Exam Preparation B2 C1 Lesson 11: The Brain

B2/C1 Exam Preparation Course Lesson 11: The Brain

ADDICTION

A wide range of people can easily become addicted, despite their moral values, intelligence or degrees. As addiction takes advantage of brain capabilities, which are critical to learning and survival, the onset of this chronic disease is clearly an equal opportunity condition. Therefore, it should be looked at more as a health issue, rather than a social one, resulting in shame and guilt.
Addictions are serious chronic brain diseases, which have biological, psychological and social implications. They are powerful because they employ neurological processes required for learning and survival. However, they use these vital systems in a way that threatens the addicts health, relationships, and they often end in criminal prosecution, and even jail time.
So to understand and treat this problem, both the patient and the counsellor must know how abuse is encoded, triggered and reinforced.
Learning can be divided into short term and long term, with each using very different and distinct parts of the brain. Short term memory is stored in the Hippocampus, which specialises in briefly recording what is detected by your senses. This, in turn, triggers a pleasure or fear reaction in the nearby Amygdala, which is the brain’s emotional center.
Eventually, the short term memories are stored in other areas of the brain as long term memories. It is here that previous experiences are integrated with these new memories. For instance, once you have enjoyed your favourite dessert, during which your reaction to taste was associated with a particular smell, the next time you smell the same aroma the original short term reaction will again be relived. This mean, that again, the amygdala will trigger the emotional centres of our brain to react. It appears that triggering the amygdala is associated with both short term and long term memories.
In order to understand the relationship between addiction and the brain you must realise that repeated behaviour will alter how the brain functions and is structured. The repeated use of an addictive substance will cause the associated brain cells in those networks to multiply. This mean that your brains ability to replay the reward response to the addictive substance in the future will grow stronger and stronger.
Additions are a chronic brain disease and normally warrant professional help. However, treatment should recognise the role of the learning and reward system and seek to reprogram these natural systems in a way that the underlying trained reaction to the addictive substance, whether drugs or alcohol, produces an alternate result.

The Human Brain Online: An Open Resource for Advancing Brain Research

Sara Ball, Terri L. Gilbert, Caroline C. Overly

Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
With an estimated 86 billion neurones and about a trillion synapses per cubic centimeter of cortex, the human brain is arguably the most complex system in the human body, and it is the seat of diseases and disorders that affect an estimated one billion people worldwide. Yet the human brain remains poorly understood. Model systems are essential to progress in neuroscience, but a true understanding of the human brain and the diseases and disorders that affect it ultimately requires analyses of the human brain itself. Human brain tissue is a rare commodity and therefore inadequately explored. Published studies point to the scarcity of high-quality postmortem human brain tissue, particularly disease-free control brains; the largest brain bank in the United States reported last year that only 40–50 control brains become available each year. Further hindrance lies in the fragmented nature of data from studies with human brain tissue. Brain banks typically subdivide the brain into small blocks to distribute among a variety of researchers, thus precluding holistic analyses, and data derived from such studies are focused on diverse and often nonparallel hypotheses and experimental approaches.
Here we describe an open online resource, the Allen Human Brain Atlas, which puts comprehensive, standardized data from multiple entire human brains into the hands of the global research community, along with tools for mining and making sense of that data. This resource opens new avenues for advancing research programs across disciplines that share an interest in the human brain—from neuroscience research programs based on functional MRI (fMRI) or neuropharmacology, for example, to comparative evolutionary studies and human genetics. The Allen Human Brain Atlas is a multimodal atlas of gene expression and anatomy comprising a comprehensive “all genes, all structures” array-based dataset of gene expression and complementary in situ hybridization (ISH) studies targeting selected genes in specific brain regions. All data is publicly available online along with a suite of integrated data visualization and mining tools that enable scientists to uncover connections between structure, function, and the brain’s underlying biochemistry.
In developing the earlier Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, a genome-wide, high-resolution atlas of gene expression throughout the adult mouse brain, the Allen Institute for Brain Science created the infrastructure to handle high-throughput ISH, microscopy, and data processing. This expertise enabled the Allen Institute to tackle high-throughput processing of human tissue and to systematically create an atlas of spatially mapped gene expression in the human brain. In addition to decisions concerning level of resolution and project scope, a major challenge was to define processes for systematic dismantling and sequential partitioning of the brain to enable gathering multiple types of data from a single brain and allow reassembly of this data into a unified 3-D framework. From initial tissue procurement and processing at the front end to data integration at the other end, a number of new methods were developed to deal specifically with human tissue in this high-throughput setting. After tissue procurement—which involves obtaining consent, tissue dissection, MRI, and diffusion tensor (DTI) imaging, slabbing, and freezing of the tissue all within a very short window of time—rigorous steps are taken for sample inclusion, such as assessment of tissue/RNA quality, gross and microneuropathology, toxicology, and medical history research. New workflows allowed for sampling of specific anatomic regions for microarray analysis and mapping those locations back into the 3-D brain space determined by the MRI. Detailed descriptions of scientific and informatics methods are available in the white-papers under the Documentation tab of the online atlas.
(SOURCE: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001453)

The Human Brain Online: An Open Resource for Advancing Brain Research

Sara Ball, Terri L. Gilbert, Caroline C. Overly

Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

With an estimated 86 billion neurones and about a trillion synapses per cubic centimeter of cortex, the human brain is arguably the most complex system in the human body, and it is the seat of diseases and disorders that affect an estimated one billion people worldwide. Yet the human brain remains poorly understood. Model systems are essential to progress in neuroscience, but a true understanding of the human brain and the diseases and disorders that affect it ultimately requires analyses of the human brain itself. Human brain tissue is a rare commodity and therefore inadequately explored. Published studies point to the scarcity of high-quality postmortem human brain tissue, particularly disease-free control brains; the largest brain bank in the United States reported last year that only 40–50 control brains become available each year. Further hindrance lies in the fragmented nature of data from studies with human brain tissue. Brain banks typically subdivide the brain into small blocks to distribute among a variety of researchers, thus precluding holistic analyses, and data derived from such studies are focused on diverse and often nonparallel hypotheses and experimental approaches.

