Brain
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Professor Diamond continues her discussion of the nervous system and begins by revisiting her discussion of the ascending path. She notes the presence of substantia gelatinosa in the area of the second neuron and describes the concept of homunculus, which is the upside-down representation of the body in the brain, and notes that this does not occur in the face for reasons unknown to neurologists. Professor Diamond then begins describing...more
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Professor Diamond continues her discussion of the nervous system, finishing her discussion of the derivatives of the neural tube. She begins by discussing the lamina terminalis and the four ventricles, relating each to the source of their derivation and the areas of the brain in which they are found. Next, she continues her discussion of diencephalon from the last lecture and describes the roles of the thalamus and hypothalamus. After...more
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Professor Diamond continues the second lecture on the vascular system beginning with a closer look at the middle cerebral artery, its composition and function, as well as its relationship with other areas of the brain. The second set of the more distinctive arteries are the vertebral arteries, which supply about 25% of the brain's blood supply. After covering how the vascular system relates to the spinal cord, Professor Diamond moves onto...more
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Professor Brian Wandell tells the inspirational story of Mike May, the world-record holder for blind downhill skiing. Wandell leads a multidisciplinary team of Stanford researchers who are working together to treat the many dimensions of blindness: retinal imaging, neural connections, and social psychology.
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Dr. Russell Fernald discusses how social behavior changes the brains of fish, animals, and humans to adapt to situations typically involving mating behaviors. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Eric Knudsen and Charles Junkerman.
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3 interesting limit examples (correct answer for problem 1 is 3/16 (6/(4*8) NOT 6/(4+8)).
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Professor Diamond continues her discussion of the nervous system beginning with a discussion of myelin-forming oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells, saltatory conduction from the nodes of ranvier, and the similarity of the function of microglia to monocytes. She moves on to describe the development of the neural tube by drawing a cross-section of the neural tube and depicting the changes it undergoes, forming the ventricles of the brain,...more
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Professor Diamond continues her discussion of the nervous system with an introduction of the cerebral hemisphere and it is divided into lobes with specific functions. She uses Brodmann's numbering system as she draws the location of lobes and areas of the brain, including the precentral, postcentral, and premotor gyri, the central sulcus, motor cortex, frontal eye fields, and prefrontal lobe. She details the functions of the prefrontal...more
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Professor Diamond begins this lecture with her famous discussion of the human brain, demonstrating her favorite subject with a preserved sample. She then launches into a discussion of the muscular system, starting with its general functions: movement, support, heat generation, facial expression, and protection. She discusses nomenclature for muscles and how these are impacted by the number of muscle heads, the muscle length, muscle...more
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Professor Paul Bloom welcomes students and presents the course as a comprehensive introduction to the study of the human mind. Course readings and requirements are discussed. The five main branches of psychology are presented: neuroscience, which is a study of the mind by looking at the brain; developmental, which focuses on how people grow and learn; cognitive, which refers to the computational approach to studying the mind; social,...more
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One of the most uniquely human abilities is the capacity for creating and understanding language. This lecture introduces students to the major topics within the study of language: phonology, morphology, syntax and recursion. This lecture also describes theories of language acquisition, arguments for the specialization of language, and the commonalities observed in different languages across cultures.
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This lecture introduces students to two broad theories of how the mind relates to the body. Dualism is the ubiquitous and intuitive feeling that our conscious mind is separate from our physical bodies, whereas Materialism is the idea that all of our mental states are caused by physical states of the brain. This lecture reviews arguments explaining why materialism has become the predominant theory of mind in psychology. This discussion is...more

