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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
It's amazing that our bodies are able to respond to both inside and outside stimuli and carry out daily functions of life. How does our body do all of this? Well, neurotransmitters and hormones are two ways in which our body communicates with its many parts. Neurotransmitters originate from nerve cells. Hormones originate from endocrine glands like the pancreas and pituitary glands. Neurotransmitters are chemical messages that communicate information very fast, like instant messaging. Hormones are a bit slower and are like the US postal service. Both are equally important. Everything we do is the direct result of good communication within the parts of our body and the outside world
In this module we will focus on the anatomy of a nerve cell, and how two nerve cells communicate. This information will provide a foundation for future course explorations. Specifically, this core information will help you to understand addiction, how drugs work on the body, our emotional states, motivation, learning, and human behavior.
What is a Neuron?
What is a Neuron?
A NEURON
A NEURON
A nerve cell is called a neuron. A neuron is a specialized animal cell. It gathers information from outside sources [via the dendrites #6] and communicates that information [via the axon knob #1] to other cells. Information travels in the form of an electrical impulse through the cell. Neurotransmitters, stored in the axon knob, are the chemical message shared between two cells.
Task:
Review the anatomy activity - Mad, Mad, Mad Neuron
DID YOU KNOW?
Heredity (nature) determines the basic number of “neurons” (brain nerve cells) children are born with, and their initial arrangement. At birth, a baby's brain contains 100 billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way, and almost all the neurons the brain will ever have.
Source: Bulletin #4356, Children and Brain Development: What We Know About How Children Learn
NEURON COMMUNICATION
NEURON COMMUNICATION
Let's Explore how two neurons communicate with each other.
Let's Explore how two neurons communicate with each other.
REVIEW your handouts on Neuron Anatomy
You will need this information to understand how two neurons communicate with each other.
Handout for class lecture/notes. Answer sheet.
TASKS:
Watch this RECORDED class lecture video: neuron communication. (This is the same content as the in class lecture, if you were present you do not need to watch the video; however, it is good review.)
Complete the handout for the lecture while viewing the video. Copies of the worksheets are provided in class.
ENRICHMENT & SUPPORT: (optional)
If you need more support with the neuron anatomy and communication, these resources may help:
Additional support can be found on the Basic Neuroscience website.
Neuron Anatomy
Neuron Anatomy
Neuron Communication
Neuron Communication
Types of Neurotransmitters
Types of Neurotransmitters
Synapse
Synapse
stop here.
NEUROPLASTICITY
NEUROPLASTICITY
TASK:
Watch this video about neuroplasticity.
Explain how thinking and behavior influence neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change in response to experience and to create new synapses or connections in the brain. During childhood and throughout adolescence the nervous system changes in response to all of the things we see and hear and do. It can be a somewhat unconscious and undirected experience in childhood. But as young adults you can choose to direct your neuroplasticity.
Perhaps you want to learn a new skill or play a new sport or musical instrument. Or maybe you want to learn new mindfulness practices to improve your mental health?
You can learn to direct your neuroplasticity (rather than let it be a random event) with your thoughts and behavior choices.
3 Criteria for Self Directed Neuroplasticity
3 Criteria for Self Directed Neuroplasticity
1. Intentional Practice - focused attention on a task, behavior, or skill you want to develop. Requires short "learning", "practice" or "play" sessions. Neuromodulators (acetocholine) get released that act like a highlighter marking the synapses that are active during the learning bout and marking them for change AFTER the practice session. The duration of the learning bout is short .... just long enough to maintain a high attentional focus. Repeat this practice several times.
2. Sense of Urgency - high stakes, discomfort/agitation, Something to lose if you don't get it right, a life or death event, or even a reward - you have to want it!
3. Deep rest - sleep, meditative state, flow state. Required to consolidate or integrate the new skill or behavior into the hardwiring of the brain. You need to deliberately disengage from the learning or practice.
Source: Andrew Huberman, PhD (2019) - Standford University; Hubermand Lab
The rules of Andrew Huberman's "Self-Directed, Adaptive Neuroplasticity" also apply to drug use and abuse. Using drugs of abuse is another way that you control and change the neuron map in your brain. Using drugs during teen years can alter the trajectory of normal brain development.
Using drugs, such as alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco in high school can cause both short-term and long-term effects. Trying any of these increases the risk of developing an addiction. These drugs can also deplete the brain of certain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin resulting in depression and anxiety.
Stop here and take a brain break.
