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    The Brain: Journey Through the Universe Inside Your Head
    The Brain: Journey Through the Universe Inside Your Head
    The Brain: Journey Through the Universe Inside Your Head
    Ebook231 pages2 hours

    The Brain: Journey Through the Universe Inside Your Head

    By Carla Mooney and Tom Casteel

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    About this ebook

    Why do we do and say the things we do and say? The Brain: Journey Through the Universe Inside Your Head introduces students to the fascinating world of the human brain and its effect on behavior. Readers learn about the main anatomy and functions of the brain while discovering the brain's role in learning, memory, communication, and emotions. Kids also read about new technologies being used to research the brain in its various states of performance while being introduced to the effects of sleep, alcohol, and exercise on our most complex organ.

    Combining hands-on activities with neuroscience, anatomy, and psychology, The Brain includes projects such as building a 3-D brain model and testing how the brain adapts to a new situation. The Brain integrates a digital learning component by providing links to primary sources, videos, and other relevant websites. Additional materials include a glossary, timeline, and a list of current reference works. The Brain is a unique opportunity to connect behavior, physiology, and the outside world in one amazing place—your head!

    This title meets Common Core State Standards for literacy in science and technology; Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements indicate grade level and text complexity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNomad Press
    Release dateJul 20, 2015
    ISBN9781619302761
    The Brain: Journey Through the Universe Inside Your Head
    Author

    Carla Mooney

    Carla Mooney has written more than 70 books for children and young adults. She is an award-winning author of several books for Nomad Press, including The Chemistry of Food, The Physics of Fun, The Human Body and The Human Genome: Mapping the Blueprint of Human Life, and Globalization: Why We Care about Faraway Events. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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      Book preview

      The Brain - Carla Mooney

      Nomad Press

      A division of Nomad Communications

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Copyright © 2015 by Nomad Press. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review or for limited educational use. The trademark Nomad Press and the Nomad Press logo are trademarks of Nomad Communications, Inc.

      ISBN Softcover: 978-1-61930-278-5

      ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-61930-274-7

      Illustrations by Lena Chandhok

      Educational Consultant, Marla Conn

      Questions regarding the ordering of this book should be addressed to

      Nomad Press

      2456 Christian St.

      White River Junction, VT 05001

      www.nomadpress.net

      Printed in Canada.

      ~ Titles in the Inquire and Investigate Series ~

      Check out more titles at www.nomadpress.net

      You can use a smartphone or tablet app to scan our QR codes and explore more about the brain! Cover up neighboring QR codes to make sure you’re scanning the right one. You can also find a list of URLs on the Resources page.

      Contents 

      Timeline

      Introduction

      Exploring the Mind

      Chapter 1

      Brain Structure and Function

      Chapter 2

      The Developing Brain

      Chapter 3

      The Senses and the Brain

      Chapter 4

      Emotions and Feelings

      Chapter 5

      Memory and Learning

      Chapter 6

      Language and Speech

      Chapter 7

      The Healthy Brain

        Index

      TIMELINE

      Introduction

      Exploring the Mind

      What is the most complex organ in your body?

      The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It might even be more complicated than anything else in the universe!

      At first glance, the human brain does not look like anything special. Weighing about three pounds, the brain is a rounded, wrinkled mass. If you could touch it, you’d find that it feels like a mixture of jelly and cold butter. And if you peeked inside a human skull, you wouldn’t see the brain doing much of anything.

      Key Idea

      There is a lot of new vocabulary in this book! Turn to the glossary in the back when you come to a word you don’t understand. Practice your new vocabulary in the VOCAB LAB activities in each chapter.

      In fact, you might think that the brain looks very boring. Yet looks can be deceiving. The human brain can do things that no other animal or machine can do.

      Without your brain, you would not be alive. Your brain regulates your heartbeat, blood pressure, and breathing. It tells you when to eat, drink, and sleep. Your brain also makes you the person that you are. It guides and directs your actions and behavior. Your brain controls how you feel, perceive, and think about the world around you.

      For centuries, people did not realize how important the brain was or why we even have a brain. They believed our thoughts and feelings came from other organs in the body, such as the heart, stomach, or lungs.

      For example, ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the body’s most important organ and the source of a person’s good or evil. When a person died, the ancient Egyptians threw away his or her brain but carefully preserved the heart. In ancient Greece, the philosopher Aristotle believed the brain acted like a radiator to stop the body from overheating.

      In 1649, French philosopher René Descartes wrote that he believed the brain controlled some behavior, but that a spirit generated higher mental processes. People still assumed the brain was separate from the mind. Eventually, scientists noticed that people who had experienced head injuries sometimes had behavior and personality changes afterward.

      Primary Sources

      Primary sources come from people who were eyewitnesses to or participants in events. They might write about the event, take pictures, post short messages to social media or websites, or record the event for radio or video. Why are primary sources important? Do you learn differently from primary sources than secondary sources, which come from people who did not directly experience the event?

      Scientists realized the brain and mind were connected.

      In 1796, German physician Franz Joseph Gall concluded that a person’s personality and character could be known by feeling the lumps and contours of his or her skull. This belief, called phrenology, links different personality traits with specific areas of the head. Gall said that there were many different personality organs in the human brain, each with its own function and location.

      Since prehistoric times, doctors have drilled holes in the heads of patients to treat a variety of illnesses. Today, a procedure called a craniotomy is used to relieve pressure inside the skull.

      Gall believed that a person’s strongest or most dominant traits were also the largest, which made the skull bulge. At the height of phrenology’s popularity in the 1800s, some people suggested that politicians should be selected by the shapes of their skulls.

      Lobotomy

      A lobotomy is an operation to cut connections within the prefrontal lobe. Lobotomies were used widely, though often unsuccessfully, from the 1930s to the 1950s to treat different mental illnesses, including depression. Now, mental illness is treated with medicine and counseling. Lobotomies were once thought to be a miracle cure, but are now considered to be inhumane. They are performed only rarely now, and in a much different way.

      Many phrenologists even believed that they could predict future delinquent behavior in children by the lumps on their heads. These ideas have been proven false, but phrenology was important to the development of modern neuroscience.

      Because the human eye cannot see many of the brain’s parts and processes, studying the brain was very difficult. Through the nineteenth century, scientists could only observe the behavior of people who had experienced brain injuries. To look inside the brain and find the location of brain damage, scientists had to wait until the person died before opening the skull and removing the brain for study.

      Today, powerful microscopes help scientists view the brain’s detailed anatomy. Electroencephalography (EEG) machines record and measure the brain’s electrical activity. Functional brain imaging machines allow scientists to look inside a living person’s brain and map its processes as it works.

      With these tools, neuroscientists have been able to create a detailed map of the mysterious human brain.

      In the 1980s and 1990s, advances in science and technology allowed scientists to study the brain in increasing detail.

      Scientists have learned about the brain’s anatomy, how it functions, and how it processes information. Technology has shown how the brain sends signals from neuron to neuron and relays information through the body’s nerves. We have learned how our five senses turn light and sound input into electrical signals, as well as how different areas of the brain process this information. Scientists have also mapped areas of the brain responsible for memories, judgments, and emotions.

      Scientists have made great progress in understanding the brain, but they are only beginning to

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