The Secret Life of the Brain

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The PBS television series, The Secret Life of the Brain, has a website with many excellent resources for learning more about the brain. You’ll see many of them in this assignment as you learn about the brain. It is a two-part assignment that will be worth the same as a test.
Part 1: History of Brain Research (20 points)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/history/index.html

Using the information you find at the link above, answer these questions about the “history of the brain.” Answers must be typed/double-spaced.

  1. Give the date and place for the first known writing about the brain.
  2. Who were the first to dissect a human body and when did they do it?
  3. Why did studies of the brain stop during the Middle Ages? During the Middle Ages, people of what occupation performed primitive “brain surgery” on the mentally ill?
  4. What is phrenology? Who founded it?
  5. Who was Paul Broca? What function does “Broca’s area” have in humans?
  6. Whose book, The Interpretation of Dreams, was published in 1900?
  7. What is the Rorschach test? When was it developed?
  8. What important event in the history of the brain took place in 1929?
  9. Give the names of the researchers and the year in which they first described REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
  10. Which U.S. President declared a “Decade of the Brain”? What decade was he referring to?
Part 2: Website  Report (60 points)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode/resources.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode2/resources.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode3/resources.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode4/resources.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode5/resources.html

You’ll find dozens of brain-related websites at the links above. Using the links above, choose one of the many websites contained within them and write a five (5) paragraph (minimum of five sentences) report on what you find at the website (must be typed/double-spaced). Your report must be organized in the following fashion:

  • Paragraph 1: Describe the kinds of resources available at this site. What are some of the things you can do or learn here?
  • Paragraph 2: Discuss at least three of the more interesting or surprising things you learned at this website.
  • Paragraph 3: Tell what you like best about this site.
  • Paragraph 4: Tell what you would change or add to make the site even better.
  • Paragraph 5: Overall opinion of the site. Would you recommend this site to someone else? Why or why not?
Assignments are due NO LATER THAN MONDAY, OCTOBER 24.

NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED!

You may turn it in any time up to that date.