Unit 1: Introduction to the Brain

Student Guide Lesson 9

1. How do senses work? (Slide 4)

● The sensing organs for each sense send information to the brain to help us understand our
surrounding
● Senses work together

● The five senses are:

o Smell
o Sight
o taste
o Hear
o Touch

2. How do sensations get to the brain? (Slide 5)

● Sensations get to the brain through sensory receptors, which are neurons that receive
sensory-specific information for processing
● Various receptor neurons differ in size and shape

● You must have a sensory organ to detect stimuli and then a way to organize them in the
brain. The different receptors aid in that organization's process
● They all do the job of converting a stimulus from the environment into a nerve impulse which
is the common language of the brain.

3. Which part of the brain is each sense connected to? (Slide 6)

● Frontal Lobe; smell

● Parietal Lobe; Touch and Taste

● Occipital Lobe; Sight

● Temporal Lobe; Hearing

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 4. Do your senses always rely on your brain? (Slide 7)

● No, not in the case of a reflex

● A reflex is an automatic response of the spinal cord

● Reflexes protect your body from things that can harm it

● Instead of traveling directly to the brain, the sensory neuron (nerve cell) carries the message
to the spinal cord.

5. What are some differences between senses? (Slide 8)

● Your sensory system is designed to keep you safe in your environment.

● There are instances where one sense may be lacking and therefore your other senses must
adjust to help you navigate your environment.
● Congenital insensitivity to pain - a rare, dangerous condition where a person is unable to feel
pain.
● Synesthesia is a trait where the brain pairs two or more senses together.

6. How are memories and senses connected? (Slide 10)

● Your brain organizes memories tied to an event and activates memories connected to other
senses which can evoke memories from our past. The emotions can be either good or bad.
● The sense of smell is particularly powerful as it relates to memories. This is because it is most
closely connected to the hippocampus and is connected to the limbic system.
● The rest of our senses (see, hear, taste, or touch) must travel down a long path to reach the
parts of the brain responsible for our memory.

7. What is memory? (Slide 11)

● A memory is the reactivation of a specific group of neurons.

● Memory involves the process of encoding, storing, and retrieving experiences and
knowledge.
● During the retrieval process (remembering), neurons that were involved in the original
experience fire in the same pattern they did when the information was first stored.

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 8. What are the stages of memory? (Slide 12)

● Learning (encoding and storage) is a different process than remembering (retrieval).

● Encode (initial learning) – your brain determines whether to “save” information

● Store (maintain information over time) – If it is important, your brain places that information
in “memory files”
● Retrieve (recall) – the ability to access the information when you need it. Think of the
memory file as “on-the-fly” files

9. How are memories formed? (Slide 13)

● The more a neural pathway is activated, the stronger the synaptic connections along the way
become.
● Use it or Lose it principle: Active connections tend to get stronger, whereas those that are not
used get lost and can eventually disappear entirely (the process of pruning)
● Changing the strength of existing synapses or even adding new ones or removing old ones, is
critical to memory memory
● The persistent changes in the strength of connections (synapses) between brain cells is called
synaptic plasticity

10. How are memories accessed? (Slide 14)

● The brain forms an association with a visual image and a name.

● Each of the senses travels to the hippocampus which converts perceptions to one
experience.

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 ● Memory involves the hippocampus, cortex, and amygdala to reactivate the important
components of the memories.
● Due to synaptic plasticity and strengthened connections, this is enough to access the
“night on the balcony” scene in the hippocampus’s index.
● In the example used, since Leoni is in the café today, the neuron fires simultaneously,
strengthening the synaptic pathways that connect them.

11. How are memories processed and what is the hippocampus responsible for in relevance to
memory? (Slide 15 - narrator)

● Specific to memory, the hippocampus’s role is in memory processing and consolidation.

● There is an intricate balance maintained during the encoding of memories in the

hippocampus and retrieval of experiences from the frontal lobe. Because of this
connection, you will remember where are when something specific happens.
● The amygdala is important in the formation of new memories as well as in connecting
emotions and senses to memories.

12. What is memory consolidation and when does it occur? (Slide 16)

● Memory consolidation is the storage from working to long term that occurs during sew

● While we sleep, the hippocampus and cortex interact

● The hippocampus replays recent events

● The same neurons active in the hippocampus during an experience becomes active again
during deep sleep

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 ● This occurs repeatedly, helping to update the cortex what needs to be tstored or tossed.
Replay occurs during sleep, so if you are not getting enough sleep, you are not letting your
brain consolidate memories

13. Where are memories stored? (Slide 17)

● Memories are stored across different, interconnected brain regions

- explicit (conscious) – hippocampus, cortex, and amygdala
- Implicit memories (unconscious) – basal ganglia and cerebellum
- working memory- cortex

14. The Triad and Memory. What role does fear play in forming memories? (Slide 18 – narration)

● The amygdala processes threats. Whether the outcome of a risk is good or bad, the brain will
in a way document the experience so that it can be repeated (a good time) or avoided ( a
very traumatic time).
● The amygdala doesn't only modify the strength and emotional content of memories; it also
plays a key role in forming new memories specifically related to fear
● fearful memories can be formed after one incident or only a few repetitions

15. Memory disorders: (Slide 19)

● Progressive
- Example: Alzheimers
● Immediate
- Example: Traumatic brain injury

16. Take a few notes on the Living Lesson video (Slide 20)

His hippocampus was removed to fix epilepsy, it shows that multiple types of memory exist

17. Henry Molaison (HM) (Slide 21)

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 ● hippocampus was surgically removed during an operation to treat his epilespy

● After the surgery, HM was only able to form episodic memories that lasted a matter of 15
minutes and were unable to remember new information
● The study proved that the hippocampus is crucial for laying down memories, but it is not the
site of permanent memory storage and is not needed for motor memories
● The study also showed that multiple types of memory existed and that implicit motor
learning occurs in other brain areas – the basal ganglia and cerebellum

18. Tips to Improve Memory (Slide 24)

● sleep

● Participate actively
o Consider taking notes by hand versus typing
● practice and test yourself
o Try using recall instead of simply rereading something
o Space out practice sessions, spacing helps embed learning into long-term memory
● Eat a healthy Diet

● Exercise

19. Summary (Slide 25)

● Your senses and memories are connected

● You remember what you care about, what you are interested in, and what you are emotional
about… because all those things are largely involved in the brain’s way of memories
(encodes, stores, and retrieves)

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