The Triune Brain

The TOEFL often features talks with a science theme so today I decided to find one that is also an IELTS Academic theme (in the reading section) because listening to an explanation can often help to explain a Reading exercise that's based on the same subject. Please note, I am not a Psychologist so this is new to me too and only intended as a practice listening!

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

This video explains the Triune Brain and gives you the opportunity to learn some very specific vocabulary which is listed below.

The questions are under the video. Read the questions then watch and take notes. See if you can answer some questions without listening again.

1. What will the Triune Brain Theory most likely explain? 
2. What do we have high and low levels of when we feel "hijacked"?
3. What is the front part of the brain called?
4. What is its purpose?
5. What is the blue part of the brain called?
6. What is controlled by this part?
7. What is the red part associated with?
8. Do they share the same blood supply,
9. What does a SPEC scan show us?
10. What happens to the blood flow when we are faced with adversity and what is the corresponding change to our behaviour?
11. He talks about seeing a tiger footprint in the jungle. What were the two speeds mentioned in reference to the brain?
12. Give another term for the yellow, blue and red parts of the brain (the 4 F's is a not quite as it seems!)
13. What happens to the social inhibitions part of the brain when we get emotional?

In other videos, the red part of the brain is called the Reptillian part and is considered to be the oldest part of the brain.

This information is used by therapists to help people manage their reacions to situations and stress. It could be useful to know in an exam!

NEW VOCABULARY

Triune
Adversity
Freeze
Neocortex
Limbic
Cortisol
Oxytocin
Injection
Wisdom

ANSWERS

1. What will the Triune Brain Theory most likely explain? Our reaction to stress and adversity.
2. What do we have high and low levels of when we feel "hijacked"? High levels of cortisol and adrenalin, low levels of oxytocin.
3. What is the front part of the brain called? The Neocortex
4. What is its purpose? It is for rational, creative, analytic, linguistic thought and for deciding between socially appropriate or inappropriate behaviours.
5. What is the blue part of the brain called? The Limbic part
6. What is controlled by this part? Emotions
7. What is the red part associated with? Fight or flight and reproduction
8. Do they share the same blood supply, No, there are 3 blood supplies.
9. What does a specscan show us? It shows the way our brains process situations  by monitoring blood flow and producing a "movie" of the patterns.
10. What happens to the blood flow when we are faced with adversity and what is the corresponding change to our behaviour? The blood flow is reduced in the Neocortex and increased in the Limbic and back part.
11. He talks about seeing a tiger footprint in the jungle. What were the two speeds mentioned in reference to the brain? The Neocortex works slowly at 1.3 seconds and the other part works at 0.09 seconds.
12. Give another term for the yellow, blue and red parts of the brain (the 4 F's is a not quite as it seems!) Yellow = intelligence, Blue = wisdom, Red is the 4 F's - fight, flight, freeze and....Reproduction 
13. What happens to the social inhibitions part of the brain when we get emotional? It shuts down and we lose an understanding of time.

Supermassive Black Holes

Supermassive Black Holes

A You-Tube video from Newsy

Level B1+

This latest post is a long time coming! No reason except other distractions kept me away from blogger!

While I have your attention, if anyone notices any links missing in previous posts, then send me a message via the message box at the end of the post that has the problem - thank you!

Supermassive black holes.....you may know the song by Muse with the same title - sorry, I'm not posting about that today but instead, listen to a very short, pretty easy, clip about supermassive black holes. 

The questions are below:

1.What size can supermassive black holes reach?

2. What is the rate at which a normal black hole grows?

3. Why is it impossible for supermassive black holes to have grown at the same rate as normal black holes?

4. How are normal black holes made?

5. What may have helped supermassive black holes form and how?

6. What is being built for us to find the oldest light in the universe?

The mystery of Supermassive Black Holes

Scroll down for the answers.


That's all for today, but if you want to listen to a TOEFL talking exercise on Black Holes which is much more challenging, here is a link:

TOEFL Black Holes Talk

This talk is difficult due to the vocabulary used. Here is a list of some of the words you should know before listening:
nuclear fusion reactor
core
mass
upper-hand
implodes
stellar material
supernova
dense
singularity and event horizon
perimeter
radius
squared
lens
prism

Answers to The mystery of Supermassive Black Holes

1.  Supermassive black holes can reach masses of more than ten billion times that of our sun.
2. Normal black holes grow at a certain rate, usually taking a million years or more to reach a substantial size.

3. Black holes were already around about a billion years after the Big Bang which is not enough time for them to reach their enormous sizes at anything like the normal rate.

4. Normally, gas clouds collapse into stars which collapse into black holes.

5. Powerful forces like supersonic streams of gas and dark matter kept the clouds from collapsing, so they grew larger until their gravity became powerful enough to overcome those obstacles, jumpstarting an enormous blackhole seed that’s bigger than any new black hole today.

6. Ground and space-based telescopes are being built to enable us to see the oldest light in the universe.