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Understanding the Brain

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Considering everything the brain does, how can it possibly be the source of our personalities, dreams, thoughts, sensations, utterances, and movements?

Understanding the Brain, a 36-lecture course by award-winning Professor Jeanette Norden of Vanderbilt University, takes you inside this astonishingly complex organ and shows you how it works. With its combination of neurology, biology, and psychology, this course helps you understand how we perceive the world through our senses, how we move, how we learn and remember, and how emotions affect our thoughts and actions. Your tour starts with the organization of the central nervous system at the gross, cellular, and molecular levels, then investigates in detail how the brain accomplishes a host of tasks - from seeing and sleeping to performing music and constructing a personal identity.

You explore a broad range of exciting topics in neuroscience and come away with a deeper knowledge of how the brain is organized - and a feeling of wonder and appreciation for all that it accomplishes.

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First published January 1, 2007

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Jeanette Norden

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Profile Image for Cav.
903 reviews199 followers
October 22, 2021
Understanding the Brain is one of the better courses offered by The Teaching Company.

I have to confess that I was a bit apprehensive at the start of this course...
Professor Norden presents the contents in a somewhat matter-of-fact and technical manner, which had me thinking it was going to be one of those monotonous, dry, and arduous treks.
I was interested in the subject matter, but not sure where she would take this material...

I am happy to report that - as the course progressed - I gained a greater appreciation for her style and delivery of this technical material. The course is full of incredibly interesting information, and she did a great job of presenting this material to the viewer.

Course professor Dr. Jeanette Norden is a neuroscientist, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the School of Medicine, and Professor of Neurosciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Vanderbilt University.

Jeanette Norden:
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The formatting of this one is fairly typical of offerings from The Great Courses. It is presented across 36 lectures; each ~30mins.
Prof Norden lays out the scope in the first lecture, and then quickly dives into technical neuroanatomy. There is much jargon and terminology here, as one would expect from a course on neuroscience.

It wasn't all bad, thankfully, and Prof Norden drops many super-interesting tidbits and humorous asides throughout, which were a much-needed addition to this courses' technical material.

I took this course over a few month period, in between other reading. I made some notes on the lectures as I went, mainly for my own future reference. I'll go over them below. Feel to skip on to the bottom, if you're not interested:

1: Historical Underpinnings of Neuroscience. She mentions historical civilizations thought the heart was the center of being. Descarte's "I think, therefore I am."

2: Central Nervous System—Gross Organization. The basic layout of the brain and neuroanatomy.

3: Central Nervous System—Internal Organization. Internal brain anatomy is covered. She mentions that there are ~150 different types of neurons.

4: Central Nervous System—Subdivisions. More neuroanatomy is covered.

5: Cortex—Lobes and Areas. As the title implies, these topics are covered. More neuroanatomy.

6: Cortex—Sensory, Motor, and Association Areas. She talks about stroke damage to the brain; left hemisphere damage causes depression, right hemisphere damage causes manic episodes. She also talks about the severing of the corpus callosum in epileptic patients, to prevent seizures from taking over both hemispheres of the brain.

7: Central Nervous System—Development. She talks about a "critical period", between 12-20 of gestation, where most neurons are created. Long axon neurons are the first to differentiate.
Schizophrenia might be associated with the failure of short axon neurons to form in the brain.

8: Central Nervous System—Cellular Organization. Again mentions that there are ~150 different types of neurons. Says neurons are not capable of forming tumors. The biomechanics of synaptic transmission is briefly discussed. The neurotransmitter reuptake mechanism is also explained.

9: Pathways and Synapses. @~15:40, she mentions that myelination speeds neuronal conduction and synaptic transmission, educating the viewer as to why this is.

10: Neurotransmitters. GABA (inhibitory) and glutamate (excitatory) are the main neurotransmitters; amino acid transmitters. Around 60 different neurotransmitters. She talks about the mechanics of addiction and psychoactive drugs.

11: Stroke. She mentions that neurons die within minutes without blood flow.

12: The Visual System—The Eye. @~6:30 she mentions that the lens of the eye loses flexibility as we age, causing a condition called presbyopia. This is why we need reading glasses as we get older. She also talks about glaucoma.

