STSE Applications
Case Studies
The best way to incorporate the real world into neuroscience would be through the use of real-life scenarios. Below are some cases that can teach students a lot about the brain.
Phineas Gage
Phineas Gage was working at a rail road track one day when he accidentally detonated an iron spike that should have gone into the ground. Instead, the rod entered his head through the bottom of his cheekbone and went right through his frontal lobe. Below are pictures and videos.
Result: His personality changed and he started insulting his friends. He lost his manners and became quite rude
Result: His personality changed and he started insulting his friends. He lost his manners and became quite rude
The man who mistook his wife for a hat
This man could not recognize faces, a condition called Prosopagnosia. It got so severe to the point where he attempted to pick up his wife as if she were a hat! What is happening here?
Cause: Damage to the parietal lobe and the regions that code for face recognition (Could be born with this OR could be due to damage in that area)
Cause: Damage to the parietal lobe and the regions that code for face recognition (Could be born with this OR could be due to damage in that area)
Buy the book, it has a lot of other case studies!
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FROM THE NEW YORKER
In 1985, I published a case history called “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” about Dr. P., who had a very severe visual agnosia. He was not able to recognize faces or their expressions. Moreover, he could not identify, or even categorize, objects; thus, he was unable to recognize a glove, to distinguish it as an article of clothing, or to perceive that it resembled a hand. After Dr. P.’s story was published, I began to get letters from correspondents who would compare their difficulties in recognizing places and faces with his. In 1991, Anne F. wrote to me, describing her experiences: I believe that three people in my immediate family have visual agnosias: my father, a sister, and myself. We each have traits in common with your Dr. P., but, hopefully, not to the same degree. The most striking behavior we all share in common with Dr. P. is the prosopagnosia. My father, a man who has had a successful radio career here in Canada (his particular gift is an ability to mimic voices), was unable to recognize his wife . . . in a recent photograph. At a wedding reception, he asked a stranger to identify the man sitting next to his daughter (my husband of five years at the time). I have walked past my husband, while staring directly at his face, on several occasions without recognizing him. I have no difficulty recognizing him, however, in situations or places where I am expecting to see him. I am also able to recognize people immediately when they begin to speak, even if I’ve heard their voice only once in the past. Unlike Dr. P., I feel I can read people well on an emotional level. . . . I don’t have the degree of agnosia for common objects that Dr. P. had. [However], like Dr. P., I am totally incapable of establishing a topographical representation of space. . . . I have no memory for where I put things unless I verbally encode the location. Once an object leaves my hands, it drops off the edge of the world into a void. While Anne F. seems to have prosopagnosia and topographical agnosia on a genetic or familial basis, others may develop this (or any other form of agnosia) in consequence of a stroke, a tumor, an infection, or an injury—or, like Dr. P., a degenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s—that has damaged a particular part of the brain. |
SplIT Brain
The corpus callosum allows both hemispheres of the brain to communicate. This section of the brain used to be removed to treat epilepsy (seizures). What they noticed is that when they cut the corpus callosum, people were 100% cured. What happened next was mesmerizing.
Important Note: The left brain controls the right hand and the right brain controls the left hand. The left brain is more verbal and the right brain is more visual
Important Note: The left brain controls the right hand and the right brain controls the left hand. The left brain is more verbal and the right brain is more visual
Because this persons right brain (left hand) cannot communicate to the left brain so he can say "key", the brain says what it sees on the screen which is the word "ring"
BUT, if you give this person something to draw on with their left hand (right brain), they will draw a key unknowingly! Thus, because the corpus callosum is severed, the communication between the two halves comes about externally (on the paper).
BUT, if you give this person something to draw on with their left hand (right brain), they will draw a key unknowingly! Thus, because the corpus callosum is severed, the communication between the two halves comes about externally (on the paper).
Summary
Bringing the neuroscience down to the case study level helps students identify what certain areas do and is also quite engaging. Students want to explore these peoples lives and find it really rewarding to study these cases. To assess for learning, you could provide them with many case studies and they would have to hypothesize which area they think could be damaged based on the symptoms.