggested Reading

Seeing with Your Brain—VisionLecture 9

USeeing the Light

Three Steps to Seeing the Light

Mona Lisa

1. Mona’s light hits your eye.

2. The signal is sent to the back of the brain

3. Stream separation

Pictures and Presentations

Adding a picture to a concept aids retention.

Introducing Psychology

a. b. Mona Lisac. d. e.

Suggested Reading

Feeling with Your Brain—EmotionLecture 10

Emotions, Feelings, and Appraisals

The Relationship between the Brain and Body

The Brain

Many regions of the brain are

anger and fear.

The Body

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Suggested Reading

1. that

How Emotion Drives AttentionLecture 11

Attention, Emotion, and Filtering Systems

The Central Executive

Alan Baddeley envisaged working memory as a temporary mental workspace, much like a desktop.

Attentional Distraction

supervises our decisions to select some inputs and ignore others.

a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

Pleasure and Your BrainLecture 12

The Lighter Side of Pleasure

The Darker Side of Pleasure

1. Craving

2. Tolerance

One of the most insidious functions of dopamine is the role it plays in addictive behavior.

3. Withdrawal symptoms

Suggested Reading

2. not

a. b. c. d. e.

What Makes You HappyLecture 13

Journal of Personality Assessment

Though not as severe as depression, dysthymia can stay with you for years and is still considered a mood disorder.

Positive Emotion

Engagement

Relationships

Meaning

Accomplishment

Concise Guide to Psycho-Pharmacology

Flourish

Suggested Reading

2. a. b. c. d. e.

How Your Brain Manages StressLecture 14

1. “Stress requires heightened excitability or arousal.”

2. “The experience must be perceived as aversive.”

3. controllability … having control over an aversive

stressful the experience feels.”

1. Hypothalamus

2. Pituitary

3. Adrenal glands

1. Stress can hurt the body

2. Too much stress hurts cognition

3. Control is a big issue concerning whether stress hurts the body or cognition

Mindfulness Training

When combined with CBT, mindfulness training can relieve stress and help to manage chronic pain.

ess Mindfulness for Beginners

a. b. c.

Suggested Reading

Your Social BrainLecture 15

IThe Happy Side of Socialization

We have come to depend on regular socialization for our mental well-being.

The Risky Side of Socialization

a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

How Infant Brains WorkLecture 16

Evolutionary Reasons for Childhood

Babies go through developmental milestones in a particular order that is consistent across the globe.

The Work of Jean Piaget

Childhood Diet

Mothers who eat a variety of foods during and after pregnancy have babies who

The Origins of Intellect

2.a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

How Adolescent Brains WorkLecture 17

Teenage Behavior

Teens have a reputation for risk-taking behavior and poor impulse control.

Psychology Today

The Teenage Brain

areare

Adolescents are at increased risk for mental health disorders.

Suggested Reading

a. b. c. d. e.

Lecture 18

IWhat We Know about Sex

Many evolutionary biologists have tried to pinpoint behavioral differences

What We Don’t Know about Sex

Activity

Variety

Competition

The Brains of Men and Women

Differences between the Sexes

Suggested Reading

How Your Brain AgesLecture 19

IWhy We Age

How We Age

2. a. b. c. d.e.

Suggested Reading

How Your Brain Copes with GriefLecture 20

Stages of GriefOn Death and Dying

Denial

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

the same way, necessitating new models of grief responses.

A New Model

Seeking Help for Complicated Grief

The Other Side of Sadness

On Death and Dying

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

How Self-Control WorksLecture 21

Executive Function

Focus: Concentrating, sustaining, and shifting attention to tasks

Memory: Utilizing working memory and accessing recall

Emotion: Managing frustration and regulating emotions

Evolutionary Reasons for Executive Function

Why You Should Care about Executive Function

Willpower

2. not

a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

Lecture 22

Physical Exercise and Health

Exercise and Memory

Exercise and the Aging Mind

1. Volume issues

2. Neurogenesis issues

3. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) issues

Type and Quantity of Exercise

2. not

a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

Improving Your MemoryLecture 23

Brain-Training Games

Nature

Nutrition and Memory

New England Journal of Medicine

The Mediterranean diet has measurable global effects on our thinking process.

The Effects of Friendships on Memory

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Suggested Reading

Why Your Brain Needs SleepLecture 24

Sleep Numbers

Pay off your sleep mortgage

Wake up naturally—and keep a journal

Sleep Debt

Figure out how much sleep you need and then stick to a schedule to make sure you don’t accumulate sleep debt.

Blue Light

Blue light delays the signals that tell your body you’re ready for sleep, so put away the tablet and turn off the television an hour or two before bed.

Sleep Environmentalism

Suggested Reading

Answers to Questions to Consider

Lecture 11.

Answer: false.

Answer: c.

Answer: One powerful reason is that it allowed us to coordinate our behaviors. Creating the concept of “ally” allowed us to double our biomass without having to actually spend millions of years attempting to get bigger and stronger.

Lecture 21.

Answer: false.

2. a. b.

Answer: d.

Answer: Symbolic reasoning is a way of thinking that allows us to use representations as stand-ins for other things. Among other things, it gives us the ability to input to a stimulus a set of characteristics it does not actually possess. The use of letters and numbers for linguistic and mathematical purposes is an example of a uniquely human cognitive feature.

Lecture 31.

Answer: false.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: c.

Answer: parietal, occipital, frontal, temporal.

Lecture 41.

Answer: false.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: a.

their connections to each other.

Lecture 51.

Answer: true.

a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: d.

