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NEUROSCIENCE AND SOCIETY Curriculum for High School Teachers

Unit 2: Anatomy and Methods

Center for Neuroscience & Society, University of Pennsylvania

The Franklin Institute Acknowledgments Center for Neuroscience & Society Martha J. Farah, Ph.D. Laurel E. Ecke, Ph.D. Teresa K. Pegors, Ph.D. Hilary B. Gerstein, Ph.D. Julie S. McGurk, Ph.D. Lucas T. Wittman

The Franklin Institute Jayatri Das, Ph.D. Karen J. Elinich, Ed.D.

Teachers Tim Best, Science Leadership Academy Claire DeChant, Boys Latin of Philadelphia Kalisha Dessources, Boys Latin of Philadelphia Jonathan Fabrey, Central High School Jaskiran Kaur, Ph.D., Boys Latin of Philadelphia Jonathan Nguyen, Pennsauken High School Kimberly White, Tacony Academy Charter School

Evaluation Goodman Research Group, Inc.

© The Franklin Institute, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, 2017. This project was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research under grant #R25DA033023. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH. From sensing to moving to thinking to feeling, neuroscience explains how we perceive and interact with the world around us. This field provides a rich opportunity for high school students to explore fundamental science, framed within the context of everyday decisions and new challenges they will as they enter adulthood.

Information about the intersection between neuroscience and society abounds online and in the media, yet many sources are unreliable. Meanwhile, there are few textbooks on neuroscience and its societal applications that are designed intentionally for high school students. This curriculum, therefore, is a curated collection of resources—reviewed by experts and tested by teachers—to help you bring this fascinating content into your classroom.

The curriculum is intentionally modular to provide flexibility. Each unit can stand alone, ready to be incorporated into an existing , , or other course. Alternatively, multiple units can be linked together to create a semester-long elective course.

You can adapt the content to meet the readiness and capabilities of your class as needed. You can select certain topics and activities to match your students’ interest and skip others depending on time constraints.

The goal of the curriculum is to inspire excitement about and increase knowledge of neuroscience. The suggested activities include a variety of instructional approaches, and we encourage you to ask open-ended questions and guide conversations so students are interacting instead of being passive listeners. Students often find personal relevance in these topics, so feel free to extend activities and discussions.

If you feel you have reached the limit of your knowledge about a particular subject, don’t worry! Even scientists may not know the answer. Neuroscience is still a developing field and you can create opportunities for you and your students to think critically and learn together. Use the provided links and documents as a gateway to finding additional sources and evaluating their quality.

Your feedback is also welcomed, of course. Please contact the program administrator at [email protected] with comments and suggestions. Thank you for all your hard work! Alignment with Next Generation Science Standards The “Neuroscience and Society” curriculum supports Next Generation Science Standards in the following areas.

High School – Life Science HS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes Disciplinary Core Ideas LS1.A: Structure and Function LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms

Science & Engineering Practices Developing and Using Models

Crosscutting Concepts Structure and Function Stability and Change

HS-LS3 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits Disciplinary Core Ideas LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits LS3.B: Variation of Traits

Science & Engineering Practices Asking Questions and Defining Problems Analyzing and Interpreting Data Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Crosscutting Concepts Cause and Effect Systems and System Models Science is a Human Endeavor NEUROSCIENCE AND SOCIETY

This unit covers some of the basics of brain anatomy as well the major ways in which the has been studied. The idea is to familiarize students with the “language” of neuroscience. What are the parts, terms, and labels we use when talking about the brain, and what kinds of experimentation helps us better understand what the different parts of the brain do?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Students will learn that… • Give examples of how behavioral changes/deficits in lesion patients have helped to reveal the role of certain brain regions. • Identify major regions of the brain and use orienting terminology to describe locations in the brain. • Explain how the human brain compares in size to other species, and give examples of how brains have evolved for the needs of each species. • Visually identify and describe the primary uses of 4 methods: CT, MRI, fMRI, and PET. • Compare the strengths and of lesion and neuroimaging methods for studying the brain.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: A. Terms and Definitions B. Topics: 1. Lesion Studies 2. 3. Comparative Neuroanatomy 4. Neuroimaging Studies C. Annotated Resources (for further reading) Lesion – Damage to a region of the brain. This can occur through , disease. In other animals, researchers can induce lesions for experimental purposes.

