Brain Challenge Review
I. The Brain Scenarios –Use your notes and charts to identify which part of the brain is involved in each scenario:
1. It is Friday the 13th and Janice was being especially careful as she walked down the busy street. While she was stepping out onto the street to avoid a construction ladder, leaping over a large crack in the pavement and shielding her eyes from a big black stray cat, she was hit by a bus. The paramedics arrived to find Janice unconscious and not breathing. They immediately gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation but Janice did not start breathing. As they took her to the hospital, the paramedics tried to figure out which part of her brain might have been damaged.
• Which part of Janice’s brain was probably damaged? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
2. John is the kind of person who must have at least eight hours of sleep every night. If he does not get his eight hours, he is cranky, irritable, and a pain in the neck. However, during the last month, something unusual has happened to John. He has gone from his usual eight hours a night to only three hours a night. Although he now has more time for work and play, he is a bit worried about the change. John thought it might be some hidden psychological problem so he went to a therapist, but that did not help. Next, John went to his family doctor whe prescribed sleeping pills, but that did not help either. Finally, John went to a neurologist who did a brain scan. The neurologist told John he had a brain tumor.
• Which part of John’s brain is being affected by the tumor? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
3. Here is the real horror story. There is a tiny bug that lives under beds and comes out at night when a person is sound asleep. The bug crawls into the person’s ears and keeps going until it reaches the brain. Very quietly so as not to wake the person, the bug begins to eat away at the person’s brain. The next morning, as the person gets up, he or she walks into the bathroom in a very clumsy way. The person has no trouble holding the toothbrush but has great difficulty making smooth, circular brushing strokes. At lunchtime, the person has no trouble holding a quarter but has great trouble making the fine movements needed to put the quarter into the vending machine. Throughout the day, the person has no trouble starting movements but has difficulty making smooth movements and walks as if drunk.
• Which part of the brain did the tiny bug eat away? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
4. Just before the world famous dancer, Agnes DeMille, was to perform on stage, she felt an incredible pain in her head and then lost consciousness. She woke up in an ambulance that was taking her to the emergency room. Agnes had had a stroke that permanently changed her behavior. She had no difficulty moving her right hand or right foot. However, she could never dance again because she could not feel where her right foot or right hand were and could not feel if someone touched her.
• Which part of Agnes’ brain was damaged by the stroke? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
5. Harry was always one to accept a dare, and this dare seemed like fun. All he had to do was put on a pair of roller skates and skate backward for 100 feet. Harry had not been on skates since he was ten but was confident that he could remember. He put on the skates, stood up, and started forward. He was moving forward okay but now came the hard part – turning 180 degrees and skating backward. He tried to twist his body and turn his feet but everything got tangled up and he fell over backwards with his head hitting the concrete with a loud thud. When Harry slowly sat up, he rubbed his head and wondered why he was seeing stars.
• Which part of Harry’s brain was hurt when he hit the concrete? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
6. Sharon has never told anyone her most secret fear. She’s terrified that she is going crazy because of the strange things happening to her. Sometimes she has intense sexual desires that she can hardly control. Sometimes she goes from restaurant to restaurant and eats up to eight meals a day. Sometimes she goes to a water fountain and drinks for fifteen minutes straight. Sometimes she feels tremendous love for her boyfriend and then, without warning, hates his guts. There is a tumor growing in Sharon’s brain that is causing all of these strange behaviors.
• Which part of Sharon’s brain is being destroyed by a tumor? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
7. Each time Dave talked, people laughed and said that he had one of the best comedy routines that they had ever had. Dave would begin with what seemed like a normal sentence but after a few words he would start talking about an entirely different topic, and after a few words he would go off on another topic. The result was that Dave never seemed to finish a sentence or make any sense but he talked in a fluent manner. For example, Dave might sound like this, “Like, it’s all sunny, cause books cost a lot, and there’s no reason for a car, and don’t buy shoes, but I like hamburgers on sale except in bad times.” The reason Dave talks like this is because a certain part of his brain is damaged.
• Which two parts of Dave’s brain are damaged? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
8. Peter was riding a bike down a busy street when he was hit by a car. He was not wearing a helmet and he was thrown off his bike and landed on his head. The front bumper of the car hit him right above his ear. Amazingly, he did not break any bones and escaped with only a few cuts and bruises. However, when the officer tried to talk to him about what had happened, he was unable to understand what the officer was asking him.
• Which part of Peter’s brain was damaged when Peter landed on his head? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified?
9. Susie was very healthy, happy baby except that she was born deaf. She had no sensory or motor problems. When Susie was 18 years old, a neurosurgeon discussed with her the possibility of having a new but experimental brain operation. During this operation tiny holes would be drilled into her skull, and thin wires would be implanted into certain parts of her brain. The current flowed through the wires and stimulated the brain cells or neurons at the ends of the wires. Susie agreed to have the surgery. After a two week recovery period, the wires were connected to the stimulator. The stimulator was turned on, and what happened next brought tears to Susie’s eyes. For the first time in her life, she heard sounds.
• In which part of Susie’s brain were the tiny wires implanted? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
10. Joellen was born with perfect eyesight, but as she has aged she has begun to have difficulty with it. She is able to see light and texture and colors and lines, but cannot clearly see objects that are both right in front of her face or far away. The other day she was at the grocery store and she had a very hard time shopping as she was able to see lots of color but couldn’t actually see the specific boxes or cartons or items that she wanted to purchase.
•Which part of Joellen’s brain is deteriorating ? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified?
11. Guadalupe went into the hospital complaining of a headache. The doctors had no answers. A few weeks later, she woke up and her right hand felt tingly. At work that day, she was typing on the computer and all of sudden she was unable to move her hand. When she went home that night, the lack of movement had spread to her entire right arm.
•Which part of Guadalupe’s brain is damaged? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
12. Joe has always had trouble in school. He has always been labeled as a behavior problem, but his current English teacher believes that he actually might have a learning disability. She has found that he really struggles with reading, and she encouraged his parents to get him tested. The tests revealed that he has dyslexia.
•Which part of Joe’s brain is malfunctioning? Explain your answer by describing the function of the part you identified.
II. True or False – Use your responses to the webquest to identify each of the following statements as true or false:
______1. The existence of trepanized skulls prove that brain surgery existed in primitive times.
______2. Ancient Egyptians believed that the liver was the most important organ.
______3. Phrenology is the study of bumps on a person’s head to identify personality.
______4. Lashley used rats to prove that brain activity has an electrical basis.
______5. Rene Descartes worked with LSD and its effects on brain functioning.
______6. Prozac is taken to improve a person’s mood by increasing the neurotransmitter called Seratonin.
______7. Thomas Willis was the first to identify that the brain has many different functions.
______8. There is one specific place in the brain that completely controls memory.
______9. The first writings about the brain focused on language development
______10. Phineas Gage helped neurologists understand that parts of personality are in the frontal lobe.