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Investigation 1: Concepts
Welcome to the Concepts section of Investigation 1.
As you explore these slides, discover how the human brain is organized and how different brain structures contribute to sensation, movement, memory, emotion, judgment, and behavior.
Before You Begin
These slides introduce the major structures of the brain and nervous system that you will investigate. As you work through them, look for evidence that different parts of the brain perform specialized functions while working together as an organized whole.
Think Like a Scientist
As you explore the slides in this Investigation, think carefully about the questions that follow each slide. Your teacher may ask some or all of these questions during class discussion. Don’t worry about finding the “right” answer immediately—observe carefully, think critically, and be prepared to explain your reasoning.
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HC-1-1 — Human Cognition: Investigation 1
Welcome to Investigation 1 of our Human Cognition unit. In this first investigation, we begin to explore one of the most remarkable systems in the natural world: the human brain.
Throughout this unit, we’ll examine how your brain takes in information, makes decisions, stores memories, and helps you become the person you are.
In this Investigation, we’ll focus on:
- The major structures of the human brain
- The functions of different brain regions
- How scientists discovered that different brain areas have specialized jobs
- The beginning of the Human Information Processing Model
We’ll also look at a fascinating historical case: Phineas Gage, whose injury provided some of the first convincing evidence that different parts of the brain perform different functions.
This investigation includes two hands-on lab activities:
- A brain dissection, where we’ll compare sheep and human brains
- A brain cap activity, to map the major lobes of the brain on your own head!
Throughout this unit, remember: every memory, every decision, every emotion, and every action begins with the brain.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Who was Phineas Gage, and why is he important in this unit?
Q3: What are the two lab activities we’ll be doing?
HC-1-2 – The Human Brain: Prenatal Development Overview
This slide brings together several important parts of human prenatal development. It shows fetal growth by trimester, stages of pregnancy, and the increasing chances of survival outside the womb as development progresses.
Notice that brain development begins very early. Neurological development starts during the first trimester and continues not only throughout pregnancy, but for many years after birth.
If you completed the Human Prenatal Development unit, you may recognize this slide. We are returning to it here because the brain you are studying in Human Cognition did not suddenly appear fully developed. Its development began before birth and provides the foundation for the abilities we will investigate throughout this unit—including learning, memory, language, emotions, and decision-making.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Why is this slide important in our study of the brain?
Q3: Why do you think we are reusing this slide from the Human Prenatal Development unit?
HC-1-3 – The Human Brain: Early Growth in Detail
This slide zooms in on the developing brain itself, showing dramatic changes in size and structure from just under a month after conception through birth.
At about five weeks, specialized brain regions begin to form, marking the beginning of complex neural organization. By about eight weeks, the developing brain is producing an astonishing 250,000 neurons per minute, showing just how intense prenatal brain growth can be.
Together with the previous overview slide, this image helps you see both the broad timeline of brain development and the extraordinary pace of neuron formation. If you completed the Human Prenatal Development unit, these details should connect with what you learned there and help prepare you to explore how early brain development supports later abilities such as learning, memory, language, emotions, and decision-making.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Why is this important for our study of the brain?
Q3: What does this tell us about the importance of the early stages of life?
HC-1-4 – Burlington Railroad: 1848
This photograph shows workers digging a railroad cut in Vermont in 1848. The construction site is part of the Burlington Railroad, one of the largest and most important railroads in the early United States.
You might be wondering—what does this have to do with the brain?
This is the railroad where Phineas Gage was working when a terrible accident changed both his life and our understanding of the brain. Gage was using explosives to clear rocks for the railroad when a metal rod was accidentally driven through his skull.
This photograph gives us important historical context. It helps us imagine the world Phineas lived in, the kind of work he did, and how dangerous his job really was.
We’ll return to Phineas Gage throughout this investigation because his accident provided one of the important early clues about the function of the frontal lobe.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Why is this railroad important in our study of the brain?
Q3: Why do you think scientists still talk about a railroad worker from 1848?
HC-1-5 – Phineas Gage
This is Phineas Gage, a 25-year-old railroad foreman who survived one of the most famous accidents in medical history.
While working with explosives, a long iron rod was blasted through his skull and brain, entering through his cheek and exiting through the top of his head. Amazingly, he survived—but afterward, people who knew him reported significant changes in his personality and behavior.
Before the accident, Gage was described as calm, responsible, and well-liked. Afterward, he was described as more impulsive, disrespectful, and unreliable. These changes attracted the attention of doctors and eventually scientists studying the brain.
At the time, scientists did not understand nearly as much as we do today about how different parts of the brain contribute to different functions. Gage’s case provided important evidence that the brain is not simply one organ performing one job. Different brain regions have specialized functions.
We’re still learning from Phineas Gage today. His story is a powerful example of how science can advance through careful observation of unexpected events.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Why was his case important to science?
Q3: What does this teach us about the brain?
HC-1-6 – Site of Brain Damage
This image shows a modern brain scan with a highlighted area—the frontal lobe, the region that was damaged in Phineas Gage’s accident.