13: The Visual System—The Cortex. She has an interesting bit about vision being a construct of the brain, and visual illusions (@~22:00). Colour vision is a product of the brain as well. Humans can distinguish ~6 million hues of color.

14: The Auditory System. She mentions that people lose hearing in the high end of the spectrum as they age, a condition called presbycusis.

15: The Somatosensory System. She talks about bedsores that result when this network is interrupted. Cats use their whiskers as a somatosensory instrument.

16: Agnosias. Agnosia is the inability to process sensory information. Often there is a loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells while the specific sense is not defective nor is there any significant memory loss. It is usually associated with brain injury or neurological illness, particularly after damage to the occipitotemporal border, which is part of the ventral stream. Agnosia only affects a single modality, such as vision or hearing. More recently, a top-down interruption is considered to cause the disturbance of handling perceptual information.

17: The Motor System—Voluntary Movement. She talks about the neural pathways that enable movement. She shows the viewer a slice from an actual brain that highlights the substantia nigra (Latin for "black substance"), which is the region affected by Parkinson's disease.

18: The Motor System—Coordinated Movement. She mentions that half of the brain's 100 billion neurons are located in the cerebellum, which plays a central role in coordinating motor movement. She says that alligators have been used to study the cerebellum because they can carry an egg for a mile in their mouth without breaking it, but can also crush the femur of a buffalo.
Interestingly enough, despite playing this central role in movement coordination, it is not connected to the spinal cord.
She says: "Any motor movement that improves with practice is governed by the cerebellum." Cool.

19: Parkinson's Disease. She talks about ALS, and "intention tremors." When she gets to Parkinson's, she mentions that the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra die off. This creates a downstream problem for motor movement, as dopamine is used as an excitatory pathway in the substantia nigra. She also talks about some treatment options; including L-dopa, and neuron transplantation (which I was unaware of before this). Deep brain stimulation via electrodes is also discussed. She calls that treatment "miraculous."

20: Language. She talks about Aphasias . Aphasias are an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are a cerebral vascular accident (stroke) or head trauma.
She mentions that written language is an invention, not an instinct (of course).

21: The Limbic System—Anatomy. She mentions the now-famous case of Phineas Gage; who was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining 12 years of his life‍—‌effects sufficiently profound that friends saw him (for a time at least) as "no longer Gage".

22: The Limbic System—Biochemistry. She mentions that an excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitter imbalance is thought to underlie most psychiatric disorders, including depression.
She also mentions the role of the hormone oxytocin, noting that it is involved with social bonding.

23: Depression. She speaks on this topic with clarity. She mentions the biogenic amine theory of depression. SSRIs are also discussed @~14:00. Tricyclic drugs can have "paradoxical" effects.


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24: The Reward System—Anatomy. She mentions that the Nucleus accumbens septi is involved with all addictions; from alcoholism, drug addictions, pornography and gambling. A powerful mechanism, she says that she implanted probes into animals' brains in this region. The animals could then press a bar to have that area of the brain electrically stimulated. The animals then would cease eating, drinking, or having sex in order to keep pressing the bar. They had to be forced to eat in this state, otherwise they would starve.
She also says that dopamine drugs are not given to the depressed, despite this seeming like a good idea, bc these drugs produce manic symptoms. Also, although not mentioned by her, is the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. Basically; too little dopamine gives you parkinsonian symptoms. Too much: schizophrenic symptoms.
Also, she says that people who are bipolar experience euphoric highs, the same way that cocaine users do, bc the same areas and pathways in the brain are activated. This is why they tend to be non-compliant with their medications.

25: The Reward System—Drugs. Cocaine is a potent blocker of the reuptake of dopamine. She says that all euphoric drugs light up the nucleus accumbens.

26: Brain Plasticity. She describes how a neuron "sprouts" to make a new synaptic connection after an adjacent one has become damaged or destroyed. Learning a new skill can also produce this effect.
She also says that rats raised in an "enriched" environment have more synapses than ones raised in unenriched environments.