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
Nerve cells fire nerve impulses. They do this by releasing neurotransmitters, which are chemicals that carry signals to other cells. Neurotransmitters relay their messages by traveling between cells and attaching to specific receptors on target cells. Each neurotransmitter attaches to a different receptor — for example, dopamine molecules attach to dopamine receptors. When they attach, this triggers action in the target cells.
Neurotransmitters have two different types of action:
Excitatory neurotransmitters encourage a target cell to take action. These act like a gas pedal in your car or on the switch.
Inhibitory neurotransmitters decrease the chances of the target cell taking action. In some cases, these neurotransmitters have a relaxation-like effect. These act like a brake pedal in your car or an off switch.
Reference chart*: Neurotransmitters and their classification as inhibitory or excitatory.
*You are note required to memorize these neurotransmitters and their classification.
source: https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/neurotransmitters
Glutamate - This amino acid is common in your diet. It acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter, stimulating neurons to fire commands. Glutamate isn’t just in your diet. It’s present in 90 percent of synapses, acting as the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.
Dopamine - Dopamine is both excitatory and inhibitory depending on the type and location of the receptor it binds to. It inhibits unnecessary movements, inhibits the release of prolactin, and stimulates the secretion of growth hormone. Dopamine plays a major role in your brain’s reward system. It’s responsible for that rush of joy when you accomplish a goal or succeed at a task. Dopamine perks your brain up and brings feelings of pleasure.
GABA is a powerful inhibitory neurotransmitter. It reduces the activity in the central nervous system and blocks certain signals from your brain.
Serotonin - Serotonin is inhibitory. In your brain serotonin has a lot of influence over your mood, promoting feelings of well-being and happiness. Serotonin also helps you achieve more restful sleep and sets your body’s internal clock. A serotonin imbalance can happen. When the brain doesn’t produce enough serotonin, you might experience a lower mood and sleeplessness. Confusion and brain fog may even set in.
DOPAMINE
DOPAMINE
DOPAMINE the molecule of more!
DOPAMINE the molecule of more!
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. It enhances reward-related memories and behaviors. It strengthens synapses — the junctions where neurons pass messages — in the brain’s learning and memory center, the hippocampus. Dopamine signaling in areas of the brain that process emotions — the amygdala — and regions involved in planning and reasoning — the prefrontal cortex — also creates emotional associations with rewards. The mere expectation of a reward, and thus dopamine, can also powerfully influence emotional reactions and memories.
ASSIGNMENT
Read these two articles:
Web MD entitled, "What is Dopamine?" and "Dopamine" by Psychology Today.
Answer these three questions:
What is dopamine?
What is is function in the body?
How does dopamine influence behavior?
Enrichment: (optional)
Check out this book!
The Molecule of more How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity―and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race written by Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long.
In this text, authors answer the following questions:
Why are we obsessed with the things we want and bored when we get them?
Why is addiction “perfectly logical” to an addict?
Why does love change so quickly from passion to disinterest?
Why are some people diehard liberals and others hardcore conservatives?
Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times--and so good at figuring them out?
TEENS & DOPAMINE
TEENS & DOPAMINE
During adolescence there is an increase in the activity of the neural circuits using dopamine, a neurotransmitter central in creating our drive for reward.
Enhanced dopamine release causes adolescents to gravitate toward thrilling experiences and sensations. This may lead teens to focus solely on the positive rewards they are sure are in store for them, while failing to notice or give value to the potential risks and downsides.
TASK:
Read this article, Dopamine, and Teenage Logic.
What are the three ways in which increased dopamine impacts teen lives
How do these three factors manifest in your life?
DID YOU KNOW
"Research suggest that risky behaviors in adolescence have less to do with hormonal imbalances than with changes in our brain’s dopamine reward system." - Daniel J. Siegel, MD
Interested in learning more? Check out his book, "Brainstorm, the power and purpose of the teenage brain" (2014).
Stop here and take a brain break.
What is the Reward Pathway?
What is the Reward Pathway?
REWARD PATHWAY
REWARD PATHWAY
Two things drive human behavior: necessities — food, sleep, avoidance of pain; and rewards. Any object, event, or activity can be a reward if it motivates us, causes us to learn, or elicits pleasurable feelings. How do our brains compute the value of a reward and how is that translated into action? The answer is the “reward system.”
Handout with Review Questions
Let's take a closer look at how the reward pathway reinforces behavior.
Click on the animated learning module from Learn Genetics below.
REWARD PATHWAY ACTIVATION AND REGIONS OF THE BRAIN
REWARD PATHWAY ACTIVATION AND REGIONS OF THE BRAIN
When activated by a (1) rewarding stimulus (e.g., food, water, sex), information travels from the VTA to the amygdala.
