Tugas Faal 1 CNS

Ratna Nurlia Alfiandini / 021211132013

1. What function does the left cerebral specialize in most person ? The right ?

The expression left-brain/rightbrain refers to specialized functions of
the two hemispheres. Scientific research with healthy human subjects used a new
brain scan technique called Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan to confirm
these findings.
Individuals were connected to a machine that mapped brain activity by
lighting up to show which part of the brain was active. In a typical experiment, the
researcher gave each subject a series of tasks to perform, and then recorded which
side of the brain was most active. Results indicated that activities involving numbers,
logic, word puzzles, sequential tasks and analysis were more active on the left side of
the brain; whereas activities involving music, imagination, colors, or creative
expression were more active in the right hemisphere. Evidence suggests that the
right-brain has a global bias while the left-brain has a local bias. In other words, the
right hemisphere sees the picture and the left hemisphere sees the components of
the picture.
The distinctiveness of the left and right-brain functions has led to the notion
that humans have two brains. Although research shows that each hemisphere may
be in charge of a specific set of functions, neither side has exclusive control of those
functions. Both sides can interchange roles. The illustration below graphically
displays a summary of those functions for both sides of the brain.



2. Can you explained how we get learn and memories ?

As with habituation and most other forms of learning, practice makes
perfect. Repeated experience consolidates memory by converting the short-term
form into a longterm form. These physiological consequences of repeated training
have been best studied for sensitization. In Aplysia a single training session (or a
single application of serotonin to the sensory neurons) gives rise to short-term
sensitization, lasting only minutes, that does not require new protein synthesis.
However, five training sessions produce long-term sensitization, lasting several days,
that requires new protein synthesis. Further spaced training produces sensitization
that persists for weeks. These behavioral studies of Aplysia (and similar ones in
vertebrates) suggest that short-term and long-term memory are two independent
but overlapping processes that blend into one another. Several findings point to this
interpretation.


A single train of action potentials leads to early LTP by activating NMDA receptors, Ca2+
influx into the postsynaptic cell, and a set of second messengers. With repeated trains the
Ca2+ influx also recruits an adenylyl cyclase, which activates the cAMP-dependent protein
kinase (cAMP kinase) leading to its translocation to the nucleus, where it phosphorylates the
CREB protein. CREB in turn activates targets that are thought to lead to structural changes.
Mutations in mice that block PKA or CREB reduce or eliminate the late phase of LTP. The
adenylyl cyclase can also be modulated by dopaminergic and perhaps other modulatory
inputs. BDNF = brain-derived neurotrophic factor; C/EBPb = transcription factor; P =
phosphate; R(AB) dominant negative PKA; tPA tissue plasminogen activator.







































Reference

Kandel, Eric R. "Cellular mechanisms of learning and the biological basis of individuality."
Principles of neural science 4 (1991): 1247-1279.

Socrates. Know yourself. Left and right hemisphere. Viewed April 20th 2013 <
www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army/rotc_right-left_brain.pdf>