In psychology we have an assignment to write three reports on things we have studied over the week. The professor gives us three questions related to different topics discussed and we choose one of those questions to report on. It has been quite a while since I last wrote a paper and I am not real confident that this paper is going to do well at all. I may have taken too much of a creative approach to the document instead of a scientific or critical thinking one. Anyway, I don't have Microsoft Office/Word or whatever on this computer so I used the basic word processor. All was good until I found it does not have any sort of spell checking function. In a pinch I copied and pasted the document right here on the blog and went through and corrected some spelling. It was a bit of a process but I feel good knowing I fixed some of my spelling issues. Anyhow, I had it on here and it saved as a draft when I finished earlier today. I saw that draft saved on here and decided I would tell this little bit about it and then just post it up. Hope it reads well.
Functions of the Brain
The brain is a fascinating thing and the lectures and readings on brain function this week were enlightening and instructive. Walking, making sandwiches and folding laundry are tasks that I perform on a regular basis and will take a closer look at how brain function is involved in each.
Walking is usually a simple task. From my home each morning I walk my kids to school and then continue on my way to school. It is a simple task for the most part but sometimes it takes a little extra effort to keep my youngest son moving. Some days he lacks the desire to attend school and would much rather stay at home so our walk consists of additional brain function that includes listening and motivational speaking.
Walking itself is a function of the hypothalamus which is part of the limbic system. I am constantly looking at where I am going which is a function of the occipital lobe. We cross a street that can sometimes encounter cars driving past. For the most part my kids pay attention but sometimes they walk out in the road without looking. When I was a child I had a few experiences where friends got hit by cars. My hippocampus has stored these memories and my amygdala can quickly recall those fear memories and my responses when I have to quickly stop my kids from entering the street.
As we head towards the school my son Andy often complains of one thing or another. It could be that his foot hurts so he can't walk quickly or it is that nobody wants to be his friend. Sometimes it is that he is too cold and doesn't want to walk. Whatever it is my temporal lobes are on the job as I listen to his concerns. My frontal lobe has to be on the ball as it takes some quick thinking to keep this boy moving forward. Planning, personality, complex decision making, the proper language and or actions come into play. Hopefully it all comes together just right and we make it through the process. Some days are easier than others. Who knew walking could be so eventful?
My family and I own a restaurant in Cedar City. We have a lot of fun with it and enjoy making sandwiches. We opened it up a few years ago and have added a number of different sandwiches to the menu over time. Simply throwing a sandwich on the menu doesn't happen. There is a process that must be followed in order to ensure we are putting out a great product that is different from what everybody else is doing. It has to not only taste good but it has to look good and we have to figure out how to make it efficiently.
A few months after we opened I was picking up pizza for my kids. In doing so I drove by a competitors restaurant and noticed a sign out front that claimed they had the best grilled Reuben sandwich. I am a big fan of a Reuben sandwich but we didn't have one on the menu. It was time to start making a sandwich. A finely tuned parietal lobe and is necessary when creating the perfect grilled Reuben sandwich. Touch, temperature and taste definitely come in to play.
I call it The Ruby. A traditional Reuben sandwich comes on rye with Russian dressing, corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut. Truly a fantastic combination. The Ruby is a little different. The competitor said best grilled Reuben so I started on the grill with our marble rye bread. This has to be done right so as to have the right feel. There are a lot of juices in the sandwich and having it all soggy is not what anyone wants to touch. Grilling the bread has to be done just right and we grill the inside first then begin grilling the outside. I didn't have corned beef in the restaurant and didn't want to bring in an additional item so I opted for pastrami and then added a little salami to further enhance the taste. Both meats were heated to the appropriate temperature before putting them on the sandwich. When the bread is ready I top it with thousand island dressing, then stack Swiss and provolone cheeses. On top the cheese I add the pastrami and salami and then top that with sauerkraut. I close up the sandwich with the other slice of marble rye and leave it on the grill until the cheese is melting and the juices are coming together and the temperature is just right.
The parietal lobe plays a big role in the entire experience. The occipital lobe is key as the sandwich has to look good and I have to see what I am doing. Certainly the motor cortex in the frontal lobes are vital to making it all come together. Finally the temporal lobes are key. I have to listen to the customers. If they don't like the sandwich then we have a problem. Fortunately we hit a home run with the Ruby. I never really thought about brain function in creating this sandwich but it all came into play. The first one I made and the one that made the menu were not the same sandwich. It took some refining and testing and certainly tasting before it was just right.
I am a single father of three. Taking care of my family takes a significant amount of time. I also have a business to run and I just started going back to school after 15 years. Life is busy. It was plenty busy before this semester and now it is even busier. There are a few things that never seem to stop and the laundry is one of them. Laundry takes time. I'm not certain that laundry isn't controlled by involuntary movement because I don't know that I always want to volunteer to do it. Nevertheless it must be done and for me it often involves folding clothes at 2 in the morning. Certainly I would much rather be asleep but I have to involve all the areas of my brain in order to complete the task. The frontal lobes for motor function, the parietal lobes to check the temperature of the clothes and know they are actually dry, the occipital lobes and temporal lobes because I have to see what I am folding and then have to process that visual information and put the folded clothes in the appropriate pile. That and I am usually watching a movie or a show to help keep myself entertained whilst completing the unfavorable task. Yep, it requires all of my brain to do it.
The brain is quite amazing and the ways in which it all works together are definitely fascinating. I certainly have not entertained the many functions of the brain that are all working together in order to accomplish even the simplest tasks and appreciate more fully how it works after learning a bit more about it this week.
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