Answer: Crystallized intelligence means, among other things, the ability to learn from experience and store the memory in a database. Fluid intelligence is, among other things, the ability to improvise off of the information stored in the database.

Lecture 61.

Answer: false.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: d.

Answer: These are memories of experiences complete with characters, a time stamp, and actions over that time stamp.

Lecture 71.

Answer: true.

c. d. e.

Answer: b.

Answer: Because major parts of the hippocampus were removed, H. M. was unable to transform newly acquired information into long-term memory traces. From this fact, scientists were able to identify not only the existence of two separate memory systems but also some of their underlying neurological substrates.

Lecture 81.

Answer: true.

Answer: a.

Answer: Bottom-up processing is the brain’s ability to take separated features of a stimulus and combine them

experiences, knowledge, or expectations to make sense of (and even alter) supplied bottom-up information.

Lecture 91.

Answer: false.

a. b. Mona Lisac. d. e.

Answer: c.

Answer: The brain looks at the perceivable information

in” the missing pieces.

Lecture 101.

Answer: true.

Answer: a.

Answer: It is a matter of awareness. According to researchers Damasio and LeDoux, feelings are the conscious perceptions of emotional responses.

Lecture 111.

Answer: false.

a. b. c. d.

Answer: c.

Answer: This theory states that although many inputs are constantly competing for our attention, we only select a few for additional attention.

Lecture 121.

Answer: true.

2. not

a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: e.

Answer: Tolerance is a reduction over time of the ability of a pleasurable stimulus’ “regular” dosage (of a drug, for example) to get you high.

Lecture 131.

Answer: false.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: a.

Answer: PERMA is a convenient way of remembering what sustains SWB over our life span: P stands for positive emotion, E stands for engagement, R stands for relationships, M stands for meaning, and A stands for accomplishment.

Lecture 141.

Answer: true.

a. b. c. d.

Answer: b.

Answer: Heightened excitability, perception that an experience is aversive, and controllability over the aversive stimulus.

Lecture 151.

Answer: false.

a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: c.

Answer: It’s a you-scratch-my-back-I-scratch-your-back behavior. You do something nice for someone with the expectation that the favor will someday be returned. Some researchers believe that it was a hallmark of our ability to survive in the harsh world of the savannah.

Lecture 161.

Answer: true.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: d.

Answer: Peter was looking at changes in synaptic density in the developing infant brain. After birth, some regions undergo rapid outgrowth, only to settle back down to pre-growth levels later. That sharp increase, followed by a decrease, creates an inverted-U growth pattern.

Lecture 171.

Answer: false.

c. d. e.

Answer: a.

Answer: Some researchers believe that these twin behaviors keep the genetically risky practice of mating within one’s family group to a minimum, while greatly increasing the

that you are less likely to engage in sexual activity with close family members. A teen’s willingness to take risks without understanding the consequences increases the probability that

group, and mate there. This is not a universally held opinion.

Lecture 181.

Answer: true.

Answer: d.

Answer: Correct answers include changes in amygdala structure and function, the hippocampus, and the degree of connectedness between the hemispheres.

Lecture 191.

Answer: false.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: d.

Answer: The levels of dopamine drop. The loss is about 10 percent per decade.

Lecture 201.

Answer: false.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: c.

Answer: The something else comes from our strong need for the safety of social relationships. Our brain rewards us when we have them and punishes us when we don’t, all in an effort to sustain them in the harsh world of the Serengeti. Grief is an accidental by-product of this push-and-pull need to keep our relationships intact for as long as possible.

Lecture 211.

Answer: true.

2. not

c. d. e.

Answer: d.

behaviors such as attentional focusing and memory. The second is emotional regulation, which includes behaviors such as social and impulse control.

Lecture 221.

Answer: true.

2. not

a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: c.

Lecture 231.

Answer: Active socialization is associated with a reduction in depressive disorders. Because depressive disorders are associated with memory loss, increasing socialization is thought to improve memory.

2. a. b. c. d. e.

Answer: d.

Lecture 241.

Answer: true (at least in mice).

Answer: There are many reasons, but one of the biggest may

learned information that occurred during the day at night in a

night does not allow such processing to occur.

Bibliography

Neuron

Nature

Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Science

Annu Rev. Psychol

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Nat Neurosci

The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us about Life after Loss

Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity and Innovation in Your Life

J Pers & Soc Psychol

Front Hum Neurosci

Journal of Personality Assessment

Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind

Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice

Neuron

Evolution: Education and Outreach

Nat Rev Neurosci

Behavioral Brain Research

Brit J Sports Med

Science

Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests and Issues

Contemporary Intellectual Assessment

Neuron

J Comp Neurol

Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment—and Your Life

Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Appl Neuropsychol Child

On Death and Dying

J Pers Soc Psychol

Prog Brain Res

The Origins of Intellect: Piaget’s Theory

Annual Review of Neuroscience

Principles of Neural Science

Am J Phys Anthropol

Concise Guide to Psycho-Pharmacology

Nature Neuroscience

Organ Behav Hum Decis Process

Dev Sci

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory

Essentials of the Human Brain

J. Biol Rhythms

Nat Rev Neurosci

Am J Phys Anthro

Psychiatry Res

Neuroscience

Dev Rev

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Cognitive Science

Introducing Psychology

Authentic Happiness

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being

Phil Trans R Soc B

Annals NY Acad Sci

Psych Bul & Rev

J Neurosci

Memory: From Mind to Molecules

Science

Dev Psych

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Sensation and Perception

Per Soc Psychol Bull

Pers & Soc Psych Bull

Continuum (Minneap Minn)

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