Today’s class started with
a review of the lobes of the brain using the brain hats the monks made
yesterday. We discussed the functions of
the temporal, frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes and used the brain hats to
show the relative locations of the different areas. We moved on to other areas of the brain
including the thalamus, brain stem and cerebellum and then briefly talked about
the spinal cord.
As an activity, the monks
tested their 12 cranial nerves starting with the olfactory nerve. I asked the monks to sniff “smell cards” that
they were given to see if they could identify the odors. For the optic nerve, the monks just looked
around the room. For the nerve that
controlled movement of the eye, the monks looked up and down, and left to
right. We continued to test all of the
other nerves, except for the vagus nerve (the nerve that connects to our
internal organs).
When I stopped for
questions, one monk asked if all behavior needed the brain and thought. I replied that he was one step ahead of me
and that reflexes do not require thought and some reflexes do not require the
brain. First, we tested the blink
response. I made a loud noise and most
(not all) of the monks blinked. Then I
had the monks test their pupillary response by using a flashlight or the light
from their smart phones (most of them have smart phones). They could see how the pupil got larger when
light shined into their eyes.
Finally, I
asked for a volunteer so I could demonstrate the knee-jerk response. One monk sat on a table while I tapped just
below the knee cap. All of the monks
laughed with they saw the other monk’s leg kick out.
As the lesson ended and the monks went for tea, I told them they could come back to class early and give the reflex hammer a try. And many of them gave up some tea time to try it out on their fellow monks.
Very good & much great. You are successful because you share all the Knowledge you know with others.
ReplyDeletehttps://blog.mindvalley.com/lobes-of-the-brain/
Thank you for your kind words.
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