Consciousness – The state of being awake and aware.

MRI/fMRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) uses magnetic fields and radio waves to obtain a picture of the brain (or other organs/) inside the body. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) uses this same technology, with some additional adjustments, to look at blood flow in the brain over time.

PET – Positron Emission Tomography (PET) uses a radioactive tracer (which is injected or swallowed) to measure brain function.

CT – Computed Tomography (CT) is a type of 3-D X-ray that can be used to image the brain.

EEG – An Electroencephalogram (EEG) uses multiple electrodes placed on the surface of the to measure the electrical activity in the brain.

Is the brain a uniform mass of tissue, or are different parts responsible for different mental functions? It was patients with lesions that helped answer this question. Historically, when a patient would show up to the clinic after a or acute injury, doctors would record the specific behavioral changes or deficits and then look to see which part of the brain was damaged (of course, back then, the patient had to die before the doctor could perform an to discover the site of damage). Because damage to a specific area tended to cause the same behavioral changes across patients, doctors were able to begin mapping mental functions to specific regions of the brain. This method is still a common way to study the relationship between brain regions and function, but now with brain imaging, doctors can locate the site of damage while the patient is still alive!

Key Points: • Changes in the brain cause various changes in and/or behavior. • Different cognitive functions can be localized to different parts of the brain. • can learn about the brain by examining patients with damage due to stroke or injury: by studying how behavior changes when a region of the brain is damaged, we can infer how that brain region normally works. Resources and Discussion Questions: The Journal for Undergraduate Neuroscience Education has a great article on using case studies in class.

This website has a huge list of brain disorders and references to case studies and other information.

Reflection/Discussion question: What is the relationship between /mental processes, and brains/bodily processes? • In , this is the “/body problem,” and has a rich history of debate and discussion.

Classroom Activities: All activities make use of the Case Study Activity, which describes 6 case studies in detail: 1. (H.M.) 2. Frontal (Phineas Gage) 3. Broca’s Area (Broca’s ) 4. Wernicke’s Area (Wernicke’s Aphasia) 5. () 6. (Urbach-Wiethe Disease)

Activity #1 – Lesion Map Students will be presented with case studies describing how damage to a particular brain area causes changes in consciousness or behavior. See Case Study Activity for case studies and worksheets. Students first answer questions about each case study: 1. What was the nature and location of this patient’s injury? 2. How did it change their behavior and/or their conscious experience? 3. What function do you think this part of the brain is responsible for?

Students then work together to create a heuristic diagram of brain areas and functions based on their conclusions (see diagram worksheets), then compare what they created with a ‘textbook’ diagram.

Activity #2 – Skit Teams of students each get a case study. One student is assigned the role of the lesion patient and the other students play other characters in a scenario to act out the patient’s deficit. While one team performs the skit, the other teams watch and then compile a list of symptoms and/or deficits that they notice.

Once all of the teams have performed their skits, the teacher leads a discussion, using the symptom lists, to talk about the specific region and function of that part of the brain.

Assignment Ideas: Assignment #1 – First-Person Narrative Students pick one of the 6 disorders in the Case Study Activity document and write a first-person narrative, described from the perspective of the lesion patient. Depending on the length of the assignment, the narrative could also include how the patient acquired the disorder and how their symptoms may have changed over time.

Assignment #2 – Research Report As a more advanced assignment, students research and write a report on another neurocognitive syndrome or disorder. This website has a huge list of brain disorders and references to case studies and other information.

