Neuroscience 101 Readings UPDATED 2025
1: d1 Right Brain Learning is a Myth
Intro
1. People think that learning is mainly for the left academic side and that we
need to focus on the right creative side
2. This argument is false
a. No evidence to prove that normal teaching ignores right side
b. No evidence to show people favor one side of the brain
c. No evidence to prove that there are teaching methods to target a
specific side of the brain
Hemisphericity
1. People assumed that because the brain is split into two sides, they have to
have polar opposite functions
2. Left is logical – right is creative
3. The idea of a split brain stemmed from a surgery in the 1960s where a patient
had the connections between both hemispheres to relieve seizures
a. The patients were able to read words out loud when presented to the
left but not the right, which indicated that left = verbal
b. Patients who got this surgery had abnormal brains to begin with, so
the data is flawed
4. Creativity comes from both sides of the brain
5. Language
a. Not specific to left hemisphere
b. Only in the left side during development
c. Damage to the right side hinders language
6. It is true that language processing is mainly in the left side of the brain, but
when people get injured on the left side, the brain can rewire itself to restore
language function
7. Marketers use the word “brain” in advertises for educational products to
make it seem legit
8. Teachers should get a basic education in neuro
9. There should be some network of neuroscientists and teachers working
together via electronic communication, conferences, and scientific digests
, 2: Chapter 1
What is behavioral neuro?
1. Behavioral neuroscience is one branch of neuro that studies the
connections between brain and behavior
2. Behavioral neuro is interdisciplinary
What is the history of neuro?
3. Religion and old philosophers thought that the mental capabilities were
carried out by the heart, but Hippocrates said that it was the brain
4. Galen is the “father of medicine” – but still thought that animal spirits moved
through the nerves to cause actions
5. Da Vinci had some p good drawings of the brain as well as Michaelangelo
6. Descartes believed in dualism – the body has a material and nonmaterial
soul that work together – the nonmaterial governing the material (to
preserve free will)
7. Phrenology (which is bogus) became popular and asserted that the size
of certain parts of the brain can dictate the characteristics of a person
8. Localization is true in the sense that certain areas peak with activity –
injuries to certain locations and impacts prove i.e. injuries to left side is assoc.
with speech impairment
9. Conscience became assoc. with the brain – Pavlov made big steps w his dogs
10. Hebbian synapse is neuroplasticity
Neuro related fields
1. Neurological and psychiatric conditions high now
2. Experiences and the environment can shape the brain – this is neuroplasticity
3. Social neuroscience explores how social interaction and biology can
lead to changes in behavior
4. Evolutionary psychology explores how sexual selection leads to changes in
the brain i.e. females prefer that males can sing well leads to an arms race
for good male singers
5. Epigenetics explores how the environment leads to changes in the genes
6. Neuroeconomics explores the parts of the brain that are active during
decision-making
7. Our consciousness is our awareness of our inner thoughts and feelings
a. This stuff is kinda trippy i.e. my blue is your red etc
Ways to study neuro
1. We cannot code entire brains to simulate changes but we cant manipulate
real brains due to ethics so we have to rely solely on observation
2. There are three types of studies to research the brain
, a. Somatic intervention: physically or chemically change a part of the
brain or body and observe the results i.e. adding hormones can affect
mating behavior
b. Behavioral intervention: changing the behavior and observing the results
i.e. putting a male in the presence of a female can change hormone levels
c. Correlation: looking at how somatic and behavioral variables relate
i.e. how the physical properties lead to trends in behavior i.e. big
brains = better test scores and more hormones = more aggression
3. Control groups
a. Within participants: same group of ppl tested with the control or
placebo before the actual test
b. Between participants: completely different group of people are the control
4. Researchers look at a list of a few things:
a. Describing behavior
b. Evolution of the brain
c. Ontogeny – the changes a person goes through as they age
d. Neurons as mechanisms – observing the electrical signals in the body
e. Applications of behavioral neuroscience – use what we know in neuro
to apply to other fields
Ethics of studying animals
1. Animals are useful to study but we have to be careful
2. People who are pro-animal research say that we should do it in case we
get a breakthrough
3. There are also regulations on animal study
Analysis
1. Reductionism is the idea that breaking a complex concept into its parts can
be used to easily understand the concept
2. We use levels of analysis – explain things to not be too complex i.e. good to
study science at the molecular level but not grammar
3. We can also look at one action but study different aspects of it
, 3: Chapter 15
Right vs left brain
1. Language is very powerful
2. Left is verbal and right is spatial cognition
3. The corpus callosum connects both sides of the brain
4. People who are split brain process info from the opposite side i.e. a ball in the
left hand is processed in the right side only and all the analysis is only done
with the tools of the right side of the brain
5. The right side has minimal verbal capabilities; if I take a key and only let the
right side process it – the person will be like “?”
