Scott

Kasteler
Psychology
1010 Discovering
Psychology
The Behaving Brain
The video I have chosen to do my analysis on was, Discovering Psychology:
the Behaving Brain. I chose this video because subjects o the brain have always
interested me. This video is all about the brain, more s!eciically, how the brain wor"s
and its structure. There are as many cells in the human brain as there are in the night
s"y. #nd although there are $00 dierent ty!es o cells, they all have similar genetic
structures. The video describes the ty!es o cells in the brain, what the !ur!ose o each
cells are, and how scientists are able to understand its behavior.
In the beginning o the movie, Dr. Philli! %ombardo, tal"s about neurons& nerve
cells' these cells have three basic !ur!oses( to receive inormation rom other neurons,
!rocess the inormation it has been given, and to send those messages to the rest o
the areas throughout body using electric currents "nown as neural im!ulses )!g *+,. It
shows the structure o a neuron, I ound that the movie shows it in a lot better detail
than the te-t boo" sim!ly because I was able to see how the neural im!ulses moved
throughout the neuron )!g. *.,. It goes into more detail about how the messages are
sent through each neuron. /owever, the movie s"i!s the nervous system as a whole
and the endocrine system then immediately moves to the structure o the brain. 0hat I
li"e about the te-tboo", is that not only are there sections discussing the Peripheral
Nervous System and the Central Nervous System, but it tal"s about several ty!es o
neurons such as( motor neurons, and sensory neurons )!g.*1,
Dierent structures o the brain are shown in both the movie and the te-tboo",
and both the boo" and the movie don2t rely go into a whole lot o detail such as( the
!ur!ose o the brain stem is lie su!!ort, mainly breathing, heartbeat, slee! and wa"ing'
)!g. 33, the cerebellum controls body movement, !osture, and "ee!ing e4uilibrium in
the body')!g. 35, limbic system controls tem!erature, blood !ressure, sugar levels and
regulates emotion )!g. 36,. The te-tboo" goes into much more details about the
unctions and structure o the 7erebral 7orte-. It tal"s about our motor unctions
)!g. +1, and our sensory unctions )!g. +$,. The movie discusses the many dierent
ways that scientists can observe the brains inner wor"ings. It tal"s about an 8lectro
8nce!halogram which can record electrical waves rom either the brain as a whole, or
even just a single neuron. Technology has come a long way, and has hel!ed
researchers, !sychologists, and surgeons tremendously. These new ways o recording
both !ictures o brain structures, and electrical waves have hel!ed surgeons to locate
cancerous in the brain, and also hel!ed !sychologists become able to both lin" and
determine deormed areas o the brain to s!eciic mental disorders. 9eural scientists
are able to connect human brain waves into a com!uter which can tell them sim!le
changes or even abnormalities in brain waves. Scientists can even tell i a !erson is an
alcoholic just by loo"ing at the neuro&chemicals in the brain.
I understand that in the movie they are on a tight schedule or time so it is diicult
to !ut all the inormative details. :ut rom what I have gathered in this video i it is
details you want, read the te-t boo", i you only see" the basic inormation o cha!ter $,
watch the movie. /owever, it was good to see the e-am!les moving )I was able to see
how things wor"ed, rather than stationary where you only see the basic structures
without any action.
I have enjoyed watching the movie, but in order to learn more about the brain, I
have ound that you need to read the boo" and watch the movie. :oth o them have
very useul and ascinating inormation. 0hen they are hand in hand they give you lot2s
o inormation.