2Lesson. Outline 1.5. Lesson Plan. The OVERVIEW. Lesson 1.5: How do the parts of my brain work together? LESSON. Unit1.2

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1 Outline 2Lesson Unit1.2 OVERVIEW Rationale: This lesson is intended to emphasize the need of the structures of the brain to work together to create and control behaviors, like the creation and comprehension of language. Students begin the lesson by properly ordering cards that describe the neural steps required to read a book aloud to a friend. The lesson also includes a Socratic discussion of those neural steps, and concludes by watching videos of patients with lesions in areas required for language processing. Objectives: Students will be able to explain why different parts of the brain need to work together to create and control behavior, specifically the creation and comprehension of language. Students will be able to name the functions of Broca s and Wernicke s areas. Students will be able to diagnose patients with Broca s aphasia, Wernicke s aphasia, and Conduction aphasia. Activities: The activity of the lesson is a card sort in which students work in pairs to correctly order the neural steps involved in reading a book aloud to a friend. This activity emphasizes that many areas of our brains are required to complete every task; even those tasks we think are relatively simple. Additionally, this lesson highlights three disorders that can develop if specific areas of the brain are no longer able to function. Homework: By reading short conversations, students will diagnose patients with different forms of aphasia. This activity highlights Broca and Wernicke s areas and the functions they serve in understanding and creating language. The Lesson Plan Lesson : How do the parts of my brain work together? 1. Do now/activity (5-7 min): Students will order cards that contain the neural steps required to read a book. 2. (25 min): Socratic of neural pathways and the need for multiple areas of the brain (which each have a different function) to work together to create and control complex behaviors. 3. Wrap Up (5 min): Watch video clips of Broca and Wernicke s patients 4. Homework: Worksheet in which students read scripts from patients with Broca s, Wernicke s and Conduction aphasia and answer questions about the patients. 5. Materials: Do now cards: Neural Pathway Homework worksheet 27

2 1.DO NOW How do we read The Cat in the Hat? Have the students work in pairs to correctly order the cards that outline the neural steps to reading The Cat in the Hat. After giving the students at least 5 minutes to order the cards, use the Power- Point to elaborate on each of the neural steps and highlight the fact that many parts of the nervous system must work together to do something we all take for granted, like being able to read The Cat in the Hat. Ask the students if they know what parts of the brain might be involved in wanting to do something. They likely will not know, but use this opportunity to introduce the reward pathway of the brain, composed of the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex. This pathway will appear again later when we discuss addiction. The cards for this activity can be found in the Materials Folder for this lesson. Slide 2 Slide Sam wants to read The Cat in the Hat to his friend Pam. Ask the students- What is the first step to reading The Cat in the Hat? The students should be able to give you the answer Sam wants to read The Cat in the Hat to his friend Pam. Ask the students what is the next step? 2. Sam puts on his reading glasses and looks at The Cat in the Hat. Review with the students that the retina is the neural tissue that lines the back of the eye. It is composed of many cells, but for our purposes, focus on the rods and cones. Rods and cones are the cells that are able to change the light energy of the environment into a neural response. They send this response through the rest of the retina and to the optic nerve. 28

3 2. Ask the students - which cells (rods or cones) are responsible for our vision in dim light? And which cells are responsible for our color vision and vision in bright light? Rods are responsible for our vision in dim light Cone are responsible for our color vision and vision in bright light. Ask the students what is the next step? Slide 4 3. Sam s optic nerve transmits information from his eye to the his occipital lobe. Ask the students to describe the orientation of this brain. Because we need to see the optic nerves, it is oriented in a way that we are not used to seeing. Since the students have dissected sheep brains, they should be able to figure out that the picture is taken from the underside of the brain with the cerebellum removed. Ask the students what is the optic nerve? The optic nerve is a bundle of sensory neurons that carries visual information from the eye to the brain. The place where the optic nerve leaves the eye creates a blind spot, as we saw in the previous lesson. Review the pathway: Signals from the retina leave the eye via the optic nerve and then get carried to the occipital lobe. Ask the students what is the next step? 4. The information is transmitted from the occipital lobe to the thalamus. Slide 6 Slide 5 Ask the students- What is the main function of the thalamus? The thalamus is the main processing center for sensory information. Most sensory information goes first to the thalamus which then integrates and directs the information to other areas of the brain. You can think of the thalamus as the brain s Post Office, receiving information and redirecting it to where it needs to go. 29

4 2. Ask the students where is the thalamus going to send information about language? What is the next stop for the information? 5. The information is transmitted from the thalamus to Wernicke s Area. 6. The information is transmitted to Broca s area. Slide 8 Slide 7 Ask the students What does Broca s area allow Sam to do? Broca s area allows Sam to actually say the words. It formulates the signals needed to produce spoken language. Ask the students What will Wernicke s area be able to do with this information? Because Wernicke s area is required to understand language, Wernicke s area will be able to decode the squiggles. The brain now understands that these squiggles represent words and can understand what these words mean. Ask the students What is the next step? Review the pathway: Signals from the retina leave the eye via the optic nerve and then get carried to the occipital lobe. Ask the students what is the next step? 7. The information is transmitted to the motor cortex. Slide 9 30

