Course: Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basics

Dr Nick Hawes discusses the value of applying what we know about the brain in the areas of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Professor Russell Beale explains how knowledge of the human brain can impact on developments in computer science.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a disorder that someone is born with yet they often don’t experience symptoms until well into adulthood. It occurs when an individual has a mutated form …

The two previous case studies have focussed on two conditions where a single cause has been identified, namely glial pathology and a mutant gene. However, for many brain disorders research …

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that affects the central nervous system. It is relatively rare with about 120,000 in the whole of the UK having a diagnosis. The symptoms …

Professor Michael Zev Gordon discusses how studying the workings of the brain can give insight into the creative and emotional impact of music. In Step 3.4 we considered what we …

Up until now we have mostly been considering the function of the so-called normal human brain, with the occasional example of where we might consider the brain to be dysfunctioning, …

We have explored the concept that functions may be localised and have looked at examples for some of the sensory functions that the brain performs. Of course, we don’t just …

Understanding and use of complex language is often considered to be one of the defining features of humans. It is, therefore, unsurprising that there has been a considerable research effort …

In Week 1 we looked at lobes and started to attribute certain functions to brain areas. For areas of the brain that process sensory information, we have now been able …

An explanation of how chemical neurotransmitters can affect cell function at the synapse, focusing on processes in the synaptic cleft and post-synaptic cell.

Clinical depression is a well-recognised human condition with a characteristic set of symptoms. There are a number of therapeutic approaches which can be considered; the choice of which is used …

The recognition that the brain is not “hard-wired” but that there is a highly dynamic process of synaptic remodelling going on throughout life is functionally very important. In Week 1 …

An explanation of how chemical neurotransmitters can affect cell function at the synapse, focusing on processes in the pre-synaptic terminal.

A brief look at the informational input and output processes of a neurone.