The frontal lobe is located just behind your forehead. It plays important roles in personality, decision-making, problem-solving, and impulse control. After Gage’s injury, he survived and retained many abilities, but significant changes in his behavior and personality were reported.
Before Phineas Gage, scientists had only limited evidence that different parts of the brain performed different functions. His case became an important early piece of evidence supporting the idea that particular areas of the brain contribute to particular functions.
This idea—called localization of function—became one of the foundational principles of modern neuroscience.
Gage’s case is also a good example of how scientific understanding develops. His injury did not prove everything about how the brain works, but careful observations of what changed after the injury provided evidence that different brain regions have specialized functions.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: What happened to him after that part was damaged?
Q3: Why was this discovery important?
HC-1-7 – Frontal Lobe and Behavior
This diagram shows the major components of the brain. Importantly, it shows the location of the frontal lobe—the part of your brain that helps manage your thoughts, actions, and emotions. This is the region that was damaged in the case of Phineas Gage.
The frontal lobe is one example of localization of function. Scientists now know that it plays an important role in planning, decision-making, self-control, and other abilities known as Executive Functions.
When the frontal lobe is functioning normally, it helps you control impulses, organize your behavior, and think through decisions. Damage to this region can interfere with these abilities, as observations of Phineas Gage helped scientists begin to understand.
This slide demonstrates an important idea: the structure of the brain is directly connected to behavior. Different regions contribute to different aspects of how we think, feel, decide, and act.
You’ll explore Executive Functions in much greater depth later in the Human Cognition unit.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: What can happen if the frontal lobe is damaged?
Q3: Why are some abilities associated with the frontal lobe called “Executive Functions”?
HC-1-8 – Cerebral Lobe Functions
This diagram shows the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex: the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe. Each lobe contributes to different functions, although the regions of the brain work together as an integrated system.
The frontal lobe is involved in cognition, decision-making, control of behavior, and emotion. This is the same general region we discussed in connection with Phineas Gage.
The parietal lobe helps integrate information from the senses and contributes to spatial awareness—our ability to understand where parts of our body and objects around us are located.
The temporal lobe is involved in functions including hearing, memory, and emotions, while the occipital lobe is primarily responsible for processing visual information.
As you study these regions, remember an important principle from this investigation: different areas of the brain have specialized functions, but they work together as parts of one organized system.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: What are some of the functions associated with each lobe?
Q3: How does this diagram support the idea of localization of function?
HC-1-9 – Human Brain: Sulci and Gyri
Take a close look at this real human brain. You’ll notice that it isn’t smooth—it’s covered with ridges and grooves. These folds give the brain its familiar wrinkled appearance.
The raised ridges are called gyri (pronounced JY-rye).
The grooves between them are called sulci (pronounced SUL-sigh).
Why does your brain have all these folds? The folds greatly increase the brain’s surface area, allowing much more neural tissue—and many more neurons and connections—to fit within the limited space of your skull.
This is another example of an important relationship in biology: structure supports function. The brain’s folded structure allows an enormous amount of information-processing tissue to fit into a relatively compact space.
Even though the brain must fit inside your skull, its folded surface helps provide the complexity and capacity needed for thought, memory, emotion, movement, and many other functions.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Why is the brain wrinkled?
Q3: What is the advantage of having all those folds?
HC-1-10 – Investigation 1 Lab: Brain Dissection
In this lab, you’ll get an up-close look at the real anatomy of the brain by examining a preserved sheep brain. You’ll also compare it with a model of the human brain so you can connect what you see in the specimen with what you’ve learned in class.
The sheep brain is smaller than the human brain, but many of its major structures are similar. You’ll identify important regions such as the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem.
You’ll also use two important anatomical terms: ventral, meaning the bottom or underside, and dorsal, meaning the top or backside. These terms help scientists describe orientation and location in brain anatomy.
This investigation gives you a rare opportunity to examine the anatomy of a real brain. Observe carefully, compare the specimen with the human brain model, use correct anatomical vocabulary, and handle the specimen respectfully throughout the lab.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: Why are we using a sheep brain instead of a human one?
Q3: What do “ventral” and “dorsal” mean?
HC-1-11 – Brain Cap Activity
In this activity, you’ll be labeling and mapping the major parts of the brain—on your own head!
Using a flexible “brain cap,” you’ll identify where the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe are located on your skull. You’ll also mark important areas such as the motor cortex and sensory cortex.
Why do this? Because it helps connect brain structure to your own experience. As you map these regions, you’ll begin to recognize which parts of your brain are involved in activities such as speaking, seeing, moving your hands, solving problems, and much more.
As you work, touch or point to the different regions on your brain cap and think about the functions associated with each one. Making this physical connection can help you remember both the structure of the brain and the principle of localization of function—the idea that different regions of the brain have specialized functions.
Discussion Questions:
Q2: What is the purpose of mapping brain regions on our own heads?
Q3: What are some of the brain regions we’ll label during this activity?