Functions of the Brain

1236 Words3 Pages

1. Prozac is an anti-depressant medication prescribed to treat people who have depression. One way to test and see whether Prozac is an effective drug to use for depression is to start an experiment. The first step in the experiment is to break the test subjects into random assigned two groups, one group is the control group, and the other group is the experimental group. The second step in the experiment is to give the control group the placebo, without informing them whether it is a placebo or the anti-depressant, thus keeping them blind, and the experimental group the Prozac, without informing them whether it is the anti-depressant or the placebo, which also keeps the experimental group blind. The independent variable in this case is the Prozac, while the dependent variable is asking and checking each group, the control and the experimental group, to see which one is doing better or feeling less depressed. 2. Correlational studies are a type of research in which the relationship between the two variables, independent and dependent, is studied without performing experimental manipulation of the independent variable. The reason Scientists can’t test lead poisoning on people or animals because it is inhumane, therefore, they find people already exposed to lead poisoning, and do research from there, which is called, “natural experiment,” where something already occurred by chance, or naturally, in the world outside the laboratory. Another example of natural experiment would be the West Nile virus, or exposure to Mercury, or Hg as an element, and the symptoms that occur from it. The potential drawbacks of correlational studies are the difficulty of comparing two groups that were not randomly assigned. Therefore making it diffic... ... middle of paper ... ...the motor cortex contains an upside map of our body represented as a homunculus, which it controls the motor movements of our body. Keep in mind that the left brain hemisphere and the right brain hemisphere do apply to the motor movement of our bodies, left hemisphere controlling the right part of our bodies and the right hemisphere controlling the left part of our bodies. The major functions of the frontal lobe include, motor movement, producing speech, and creating abstract thoughts. The parietal lobe, located in the rear of each frontal lobe, controls the sensations of touch, body position, and understanding speech. The temporal lobe, located at the lower side of each cerebral hemisphere, controls the hearing, smelling, and the recognition of faces. The occipital lobe, located at the back of the brain, controls what we see with our eyes, or in short, our vision.

Open Document