(2) Dopamine released by the neurons in the amygdala create the experience of pleasure.
(3) The nearby hippocampus records this pleasurable experience into memory so it can be repeated.
With a new stimuli, (4) the hippocampus remembers the experiences as pleasurable, thus prompting the nucleus accumbens (which controls motor functions) to prompt taking action (behavior) in order to experience pleasure again.
(5) The prefrontal cortex focuses attention and planing on the new stimuli, making it hard for the person to resist the focus of attention (behavior/food/drug).
With each new stimulus the reward pathway is activated thereby habituating the behavior (e.g. using drugs, eating sweets).
Source: National Institute of Drug Abuse
STOP HERE AND TAKE A MOVEMENT BREAK
TEEN BRAIN
TEEN BRAIN
Brain remodeling happens intensively during adolescence.
The main change is that unused connections in the thinking and processing part of your brain are ‘pruned’ away. At the same time, other connections are strengthened. This is the brain’s way of becoming more efficient, based on the ‘use it or lose it’ principle.
This pruning process begins in the back of the brain. The prefrontal cortex, is remodeled last. The prefrontal cortex is the decision-making part of the brain, responsible for your ability to plan and think about the consequences of actions, solve problems and control impulses [executive functions]. Changes in this part of the brain continue into early adulthood.
Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers might rely on a part of the brain called the limbic system (down stairs brain) to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do. The limbic system is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behaviors that keep you "fat, happy, and safe".
Source: https://www.sparktheirfuture.qld.edu.au/understanding-the-teenage-brain/
REFERENCE DIAGRAMS - BRAIN ANATOMY
Source: https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain/brain-anatomy/limbic-system
Source: Dan Siegel, MD. Mindsight.
Teen Brain Development
Teen Brain Development
TASK: Watch and Take Notes on this video about teen brain development and how the choices we make either help or hinder brain optimization.
DID YOU KNOW
The average adult human brain weighs 1.3 to 1.4 kg (approximately 3 pounds). The brain contains about 86 billion nerve cells (neurons) and trillions of "support cells" called glia.
INTEGRATION
INTEGRATION
Linking up the upstairs and downstairs brain.
Linking up the upstairs and downstairs brain.
You can create an integrated brain that links up the upstairs and downstairs brain - this results in enhanced self control and emotional regulation.
Per Dan Siegel, you can use the focus of your attention to build a better brain with intentional neuroplasticity, An integrated brain is the path to well being. - the outcome of integration is kindness and compassion. So how do we integrate the upstairs and downstairs brain? It's an awareness of your internal and external experiences, intentional neuroplasticity, and self regulation practices.
Dan Siegel - The Adolescent Brain
Dan Siegel's Main Points
Dan Siegel's Main Points
Remodeling of the Brain:
The brain is PRUNING itself. Don’t use it, you lose it. Goal is to specialize the brain.
MYELIN formation. Enhance neuron communication.
Use focused attention to reinforce the parts of the brain you want to keep and link up.
Neuroplasticity - how the brain changes in response to experience.
Goal of remodeling is INTEGRATION = pathway toward well being.
Mindsight Exercises. Increase Insight, Empathy, Integration.
Outcome of Integration is Increased kindness and compassion... and enhanced wellness.
Reference diagram: Limbic System
AKA "down stairs brain"
DELAYED GRATIFICATION
DELAYED GRATIFICATION
This famous study, called “the marshmallow test,” conducted by Stanford University professor Walter Mischel in 1972, measured how well children could delay immediate gratification to receive greater rewards in the future—an ability that predicts success later in life.
The researcher followed participants for 20+ years. This longitudinal research shows that a child's ability to resist the immediate gratification of a marshmallow correlates with beneficial outcomes later in life, such as higher SAT scores, better emotional coping skills, less drug use, and maintaining a healthy weight.
The ability to delay gratification is linked to how specific structures of the brain are connected and communicate with each other. Dan Siegel, M.D., calls this linking of structures of the brain, "integration" (Mindsight, 2011).
TASKS
Watch this short video on the Marshmallow Test for delayed gratification.
Reflect: When have you practiced delayed gratification?
The purpose of the marshmallow test [study] was to understand when the control of delayed gratification, the ability to wait to obtain something that one wants, develops in children.
Delayed gratification is also known as self control or self management.
Self management is one of our course standards.
