Blog Post #3 The Brain and Behavior

Hello,

The first activity that I did was "Seeing more than you eye does". I had to stare at a cross mark and watch a dot disappear that was placed next to the mark. It disappeared as I got closer to my computer screen because of the hole in my photoreceptor sheet of the eye. The second activity I did was called "Contrast/Color Illusions". I had to look at a checkerboard and a Rubik's cube and decide wether the colors were the same in the shaded areas or different. I realized that the brain gives us an informed guess upon which color it actually is. The wavelengths and intensity of the light cause our brain to distinguish the color.

I learned that the brain is complicated and distinguishes everything from different perspectives. I was very surprised to know how the brain actually can affect the way you see a color or how our eyes actually have blind spots. I can apply what I learned into everyday life especially knowing that the color is always different depending upon the intensity of light and the wavelengths. If I ever buy a couch or another piece of furtniture I would have to apply the color illusions in order to determine the right one that would look best in my house. I would also use it in Art class when I am painting or coloring a picture in order to depict the right color.

Doing these activites doesn't really change the way I think about the world and what I see. I knew the brain was complicated and perceived what we see into thought. Several others may be affected but I believe that everything happens for a reason and you can't change it.

I learned from Chapter 2 that we spend about six years of our lives dreaming. Dreams are in the REM stage of our sleep. The story line of our dreams usually is about manifest content or incorporates the traces of previous days of experiences and preoccupations. I think dreams are very interesting and would like to know what some of my dreams mean. I also learned that the endocrine system is very beneficial to our existence. It releases hormones into the blood stream to target cell receptors. When hormones act on the brain they can influence our interest of sex, food, and emotions. We have several glands all over our body that have a certain mission. For example the pituitary gland regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands. I also learned that the recovery from brain damage depends on the age of the person as well as how bad the damage actually was.

I thought the video " The Man with Two Brains" was very cool and interesting. The tests they put him through were very informative. If we looked at those pictures we could of determined the right answer, but when the man does his left and right hemispheres of his brain tell him differently. Its interesting that because he had epileptic seizures and the doctors peformed surgery to disconnect the hemispheres from working together he still was able to function. He didn't even realize the differences of before and after. I enjoyed watching the video and would like to watch more of the series.