5 2. Ask the students- Why must the information go to the motor cortex? The information has to go to the motor cortex because Sam wants to read the story to Pam. Reading aloud requires Sam to move his tongue lips and vocal cords. The motor cortex is required for all those steps. Ask the students What is the next step? 8. The signals from the motor cortex are sent to the brainstem and down the spinal cord. 9. The motor neurons from the spinal cord connect to the muscles in the throat and mouth. Sam s mouth produces the words he has read. Slide 11 Ask the students What is the main function of the spinal cord? The spinal cord is the main pathway for sensory information from our periphery to get into the brain as well as for motor information to leave the brain. Ask the students What is the next step? Slide 10 Quickly review the entire process. Visual information Occipital lobe Wernicke s area Broca s area Motor Cortex Spinal Cord Motor neurons. Ask the students what would happen if one of these areas was disrupted? Could Sam still read to Pam? What if he could not see? Use this time to discuss with the students the necessity for all of the different parts of our brains to work together. What about Pam? What happens in her brain as she listens to the story? Slide 12 31

6 2. Slide 13 Ask the students to predict what areas of Pam s brain would be active as she listens to Sam read The Cat in the Hat to her. Students should be able to predict that Wernicke s and Broca s areas will be active. They should also be aware that the auditory cortex would be required because she is hearing him read the story and not reading it herself. Many areas of the brain are required to process words. Ask the students what type of experiment was completed to create these pictures of brains? These images are of PET scans. The experiment was done to determine what areas of our brains are most active when we hear, see, speak and think about words. Ask the students what areas are most active while the subject is hearing words, seeing words, speaking words, and thinking about words? Hearing Temporal lobe, including Wernicke s area Seeing Occipital lobe Speaking Broca s area and Motor Cortex Thinking Frontal lobe Ask the students to predict what might happen if any one of these areas was damaged? What would happen if the area responsible for speaking words was damaged? What about hearing words? Slide 13 32

7 3. Wrap Up Broca s Aphasia Broca s Area Introduce Broca s Aphasia, named after Paul Broca a doctor who described patients who could understand language, but could not speak coherently. Slide 16 Slide 15 If the students haven t already come up with the idea of doing an autopsy to examine patients brains, explain that that is what Broca did after his patients died. Through autopsy, Broca found that the posterior region of the frontal lobe was damaged in all of his patients. This area is now called Broca s area. Ask the students If you were Paul Broca and were trying to figure out what caused this problem for your patients, what might you do? (Hint: think back to the lesson about the ways we study our brains.) Students will likely respond with use fmri, PET or EEG to see if these patients brains are abnormal. If/when the students respond with this, have them take a closer look at Paul Broca s clothes and ask them does it look like Paul Broca lived in a time where he could use fmri, PET or EEG? Try to have them come up with the idea of postmortem examination. Ask the students Based on the behavior of his patients, what must be the function for Broca s area? Is it required to understand language? Is it required to speak? Broca s area is critical for speaking, but not understanding language. Wernicke s Aphasia Introduce Wernicke s Aphasia, named after Carl Wernicke a doctor who described patients who could speak, but did not understand language. 33

8 3. Wrap Up Ask the students If you were Wernicke and were trying to figure out what caused this problem for your patients, what might you do? This time the students should know immediately do an autopsy. Wernicke s Area Slide 17 After Wernicke s patients died, autopsies were done and damage to the posterior region of the temporal lobe was found. This area is now called Wernicke s area. Ask the students What must be the function of Wernicke s area? Wernicke s area is required to understand language. Ask the students if they think Broca s area and Wernicke s area are all that are required for us to understand language and speak coherently? Do you think they were independently or do they need to work together? Students should understand that you need both Broca s area and Wernicke s area to have a normal conversation, and that the two areas must also work together. Therefore, perhaps it is possible to have problems with the connection between the two areas. Conduction Aphasia Explain to the students that there is a third type of aphasia called conduction aphasia. These patients can understand language and have no motor difficulties when they speak. However, they are unable to speak coherently. They often have problems finding the exact word they want to use, and sometimes omit parts of words and use incorrect words. Slide 18 Slide 19 34

9 3. Wrap Up Ask the students where might these patients have damage in their brains? (Hint: think back to needing both Broca s area and Wernicke s area.) Slide 21 These patients might have damage in the connection between Broca s and Wernicke s areas. Conduction Aphasia Use this slide to demonstrate the connection between Broca and Wernicke s areas. Conduction aphasia results from damage to the connection between Wernicke s and Broca s area. The first link shows a patient with Broca s aphasia has difficulty speaking. Slide 222 The homework worksheet can be found in the Materials Folder for this lesson. Slide 20 The second video shows a patient with Wernicke s aphasia has difficulty understanding. Their patients Watch the videos embedded into the PowerPoint and ask the students to diagnose the aphasia that each patient has. Homework Worksheet: Diagnosis For homework, have students complete a worksheet that asks them to diagnose patients with different types of aphasias. 35