Here we describe an open online resource, the Allen Human Brain Atlas, which puts comprehensive, standardized data from multiple entire human brains into the hands of the global research community, along with tools for mining and making sense of that data. This resource opens new avenues for advancing research programs across disciplines that share an interest in the human brain—from neuroscience research programs based on functional MRI (fMRI) or neuropharmacology, for example, to comparative evolutionary studies and human genetics. The Allen Human Brain Atlas is a multimodal atlas of gene expression and anatomy comprising a comprehensive “all genes, all structures” array-based dataset of gene expression and complementary in situ hybridization (ISH) studies targeting selected genes in specific brain regions. All data is publicly available online along with a suite of integrated data visualization and mining tools that enable scientists to uncover connections between structure, function, and the brain’s underlying biochemistry.

In developing the earlier Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, a genome-wide, high-resolution atlas of gene expression throughout the adult mouse brain, the Allen Institute for Brain Science created the infrastructure to handle high-throughput ISH, microscopy, and data processing. This expertise enabled the Allen Institute to tackle high-throughput processing of human tissue and to systematically create an atlas of spatially mapped gene expression in the human brain. In addition to decisions concerning level of resolution and project scope, a major challenge was to define processes for systematic dismantling and sequential partitioning of the brain to enable gathering multiple types of data from a single brain and allow reassembly of this data into a unified 3-D framework. From initial tissue procurement and processing at the front end to data integration at the other end, a number of new methods were developed to deal specifically with human tissue in this high-throughput setting. After tissue procurement—which involves obtaining consent, tissue dissection, MRI, and diffusion tensor (DTI) imaging, slabbing, and freezing of the tissue all within a very short window of time—rigorous steps are taken for sample inclusion, such as assessment of tissue/RNA quality, gross and microneuropathology, toxicology, and medical history research. New workflows allowed for sampling of specific anatomic regions for microarray analysis and mapping those locations back into the 3-D brain space determined by the MRI. Detailed descriptions of scientific and informatics methods are available in the white-papers under the Documentation tab of the online atlas.

(SOURCE: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001453) 

WRITING SKILLS

You can either:
* Complete 2 writing assignments. You have 40 minutes if you wish to complete one now. The 2nd assignment you can complete at home.
* You can also watch our Grammar VIDEO tutorials during the next 40 minutes if you prefer to complete the Writing at home.

For IELTS (Academic format), please select the ESSAY topic (250 words: in 40 minutes. Counts for 2/3 of the Writing score) and GRAPH DESCRIPTION (150 words: in 20 minutes. Counts for 1/3 of the Writing score). You will have 1h to complete both tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay about learning through repetition and changes to the brain during this process.
* GRAPH DESCRIPTION:
Left and right brain functions: “This picture demonstrates the lateralization of the human brain, which is divided into two hemispheres. The left brain controls functions that have to do with logic and reason, while the right brain controls functions involving creativity and emotion.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cerebral_lobes.png)
. Summarise the  information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

For IELTS (General format), please select the ESSAY topic (250 words) and LETTER (150 words). You will have 1h to complete both tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay about learning through repetition and changes to the brain during this process.
* LETTER:  Aspartame is believed to have a damaging affect on the brain. Write a letter to a soft drinks company asking them to remove it from their products .

For FCE, please select 2 of the following: ESSAY, LETTER/EMAIL, REPORT, or REVIEW. You will have 1h20 to complete the tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay about learning through repetition and changes to the brain during this process.
* LETTER: Aspartame is believed to have a damaging affect on the brain. Write a letter to a soft drinks company asking them to remove it from their products.
* REVIEW: You have just read an article about new nanotechnology that can help improve memory. Write a review on the benefits it could have for people of various ailments. i.e. Parkinson’s Disease.
* REPORT: Write a report on the influence various drugs (including coffee and alcohol) can have on the brain and memory.

For CAE, please select 2 of the following: ESSAY, LETTER/EMAIL, PROPOSAL, REPORT, or REVIEW. You will have 1h30 to complete the tasks on the day of the exam.
* ESSAY: Write an essay about learning through repetition and changes to the brain during this process.
* LETTER: Aspartame is believed to have a damaging affect on the brain. Write a letter to a soft drinks company asking them to remove it from their products.
* REVIEW: You have just read an article about new nanotechnology that can help improve memory. Write a review on the benefits it could have for people of various ailments. i.e. Parkinson’s Disease.
* PROPOSAL: Write a proposal for a curriculum to help people learn how to learn. Include activities that you perceive to be beneficial to the process.
* REPORT: Write a report on the influence various drugs (including coffee and alcohol) can have on the brain and memory.

For TOEFL, please select the ESSAY topic and write a second essay response based on either the READING or LISTENING passage of the lesson. You will have 50 minutes to complete both essays on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay about learning through repetition and changes to the brain during this process.
* ESSAY: Essay response based on either the reading or listening passage of today’s lesson (The Brain): Based on the listening, from a psychological point of view, why do you think people become addicted to various substances?