Brittany Owens Psych-1010-Kwan Unit 1 Thought paper Unit One Comparisons Of all the videos posted on Psychology: Updated

Edition Website, I decided to watch the video called The Behaving Brain. This video covered multiple topics revolving around the brain. The video discussed the anatomy of the brain as well as a portion of its physiology and the chemicals involved thereof. It educated the audience on some of the parts of the brain and their functions by 3 groups: by hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo also explained the neuron and the 3 functions that all types of neurons share along with the neurotransmitters involved. He lectured on the cause and effects of a select few drugs that scientists and researchers are experimenting with to help patients with brain disorders such as Alzheimers or Amnesia. As part of his video, he talked about an EEG and interviewed a researcher on the discoveries made about the electrical energy a brain passes and what it can say about the subject being tested. Overall, it was a video intermixed of psychology, the scientific aspects thereof, and the anatomy and physiology of the brain. The video was very consistent in the information given from the textbook, however, the video seemed to delve significantly deeper into the inner workings of research revolving around the brain with an EEG and drugs associated with helping Alzheimer patients. Other than that, the textbook explains much more of the anatomy and physiology of the mind. Nonetheless,

both the video and textbook covered subjects that are very crucial to the understanding of psychology. As an example of the differences between the video and textbook, as an introduction, the Zimbardo references the amount of cells in the human adult brain to the amount of stars in our galaxy. He also describes the brain as the most complex structure in the known universe. The textbook doesnt say that exactly- it doesnt give as good of an idea of the level of complexity, but shows it by explaining each part of the brain and the nervous system and the effects it has (Pages 35-61). The video and text book agreed on what an EEG was (Page 45), but the video went into so much more detail about it and other tools used to examine the brain and behavior. It described an EEG as not only a measure of the brains electrical activity as the book does, it also describes how they can tell the brains structure or functioning through these waves and how they analyze the activity on their computers. They described it and interviewed a scientist named E. Roy John from the New York University Medical Center who explained their research on the matter, testing diverse subjects and comparing to their normative data they collected for the sample group they examined within a certain age group. While talking about neurons and neurotransmitters, there was only one true discrepancy between the textbook and video: the video failed to recognize the myelin sheath unlike the book (page 35). The textbook didnt explain what common sense shoul d explain. The video described the synaptic cleft as being liquid-filled, which the book failed to mention. Also, on describing the neuron, the textbook failed to make up for common sense because when talking about the dendrites (page 35), it didnt talk about the dendrites receiving multiple messages and combining the messages in the soma. Only in small instances such as these, does the book not go into further detail than the video when considering anatomy and physiology of the

textbook. In the video, they cover research on drug effects for Alzheimer patients by testing on mice. The textbook also describes, in the same depth, the same research, especially on mice(Page 268). The textbook does not, however, describe the chemical types the mice are injected with nor does it explain the effect the drugs have on the neurotransmitters like the video did. The video exemplified the chemical Acetylcholine as acting as an inhibitor that attaches to receptor sites , causing memory loss in mice that had already gone through the maze, thus making the mice confused and acting as if they were going through the maze for the first time. The information given in the video almost exactly matched the textbook on amnesia. Both talked about experiences and test results on patients with amnesia and gave an example of one patient (Pages 269-270). The video and the textbook combined are amazing sources of information on psychology, research, and the brain. I actually loved the video. I already highly enjoy learning the scientific study of psychology and the mind, but the two combined into one video was amazing. I loved hearing about the researchers projects and what they were trying to measure and how they were measuring it, using the EEG. Ive always had problems deciding if I wanted to be a neuroscientist or psychologist or a neurologist. Anything revolving around the mind that I get to learn about, I become excited. The way the video approached the behavior of the brain was entertaining. The way Zimbardo compared the amount of neurons to the number of stars in the galaxy or the way he compared the brain to a large cauliflower. Lectures like this not only become the most memorable, but the most amusing and enjoyable. Comparisons like this make science feel all the more real to me. The fact that the video also had illustrations of everything they were talking about made the science of psychology all the more real as well. It left an

impression on me, and excited me even more about going into my desired profession of Neuropsychology. I also loved seeing the toys that neuroscientists used to research. Overall, this video was amazing to watch and with the textbook, opens a whole new aspect to psychology that Ive had trouble finding or havent had time to research. I enjoy this class and I especially love learning this subject.