6. Dichotic presentation = playing diff sounds in both ears and asking people
to identify them – many people are “right-eared” so that means their right
ear has tight connections with the left side of the brain
7. Tachistoscope test – show a visual stimuli for like 150 milliseconds to each
eye – words and letters are better understood when shown to the right eye
(which is linked to the left hemisphere) – nonverbal stuff is better understood
with the left eye and right hem
8. The planum temporale is used for audio and is bigger in the left side
9. Handedness is probably flinked with cerebral lateralization – people who
have injuries can switch dominant hands which shows high flexibility
Conditions linked w/ left and right hemispheres
10. Astereognosis is the inability to recognize objects by touching and feeling them
11. Prosopagnosia = faces are unrecognizable i.e. idk who dat in the mirror –
its genetic and can be acquired via brian damage
12. Wada test is when you shut off one side of the brain to test left vs right – shut
off using anesthesia
13. aphasia is the inability to use and understand language
14. paraphasia is when you start to forget language and replace words with
random sounds or incorrect words
15. alexia = cant read
16. agraphia = cant write
17. apraxia = lose motor skills
18. nonfluent aphasia is when people cant talk but still understand the
language
19. fluent aphasia is when people can talk but use a lot of nonsense words – see:
paraphasia
Brain and Language
1. People think that language is done with multiple parts of the brain working
together – audio heard then goes to Wernicke’s area then takes the arcuate
fasciculus to Broca’s area – then a verbal response is given
1: d1 Right Brain Learning is a Myth
Intro
1. People think that learning is mainly for the left academic side and that we
need to focus on the right creative side
2. This argument is false
a. No evidence to prove that normal teaching ignores right side
b. No evidence to show people favor one side of the brain
c. No evidence to prove that there are teaching methods to target a
specific side of the brain
Hemisphericity
1. People assumed that because the brain is split into two sides, they have to
have polar opposite functions
2. Left is logical – right is creative
3. The idea of a split brain stemmed from a surgery in the 1960s where a patient
had the connections between both hemispheres to relieve seizures
a. The patients were able to read words out loud when presented to the
left but not the right, which indicated that left = verbal
b. Patients who got this surgery had abnormal brains to begin with, so
the data is flawed
4. Creativity comes from both sides of the brain
5. Language
a. Not specific to left hemisphere
b. Only in the left side during development
c. Damage to the right side hinders language
6. It is true that language processing is mainly in the left side of the brain, but
when people get injured on the left side, the brain can rewire itself to restore
language function
7. Marketers use the word “brain” in advertises for educational products to
make it seem legit
8. Teachers should get a basic education in neuro
9. There should be some network of neuroscientists and teachers working
together via electronic communication, conferences, and scientific digests
, 2: Chapter 1
What is behavioral neuro?
1. Behavioral neuroscience is one branch of neuro that studies the
connections between brain and behavior
2. Behavioral neuro is interdisciplinary
What is the history of neuro?