The brain is an extremely complicated part of the , but a few orienting terms makes it easy to navigate, and learning some of the major parts and functions goes a long way in understand how mental processes arise!

Key Points: • Identities and locations of the brain’s lobes, hemispheres, and other notable structures (e.g. , cerebellum, cortex, / , amygdala, hippocampus, brain stem). • The primary function of these regions (or sub-regions). • The brain can be viewed using horizontal (axial) slices, sagittal slices, or coronal slices. We can also use directional terms to pinpoint locations in the brain (superior, inferior, posterior, anterior, medial, lateral).

Resources: This online resource from BrainFacts.org has a rotatable (and see-through) brain, which is very helpful when trying to understand where the different parts of the brain are in a 3-dimensional space. It has a large number of labeled parts and descriptions of function.

There are many resources online for learning about brain anatomy and function, though note that many will go into more detail than necessary for a basic overview. • This website is for teachers. It goes over basic anatomy and terms, and has links to other similar lesson plans and study guides. • This tutorial has good visual descriptions of the various orientation terms (superior, inferior, etc.) and the reference planes (coronal, horizontal, sagittal). It also has good visual and text descriptions of cortical regions. • Some parts of this video are another good way to get a 3-dimensional understanding of the brain.

Classroom Activities: Activity #1 – Showercap Mind Map Each team assigns one student to wear a shower cap. The rest of the team uses sticky notes to label parts of the brain on the shower cap. Labels can be brain lobes, hemispheres, regions (e.g. primary auditory or ), etc. Teams have a limited amount of time to correctly place the labels.

• The Neuroskeptic blog description and links can be found here. • A paper with a detailed description of the activity can be found here, which includes a report on the effectiveness of the activity. • As an alternative, there is a premade Brain Hemisphere Hat designed by Ellen McHenry. This works best when scaled to print on 11” x 14” paper to fit on a student’s head.

Activity #2 – Turn Off Your Have students explore this interactive simulation where different regions of the brain can be deactivated. Which regions control which functions? What happens when multiple brain regions are deactivated? Activity #3 – Lobe Poems Individuals or teams create short poems to describe a particular lobe of the brain. Those who didn’t write the poem guess which lobe the poem is describing.

Example poem: This part of the brain helps you move, Without it you couldn’t bust a groove Coordinating movement for a cool guy swagger, Without it you’d look drunk and stagger. Can you guess what part of the brain this is? Answer: cerebellum.

Activity #4 – Sheep Brain Dissection Depending on the size of the class, individuals or teams dissect a sheep brain, which is anatomically similar to a human brain and less than $15 per brain. • Sheep brains can be purchased from Carolina Biological Supply Company. • This website has great sheep brain dissection resources, including a teacher curricula, student worksheet, and videos. • Another dissection resource with student worksheets for labeling parts of the sheep brain. • A college-level dissection guide. Likely too in-depth for high school students, it could be valuable for a teacher reference. It also has clearly labeled pictures, and describes a good method of dissection. • A YouTube video demonstrating a sheep dissection. • Another two-part YouTube video that goes into more detail (Part 1, Part 2). • Alternatively, there are jello brain molds that can be used to at least label lobes and practice dissections, slice orientations, and anatomical direction terms (e.g. take a coronal slice from the most posterior portion of the ).

Assignment Ideas: Students can review this material using one of many online quizzes about brain anatomy. To show that they have completed the quiz, they could bring in a screenshot of their final quiz score or fastest time. Examples of online quizzes: • This is a matching game where students match the name to the visual image of the brain part. • This site contains two quizzes, one for structures and another for regions of the . • This is a creative option for students with culinary interests.

Brains are similar in many ways between species. These similarities allow us to learn more about our own brains and behavior by studying other animals. At the same time, there are also many differences between species. The relative size of regions with a species’ brain tells us what functions are particularly important to that species: for example, humans have larger frontal regions relative to the rest of their brain. Frontal regions are responsible for mental processes such as reasoning, decision-making, planning—things that humans are very good at doing!