STOP HERE AND TAKE A MOVEMENT BREAK
BRAIN HACKING
BRAIN HACKING
TASK: Watch the video and Use this Google Doc to take notes and turn it in.
Technology and Brain Hacking
Technology and Brain Hacking
Watch this short 60 minutes segment with Anderson Cooper on how tech companies use neuroscience to hack your brain to amplify engagement, and prime addiction to technology. Explore how this may have both positive and negative affects on your life and health.
Read this article about how smartphones hijack the brain.
We learn from watching this 60 minutes segment that activities (such as watching Netflix, smartphones, social media, and video games) activate on the brain’s “reward pathway,” flooding the brain with the feel-good chemical messenger dopamine. Any dopamine-producing activity can lead to behavioral and/or chemical addiction when a person feels compelled to engage in a behavior or substance to the point that it harms their health, school, sports, or relationships.
Image of class notes.
Teenagers are often the target of social media and marketing campaigns because they represent a demographic with disposable income. Disposable income means that teens have money to spend on wants rather than needs. Teens are also more apt to be impulsive with spending. This creates the perfect scenario for companies that want that money.
REFLECT:
How does the teen stage of brain development, brain hacking, and the influence of increased dopamine in the teen brain create big challenges for teen decision making?
How does it make teens a big target for marketing campaigns and why?
Knowing these challenges, how can teens protect themselves and make informed, rational decisions?
ENRICHMENT (optional)
Watch the film, The Social Dilemma . View the films Trailer
"This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations."
Activity options:
Review content regarding how to TAKE ACTION on the website.
Participate in a social media REBOOT challenge.
Investigate the role of social media and mental health.
STOP HERE AND TAKE A MOVEMENT BREAK
NERVOUS SYSTEM
NERVOUS SYSTEM
Image: organization of the nervous system
The nervous system is divided in to tow parts: central and peripheral nervous systems. The central nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system is all of the nerves within the rest of your body.
The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that regulates involuntary body functions. Within the autonomic nervous system, we find the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which both control the same parts of the body and same general functions of the body, but with opposing effects.
The sympathetic nervous system activates the fight or flight response during a threat or perceived danger, and the parasympathetic nervous system restores the body to a state of calm.
Transform stress reactivity into MINDFUL ACTION by activating your vagus nerve.
Transform stress reactivity into MINDFUL ACTION by activating your vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve is the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate
The vagus nerve is your super power....You can activate it anytime you are feeling difficult emotions - to consciously shift out of a bad mood into a more relaxed, calm, and creative space.
TASK: Check out this PDF, "How to stimulate the vagus nerve." Have you tried any of these techniques?
WHY DO WE LOOSE CONTROL OF OUR EMOTIONS?
WHY DO WE LOOSE CONTROL OF OUR EMOTIONS?
This is a great video explaining how we all flip our lids. While it is intended for a younger audience, the content and message are fantastic and valuable to our studies in neuroscience.
REFLECT: When was the last time you flipped your lid?
What triggered that response?
How was your downstairs brain activated? Was there a threat to being somehow "fat, happy, and safe"?
What did you do to re-engage the upstairs brain or calm down and get get back to your baseline?
Did you activate the vagus nerve? How?
FLIP YOUR LID
FLIP YOUR LID
INTEGRATION or linking up of the upstairs and downstairs brain enables us to delay gratification, practice self control, and manage emotions. Integration is a developmental task of the teen brain.
Instant gratification, hyper-rationality, and repeated activation of the reward pathway resulting in addiction serve only to delay integration. These choice reinforce limbic system activation and result in hardwiring continuation of those behaviors.
It's easier to lose emotional control when the brain is not fully integrated. We call this lost of control "flipping your lid."
When we flip our lids, integration is disrupted, and loose control of our emotions and behavior. When we flip our lids we have lost self control.
And, we can flip our lids at any age if we are tired, stressed, and the stimulus is of high importance.For example, your parents come home from a hard day of work and are tired. The notice you didn't take out the trash this morning and they flip their lid - begin yelling and expressing disappointment in you. They have flipped their lid.
It's important to learn how to reintegrate or link up the upstairs and downstairs brain after flipping our lids. Reintegration allows us to regain self control. Only then can we think clearly with curiosity and compassion about variables that were problematic.
GREAT JOB!
You have completed the learning module.
STUDENT RESOURCES
STUDENT RESOURCES
Neuroscience OUTLINE - this serves as a study guide.
REVIEW Google Form. Please note that this not not contain all information you are required to know for the exam, It is intended to be review and practice.
How to UNPACK writing prompts
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