3. Religion and old philosophers thought that the mental capabilities were
carried out by the heart, but Hippocrates said that it was the brain
4. Galen is the “father of medicine” – but still thought that animal spirits moved
through the nerves to cause actions
5. Da Vinci had some p good drawings of the brain as well as Michaelangelo
6. Descartes believed in dualism – the body has a material and nonmaterial
soul that work together – the nonmaterial governing the material (to
preserve free will)
7. Phrenology (which is bogus) became popular and asserted that the size
of certain parts of the brain can dictate the characteristics of a person
8. Localization is true in the sense that certain areas peak with activity –
injuries to certain locations and impacts prove i.e. injuries to left side is assoc.
with speech impairment
9. Conscience became assoc. with the brain – Pavlov made big steps w his dogs
10. Hebbian synapse is neuroplasticity
Neuro related fields
1. Neurological and psychiatric conditions high now
2. Experiences and the environment can shape the brain – this is neuroplasticity
3. Social neuroscience explores how social interaction and biology can
lead to changes in behavior
4. Evolutionary psychology explores how sexual selection leads to changes in
the brain i.e. females prefer that males can sing well leads to an arms race
for good male singers
5. Epigenetics explores how the environment leads to changes in the genes
6. Neuroeconomics explores the parts of the brain that are active during
decision-making
7. Our consciousness is our awareness of our inner thoughts and feelings
a. This stuff is kinda trippy i.e. my blue is your red etc
Ways to study neuro
1. We cannot code entire brains to simulate changes but we cant manipulate
real brains due to ethics so we have to rely solely on observation
2. There are three types of studies to research the brain
, a. Somatic intervention: physically or chemically change a part of the
brain or body and observe the results i.e. adding hormones can affect
mating behavior
b. Behavioral intervention: changing the behavior and observing the results
i.e. putting a male in the presence of a female can change hormone levels
c. Correlation: looking at how somatic and behavioral variables relate
i.e. how the physical properties lead to trends in behavior i.e. big
brains = better test scores and more hormones = more aggression
3. Control groups
a. Within participants: same group of ppl tested with the control or
placebo before the actual test
b. Between participants: completely different group of people are the control
4. Researchers look at a list of a few things:
a. Describing behavior
b. Evolution of the brain
c. Ontogeny – the changes a person goes through as they age
d. Neurons as mechanisms – observing the electrical signals in the body
e. Applications of behavioral neuroscience – use what we know in neuro
to apply to other fields
Ethics of studying animals
1. Animals are useful to study but we have to be careful
2. People who are pro-animal research say that we should do it in case we
get a breakthrough
3. There are also regulations on animal study
Analysis
1. Reductionism is the idea that breaking a complex concept into its parts can
be used to easily understand the concept
2. We use levels of analysis – explain things to not be too complex i.e. good to
study science at the molecular level but not grammar
3. We can also look at one action but study different aspects of it
, 3: Chapter 15
Right vs left brain
1. Language is very powerful
2. Left is verbal and right is spatial cognition
3. The corpus callosum connects both sides of the brain
4. People who are split brain process info from the opposite side i.e. a ball in the
left hand is processed in the right side only and all the analysis is only done
with the tools of the right side of the brain
5. The right side has minimal verbal capabilities; if I take a key and only let the
right side process it – the person will be like “?”
6. Dichotic presentation = playing diff sounds in both ears and asking people
to identify them – many people are “right-eared” so that means their right
ear has tight connections with the left side of the brain
7. Tachistoscope test – show a visual stimuli for like 150 milliseconds to each
eye – words and letters are better understood when shown to the right eye
(which is linked to the left hemisphere) – nonverbal stuff is better understood
with the left eye and right hem
8. The planum temporale is used for audio and is bigger in the left side
9. Handedness is probably flinked with cerebral lateralization – people who
have injuries can switch dominant hands which shows high flexibility
Conditions linked w/ left and right hemispheres
10. Astereognosis is the inability to recognize objects by touching and feeling them
11. Prosopagnosia = faces are unrecognizable i.e. idk who dat in the mirror –
its genetic and can be acquired via brian damage
12. Wada test is when you shut off one side of the brain to test left vs right – shut
off using anesthesia
13. aphasia is the inability to use and understand language
14. paraphasia is when you start to forget language and replace words with
random sounds or incorrect words
15. alexia = cant read
16. agraphia = cant write
17. apraxia = lose motor skills
18. nonfluent aphasia is when people cant talk but still understand the
language
19. fluent aphasia is when people can talk but use a lot of nonsense words – see:
paraphasia
Brain and Language
1. People think that language is done with multiple parts of the brain working
together – audio heard then goes to Wernicke’s area then takes the arcuate
fasciculus to Broca’s area – then a verbal response is given