Key points: • The overall size of a brain is not the most important factor in determining intelligence (e.g. humans have nowhere near the biggest brain in terms of overall size). • The brain-to-body mass ratio is a rough measure of the intelligence of an animal (but not without flaws) as well as the amount of “wrinkles” on a brain (surface area to volume ratio). • Frontal areas relative to the rest of the brain are biggest in humans. • Scientists often study other animals’ brains and behavior to learn more about human brain and behavior.

Resources and Discussion Questions: One of the best resources for images and descriptions of a variety of animal brains is the Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections.

The Wikipedia article on the brain-to-body mass ratio gives a good overview as well as caveats.

An article from Scientific American lays out some of the ongoing discussion about /brain organization and intelligence differences between species.

Are humans smarter than other animals? What does “smarter” mean, anyway? • There is much disagreement about how intelligent other animals are. For example, see this article from a Discover Magazine blog about dolphins, which some claim to be the second smartest animal but which others think are no more intelligent than many other animals. Here is a National Geographic blog on how to study animal intelligence. • It is important to remember that different species have developed sensory systems appropriate for their environment and needs. While humans are more intelligent than other species, they are not better at everything. For example, when it comes to sensory processing… • smell better than humans do. • Butterflies see more colors than humans do, including UV light. • can echolocate, while humans can’t. • See more examples here.

What are some benefits and limitations of using mice or other animals as experimental models in neuroscience research? • Mice are cheap to house, they reproduce quickly, it is easy to control their environments, we might have less moral repulsion at experimenting on mice than on cats or dogs, many aspects of their are similar to humans… but mice aren’t humans! • Monkeys are more controversial regarding many of these points, but their brains are much more similar to human brains than are rodent brains. Classroom Activities: Activity #1 – Build Brains out of Play-doh or Clay Students pick their favorite animal and shape that animal’s brain out of play-doh or clay. They should attempt to make the brain to scale (since size is an important part of brain differences), but the larger brains may be scaled down. There are a number of images online (do an image search for “brain size”) that the teacher can use to narrow the list of choices. Example:

Once students complete their brains, they should discuss how their animal’s brain is different and similar to the other animal brains as well as specifically to the human brain.

(This activity could also be used as another way to teach students the basics of human brain anatomy. See this activity curriculum for an example.)

Activity #2 – How We Our Environment: Differences Across Species Because all of our are ultimately processed in the brain, the differences in how animals experience the world relates to differences in the brain. For example, the part of our brain that processes visual input is very large because this is our most well developed sense. This activity allows students to explore sensory differences between animals. • Find the worksheet and answer key here. • This can be accompanied by the Radiolab podcast “Colors”: skip to 8:30-17:30 for a comparison of different species and their (types of cones).

Activity#3 – Neuroscience Ad Campaign This project-based learning activity asks teams of students to develop an advertising campaign for a science museum that is opening a new exhibit on the brain. Students create two different types of media products that address core concepts about structure & function, brain lesions, and comparative brain anatomy.

Neuroimaging studies are a great advance in our ability to study the brain. We can get highly detailed pictures of the brain while the person is still alive (computed tomography [CT] and magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]). We can also measure neural activity and other kinds of brain changes at the very same time that people are performing mental tasks or psychology experiments! This allows us to pinpoint which areas of the brain seem to be involved in specific processes. One of the most common neuroimaging methods is functional MRI (fMRI) because it is non-invasive and has very good spatial resolution. It is important to remember, though, that there are many inferential and statistical steps in between the raw fMRI data and a pretty picture of a region that “lights up” during a task!

