Gorman, James. "The Brain, in Exquisite Detail." The New York Times. The New York Times, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/science/the-brain-in-exquisite-detail.html?rref=science&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Science&pgtype=article>.
Deanna
Barch is a researcher at Washington University and she is trying to create a
detailed, and interactive model of the human brain. She and a number of other scientists are
performing MRI brain scans and many other assessments through cognitive,
physical, psychological and a number of other tests on the 1,200 volunteers. The tests are designed to try to activate
every part of the brain, and also to check for physical fitness and emotional
states. On a database called Workbench
over the data of over 238 subjects has been released. They call it the Human Connectome
Project. The brains are put in these databases
for neurosurgeons and doctors to use as a reference. They will be able to see extremely detailed
pictures (detail to one and a half cubic millimeters) of all different types of
brains. This project is one of many new
attempts at studying and trying to understand the mysteries of the brain. Recently there has been a major push on
neuroscience due to a large amount of government funding. This has caused amazing advances in the
technology used to understand the brain, and what we know about the brain.
This
experiment is going to be very beneficial to the world of neuroscience and will
be able to help doctors cure many people.
There are many diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease that
cause many serious problems and usually end up causing death. Hopefully this database can be used to help
find out why and where that happens, and what we can do to stop it. This has already helped many psychiatrists
because some of the tests were able to lead to discoveries about depression and
what is happening in the brain to cause that feeling. This database is a way for scientists to
truly see the human brain but not just one, over a thousand different, healthy
brains.
I thought that this article was very well written, and
thorough in describing the entire experiment.
It was very helpful to have multiple specific examples of how this
research has and will help the world.
One thing that I particularly liked was the background of Dr. Barch and
her commentary on everything. It made it
that much more credible and interesting.
There was a more personal connection.
One thing that I feel would have made this article better was if they
removed some of the unnecessary information about funding and who or where it
was from. It just separated the
interesting sections about the experiment and made the article more drawn
out.
Jason's article was very interesting and informative. I thought that he did a good job explaining this new project and what its uses were. It was also very detailed in explaining why and how this new technology is going to be used and the benefits of it. I also think that his critique of the author showed a lot about the original article and that he understood what information was necessary or unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteThis review could be better in a few ways. I think that Jason could've given a little bit more background on how this project is being developed and who is making it all happen. Also, I think that he could have mentioned how the tests were used to create the interactive model.
I didn't even know that this project was happening and it was cool to learn that people are wanting to discover more about the brain.
I thought that this review was very well done, describing the experiment in detail, and overall including lots of information. I thought you did a very good job on telling how the interactive model will be constructed based on the scans taken of the volunteers, and the purpose of this whole experiment. I also thought you did a good job making a connection to how it can help us today. Diseases like Alzheimer’s are quite common and many people suffer from it, so if a cure could be discovered that could help many people. You talked not only about finding a cure but also looking into what the brain is doing and why. Finally, I liked your detailed critique. It gives a better idea of whether the article was good or not and tings that the article was lacking or things that were done well. Detailed critiques help other people as writers as well when something bad is told or something good is brought up.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to know how people got chosen to be eligible to have their MRI and what a “healthy brain” would be considered. I think you could have been a little clearer on this. Also, I thought you could have expanded upon how these scans can help neurosurgeons since they are always looking at scans of the brain, healthy or not. How would these particular scan help tie into their research? Other than a little more clarity, I thought this was very well done.
I didn’t know that this technology is being invented, and I find it amazing. It will be very useful to test out dangerous surgeries on the interactive model to see if they are successful. I think the volunteers are very generous to be giving their time to benefit others!
Jason did a very good job on this review. One thing that he did very well was that he clearly described what this project or experiment was about. He clearly stated what the people were doing, why this project is going to be helpful and what the project is called, which helped the reader understand the article better and also the experiment. I also liked how he told us how this project and what we are going to find out with this project is going to help the world. I liked how he gave a very detailed critique to the author. It helps the reader understand what he liked about this article, and what he may want to change, so that he could understand the article better, and we could to.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Jason’s review was really good, I think that he could do some things differently. One thing what I think he could differently is that he could have given some quotes on what scientists may have been saying, and what their view on this topic is. Maybe when reading what scientists have to say, it will help us understand a bit more about the topic. One more thing would be to maybe go into more detail on how these projects can help neurosurgeons.
Overall, I think that this review was very good. I found it very interesting how these projects will be very beneficial to neuroscience.
Jason did a great job writing his review. He fully explained the project in detail, which made the review interesting. He also made a great point on how this project is benefiting lots of different people. Finally, he helped the reader understand how important this research really is to finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think Jason could have done better was connect this project to other research being done about the brain or what we already know about the brain. It would have been interesting to know specifically what advances this project has made. Finally, I wished that Jason could have better explained the interactive model.
Overall, Jason did an excellent job and I learned a lot about what kind of research is being done to improve our knowledge of the brain.
I think Jason wrote a great review of the article. He gave us a great summary of what the article was about, and gave us lots of detail as well. He explained who it will benefit and how it can help them, it was a good explanation. And i enjoyed reading his opinion on the article, and what he thought about it.
ReplyDeleteI think Jason could have maybe quoted scientists or paraphrased a good statement that they said in the article. And i also this he could have talked more about who this will benefit.
I am happy i chose Jason's review to read. He gave us lots of information about this topic and as an overall gave us a good review to read. I have now learnt something new.
Jason did a great job summarizing this article. He described the experiment very well and included lots of information. I like how you talked about the diseases this project could be beneficial to such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Jason's critique to the author of the article was very well detailed too.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this was a great review, he could have done a couple things to make it even better. First he could have explained more about the back round of this project and how it is going to work. Another thing he could have done is given opinions of the scientists behind this. Other than that his summary was very interesting and informative.
I enjoyed reading Jason's review of the article "The Brain, In Exquisite Detail" By James Gorman. I did not know about this new technology and find it very interesting. Jason did a great job.