Students ride the brain waves.It's cutting-edge. It's covered frequently in the media. It's pretty cool, too. Now that brain imaging techniques are widely used in research, why should adults be having all the fun? The answer, of course, is that they shouldn't. One way of covering brain research in classrooms today is by following the news. This summer, for instance, the laboratory of neuro imaging at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. released for use its 10-year computerized "atlas" of its brain project. So far, the research team has gathered digital images of 7,000 brains to help other researchers and radiologists measure brain activity and diagnose disease--difficult tasks because every person's brain is different. Educators can access both images and short animations online. The availability of interactive neuroscience neu·ro·sci·ence n. Any of the sciences, such as neuroanatomy and neurobiology, that deal with the nervous system. neuroscience the embryology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology of the nervous system. curricula makes it even easier for students to experience the power of brain imaging. One such program is Visualizing Addiction from the Center for Image Processing image processing Set of computational techniques for analyzing, enhancing, compressing, and reconstructing images. Its main components are importing, in which an image is captured through scanning or digital photography; analysis and manipulation of the image, accomplished in Education. Designed for grades 9-12, the multimedia CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). introduces students to the neuroscience at addiction, while the materials are geared toward science classes (particularly biology), one of the eight lessons is designed for use in health class. Rather than being an anti-drug campaign, the program lets students see for themselves how, for instance, the frontal lobes frontal lobe n. The largest portion of each cerebral hemisphere, anterior to the central sulcus. Frontal lobe The largest, most forward-facing part of each side or hemisphere of the brain. of the brain shrink after encountering a drug, says Project Director Victor Shamas. Using images, animation, simulations and data provided by researchers, Visualizing Addiction guides students through all aspects of the scientific process, from hypothesis generation and measurement taking to scientific report writing. Although there's a charge for obtaining student packs of the program, a teacher's edition with enough materials to introduce the images to students is currently available for free. "A picture is worth a thousand words A picture is worth a thousand words is a proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be told with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. ," says Shamas, who adds that discovering for yourself while examining an image certainly beats just being told about that image. www.loni.ucla.edu/SVG/index.html www.eVisual.org |
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