Key points: • Neuroscientists can analyze the structure of the brain with CT and MRI. • Positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI can reveal how different brain areas respond to tasks and stimuli. • Temporal resolution and spatial resolution are two major characteristics to consider when comparing the benefits and disadvantages of different methods. • fMRI measures oxygen levels in the blood, rather than the electrical signal itself.

Resources and Discussion Questions: This website from McGill University gives a nice overview of various methods of neuroimaging, with links to other sources.

This collection of images from brain researchers includes a variety of different techniques used in current research and their applications to understanding the brain and brain health.

Neuroimaging can get very technical very quickly, but here are some videos that explain the basics of the methods:

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): • This video with Alan Alda is engaging and very simply explains what it’s like to be in the scanner and how fMRI works. • This video also shows what an fMRI scan is like during an experimental session. • This video is for more technically minded students. It first explains how a “regular” MRI works, and then specifically explains how fMRI works. • A 1-minute video on how general MRI works from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET): • A 1-minute video on the method. • A more technical video. • A somewhat old (but still potentially useful) video on using PET scans to understand how the brain processes language. Computed Tomography (CT): • A short video at a good level of description. • This video shows a real CT scan session with a basic description of the method (though it focuses on scans rather than brain scans).

This article directly compares the strengths and weaknesses of PET and fMRI. Here is another website that compares a number PET to fMRI (and EEG).

What are possible limitations of neuroimaging technology? Two rather advanced papers provide detailed but clear explanations of the inferences and assumptions of neuroimaging as well as some critiques of the methods, which may be of use to teachers. 1. Dr. Geoffrey Aguirre explains neuroimaging from technical, logical, and social perspectives, including a very good explanation of the analysis steps involved in getting from the raw data to inferences about a cognitive process. 2. Dr. Martha Farah outlines critiques and limitations of the method and provides helpful responses, acknowledging some concerns but also arguing that we shouldn’t throw the “baby out with the bathwater.”

Classroom Activities: Activity #1: Comparing Different Neuroimaging Methods There are many different ways to get a visual representation of what is going on inside the head. Each method has strengths and , and because of this, certain methods are typically used in certain settings. Have students point out similarities and differences between the below images.

CT MRI PET fMRI

Questions: • Which are the sharpest? Which are the fuzziest? • Which have intensity or color scales? What do the colors or intensities signify in each image? • Ask students to compare CT/MRI with PET/fMRI. What differences and similarities do they see between these groups? • Explain that CT/MRI are structural (reveal the physical structure of the brain) and PET/fMRI are functional (reveal patterns of brain activity during a task). Describe how each method works (very briefly). Note that the fMRI image actually shows two kinds of images: blood flow activity overlaid on top of an MRI scan.

If students pointed out that MRI and fMRI look sharper than CT and PET, point out the date of development of each technology correlates with the increasing image resolution. CT was introduced in the early 1970s, PET and MRI in the 1980s, and fMRI in the 1990s. Most present-day research in uses fMRI.

Ask students what types of questions each method might be able to address, and suggest some ideas (or give a list of questions, and ask students to match each question to a method). Activity #2 - Methods Grid The class divides up into teams and each gets a copy of the Methods Grid. The teacher reads a fact, such as “measures the decay of a radioactive isotope,” and the team writes it in the space where the answer goes. • Once all facts have been given, the grids are scored and the team with the highest number of correctly placed facts wins. • The teacher can make the facts harder or easier based on the level of the students. • Other methods can be added, such as EEG, MEG, and single-unit recording.

Open-source resources (for further reading and reference)

Salamon’s Neuroanatomy and Neurovasculature Web-Atlas Resource This resource has a ton of figures and labels of brain regions. Many of these images are of slices/ sections of actual human brains. There are also some images from brain scans.

WikiBooks: and Cognitive Neuroscience/Behavioral and Neuroscience Methods Good descriptions of a variety of neuroscience methods.

The Mind’s Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior Neil V. Watson and S. This resource does not contain the actual text but has chapter outlines, study questions, figures and study questions, etc.