Putting our Brains Together :)

For A&P my classmate Ashley and I, along with the rest of the class dissected a sheep's brain. We started off by cutting off all the bone and skin attached to the brain. The smell was horrible I might add, and if it wasn't for the smell I might have not been so nauseated :) Anyways, my partner, Ashley, thankfully that day couldn't really smell due to sinus problems so she handled most of it. She cut the brain sagittally and when we opened it my curiosity only grew from then on. We nipped away at little parts trying to figure out which part of the brain was which using a website that Mr. Ludwig showed us. You can find it at http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio201/brain/brshpx.htm

The most noticeable part of our brain that we could make out was the cerebellum. You can tell by one of the pictures that Ashley is holding up in one of the photos above. We also could pin point the medulla, spinal cord, pons, Occipital, parietal and frontal lobe. The rest we figured out from the website :)

All and all seeing a brain for myself, in a such a upfront way showed me a lot. I think its amazing how one little organ like that controls your whole entire body. Crazy how whenever that sheep was alive his/ her body sent electrical waves or whatever it is through it. To think I had the brain that contained an animals whole way of living right in my palm was kind of cool. Seeing all the different parts of the brain was really cool and I'm glad we did this lab. I just hope our next one doesn't quite as much smell as bad :)

Leech Neurophysiology Lab

Purpose/ Hypothesis: 

For this lab, my hypothesis is that each cell will all respond differently. Each will show that each cells is responsible for collecting touch information from the skin of the leech to its brain.

Materials: 

Feather, Probe, Forceps, Scissors, Pins, Scalpel, Dissection Tray, Leech Tank, 20% Ethanol, Leech Tongs, Dissection Microscope, Micromanipular, Oscilloscope, Leech

Procedure: 

1. Anesthetize and dissect the leech
2. Remove leech innards and observe ganglion
3. Cut out the ganglion window
4. Isolate one ganglion
5. Cut the ganglion sinus
6. Probe and identify ganglion sensory cells

Results: 

After repeating the experiment a couple of times it was shown that the cells did in fact respond differently. There were cell types: N, T, P, R and X. Each cell either reacted differently to the feather, probe and forceps or had no stimuli at all. The results for the Dyed Cell pointed out which cell type they were.

Conclusion:

The cells all responded differently. After testing all the possible results they each showed that cells are indeed responsible for collecting touch information from the skin of the leech to its brain. By each reacting to the different objects with alternative stimuli they show that not every cells corresponds and does what one another does. This only proves the previous hypothesis stated from the beginning. 

Chewing Lab

Hypothesis:
Our hypothesis was that when Sarah and Maria ate sour skittles, we would see a noticeable difference in their mV per second. We also predicted that when they ate chocolate, boklava, and gum their amount of mV per seconds would be very similar. We thought these things because Maria usually eats more sour things, while Sarah prefers sweets. We knew the sweet items wouldn’t cause a great change in mV per second because sweets don’t cause the jaw to clench up as sour or bitter tastes would. Because Maria is used to eating sour food and Sarah is not, we predicted that Sarah’s mV per second jump compared to Maria’s.

Materials:

1. Lab Pro
2. Electro -Tabs
3. Food Types
1. Sour Skittles
2. Baklava
3. Chocolate
4. Gum

Experiment:
First we placed the electro tabs on the upper and lower portion jaw and arm. Then we recorded the mV the resting period for five seconds, then the clenching period for five seconds, for a total of 30 seconds. After recording this we, we add food to the process. First we recorded a ten second resting period, then had Sarah and Maria put skittles in their mouth then chewed for 20 seconds. We repeated these steps with chocolate, baklava and gum. We then recorded our data and graphed it.

Results:
The results we found after doing out experiment showed when Sarah ate sour skittles, her m/v per second was really high. Yet, when Maria had ate the same skittles, her jaw was normal. We decided that this was due to Maria being so used to eating sour food, where Sarah was not. After Sarah and Maria ate the sweets, we noticed Sarah’s mV per second was a bit lower than Maria’s. We also found that with our last material, gum, Sarah’s and Maria’s mV were very alike, and continual pattern.This was because Sarah and Maria chewed there gum at a consistent pace.

	Sarah Resting	Sarah Clenching	Maria Resting	Maria Clenching
Min:	.9133	.7485	.9328	.9145
Max:	1.132	1.537	1.115	1.147
Difference	.2187	.7885	.1822	.2325

SKITTLES	Sarah Resting	Sarah Chewing	Maria Resting	Maria Chewing
Min:	.6862	.6862	.9084	.7814
Max:	1.465	1.867	1.132	1.391
Diff:	.7788	1.1808	.2236	.6096

CHOCOLATE	Sarah Resting	Sarah Chewing	Maria Resting	Maria Chewing
Max:	1.216	1.397	1.131	1.477
Min:	.8962	.8535	.9267	.8230
Diff:	.3198	.5435	.2043	.652

BAKLAVA	Sarah Resting	Sarah Chewing	Maria Resting	Maria Chewing
Max:	1.277	1.507	1.205	1.357
Min:	.8510	.8230	.9499	.8400
Diff:	.426	.684	.1861	.517

GUM	Sarah Resting	Sarah Chewing	Maria Resting	Maria Chewing
Max:	1.225	1.234	1.136	1.357
Min:	.8400	.8120	.9499	.8400
Diff:	.385	.422	.1861	.517