Name ______Date______Class______
TedEd: The Cockroach Beatbox
Directions: Answer the following questions as you watch the video.
- Your brain has about 100 billion of these:
a) Neurotransmitter molecules / b) Electrical impulses per hour
c) Neurons / d) Don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I blew through three or four million of ‘em while thinking about this question.
- According to Gage, we have a much easier time understanding and explaining organs like the heart and lungs than we do with the brain. Why is that?
______
- What is an action potential or "spike"?
a) A pulse of electricity sent down the axon of excitable cells like neurons. / b)The infant brain’s ability to generate new neurons from special, undifferentiated cells in the brain stem.
c)The relative speed of various neurotransmitters moving across synapses. / d)The ability to transfer specific functions from an injured part of the brain to an adjacent, healthy area.
- For some people, the use of live animals (even cockroaches) in experiments like Gage’s seems cruel. What evidence does Gage offer that this is not the case? What’s your reaction?
______
- Gage demonstrates that dropping a cockroach into ice water causes it to:
a)Die / b)Become temporarily anesthetized (falls asleep or "Chillaxes")
c)Assume the fetal position / d)C, then A
- Action Potentials or “Spikes” are used by the nervous system to send:
a)Information from your senses to the brain. / b)Information within your brain.
c)Information from your brain to your muscles. / d) All of the above.
- How did Gage use his iPhone during his experiment?
a) To share his data with an amateur-scientist wiki community. / b)For a quick Angry Birds break while waiting for the roach anesthetic to kick in.
c)To film a four-inch giant hissing cockroach and post it to his Facebook page. / d)As a source of electrical current.