27: Emotion and Executive Function. We have the ability to generate new neurons throughout life. This process is called "neurogenesis," and takes place primarily in the hippocampus, a region that is involved with coordinating memory with emotion, episodic memory, and remembering words.

28: Processing of Negative Emotions—Fear. She talks about the amygdala. In a panic disorder or state, including anxiety disorders and PTSD, an increase in activation is seen in the amygdala, while a decrease in activation is seen in the prefrontal cortex. After successful exposure therapy, this is reversed.

29: Music and the Brain. She mentions some similarities between language and music. The hippocampus is involved with remembering long sequences of music. Left hemisphere brain damage causes problems with musical abilities. This is a form of aphasia.

30: Sexual Dimorphism of the Brain. Genotypic sex is determined at conception by the male contributing an X or Y chromosome to the fetus. She talks about the role of steroidal hormones like testosterone and estrogen on the brain.
Girls generally have higher emotional and language intelligence. Boys generally have better visuospatial abilities and systems construction abilities.

31: Sleep and Dreaming. The circadian rhythm is briefly discussed. 4 stages of sleep and their corresponding brain wave patterns are talked about. Dreaming is also touched on. Only animals with a neocortex have REM episodes.

32: Consciousness and the Self. The neocortex plays a fundamental role in consciousness. The "hard" and "soft" problems of consciousness are discussed. She mentions the bufo toad; saying that it lacks a neocortex. Much of its processing is done in its retina. This is not the case for higher primates and humans. So, the toad is not likely to have a subjective experience; at least not like humans have.

33: Alzheimer's Disease. The #1 neurological disease in America, she calls it "devastating." I've read elsewhere that roughly 50% of people over age 85 are affected by it. It causes the "loss of the self." Individuals lose their autobiographies. There are two broad-based classifications; early and late-onset. Higher-order processes like complex thought are greatly affected. The accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques can contribute to the onset of this disease.
There is a great loss of dendrites and synapses, sometimes as many as hundreds of thousands per day.
Changes to the blood-brain barrier also occur.
She details the stages of the progression of the disease.
There is no known cause, and it is not curable.



34: Risk Factors for Alzheimer's Disease. With Alzheimer's, there is neuron loss throughout the brain, but mostly in the prefrontal cortex, and other areas associated with higher-order thinking. Serious head injuries are a risk factor; boxers are at increased risk. As is obesity, and a high cholesterol, high-fat diet. Hormone replacement therapy in older women is also mentioned.
Some factors that reduce the risk include: A diet high in Omega 3 EFA. Exercise. Ongoing mental challenges.
She also mentions the case study of a group of nuns with unusually low rates of Alzheimer's. She says that the nuns have a healthy lifestyle, a strong social support network, and exercise frequently.

35: Wellness and the Brain—Effects of Stress. Chronic stress is very harmful to health. Chronic stress can cause damage to the cardiac muscle tissues.

36: Neuroscience—Looking Back and Looking Ahead. She says that there is a great deal more that science needs to understand, and that this course just scratched the surface. She says that neuroplasticity research is only in its infancy, and that there will be many more exciting discoveries in this field in the future.
She does a great job wrapping up the course here.

************************

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, I enjoyed this course, and learned quite a bit, as well!
Professor Norden is a very intelligent, articulate professor. She did a great job presenting this technical material to the reader here.
5 stars, and a spot on my "favorites" shelf.
Profile Image for ♏Vanessa♏.
1,555 reviews7 followers
April 24, 2023
Whilst it was very interesting and informative, it was also difficult to follow sometimes because this isn't actually an audiobook, but rather a presence lecture with plenty of visual material and prompts that we have no access to. The PDF doesn't always have the picture, graph or whatever she is using to show her audience examples of what she is talking about. We know that we are missing the visual aids as she say "if you look here" or "the darker colour" or "just bellow here", etc. That was very disappointing and frustrating.


Profile Image for Tanuj.
9 reviews3 followers
December 19, 2024
This is the most insightful course from the most passionate professor you can have. This course has stimulated my hippocampus and cortex, strengthened my synapses, triggered my dopamine and serotonin, and what not!
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