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Opening Music - Brain Power! Talk about your fine machine.
Brain Power! Makes you thoroughly unique.
With the power to think you can learn anything. Brain Power!
One hundred billion neurons. Hey! You've got a lot of nerve.
Got their own communication.
(Laticia) Hey, it doesn't look like anyone's here.
(Laticia) So, how do you think we're doing in the competition so far?
(Jay) I think we're doing really well.
That board game we just made up was way cool.
(Laticia) It really was.
(Jay) If we get one more good mission,
we can pull ahead of the Brain Power kids and win the competition.
I know they think they are going to win, but I don't think so.
(Laticia) And maybe we will even get to be Junior Scientists.
(Jay) No doubt about it.
In fact, we should probably go ahead and have our t-shirts made up right now,
Spectacular Scientists Rule!
(Corty) Hi kids.
I've got the perfect mission for you to work on with the Junior Scientists.
How about it?
(Jay) Now way. We're going to beat them at their own game.
(Laticia) That's right. We can do this without any of their help.
(Corty) Guess all you kids took an extra dose of stubborn pills this morning.
(Jay) We don't take drugs, Corty.
(Corty) Just a figure of speech, but seriously,
your mission today is to learn about drugs.
(Jay) But we learned about drugs years ago.
(Laticia) We want to learn something new.
(Corty) What you are about to learn is something new.
It's about drugs we haven't studied yet.
(Jay) Whoa! (Laticia) Cool. (Jay) Sure.
(Corty) The drugs we are going to talk about affect a person's brain and nervous system,
and can even change the brain.
(Laticia) Are they legal?
(Corty) One is. Here's a hint,
it was in the ad you kids were looking at a few missions ago.
(Jay) Alcohol?
But, that's only legal for adults, not kids.
(Corty) Exactly. Another one is marijuana.
(Laticia) That's illegal for everyone.
(Corty) Right. The third is inhalants.
Those are chemical fumes that people sniff or inhale.
Inhalants can be very dangerous.
Want to see a PET scan?
(Laticia) Cool. (Jay) Sure.
(Corty) These are PET scans of the brain.
The one on the left shows a brain on drugs.
The one on the right is a normal healthy brain.
(Corty) Look at how the normal brain shows a lot more activity
than the brain affected by drugs.
Now, your mission is to learn more about the drugs we've talked about.
You're going to draw a picture of the body
and show how those drugs affect our brains,
bodies, and nervous systems.
(Jay) Lets see, that's alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants.
Wow!. That sure sounds like a challenge.
(Laticia) But we are up to it.
(Corty) Then I'll see you on the flip side.
[Music]
(Corty) Wow! Great job!
Tell me about them.
(Laticia) Well marijuana goes by a lot of names.
It's the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States.
In the brain, marijuana mostly affects the basal ganglia and the cerebellum,
which helps us move, and the cerebral cortex which helps us think and communicate.
(Laticia) So when people smoke marijuana they can seem uncoordinated
and they may not make a bunch of sense when they talk.
(Jay) Alcohol is found in beer, wine, and liquor.
It affects the brain and almost every other organ in your body.
In the brain, alcohol mostly affects the cerebral cortex,
so heavy drinkers have slurred speech and sometimes they don't make sense.
(Jay) It also affects the limbic system,
which controls our emotions and the brain stem,
which is in charge of the basics, like breathing.
But alcohol also interferes with the way messages are carried by the neurotransmitters.
(Jay) So basically, it affects everything a person does.
People who are dependent on alcohol may have a disease called alcoholism.
(Laticia) And inhalants are also really scary.
They seem harmless because you can find them in everyday household items,
like paint thinner, nail polish remover, and rubber cement.
(Laticia) They won't hurt you if you use them for what they are supposed to be used for,
like cleaning, but some people breathe in inhalants on purpose.
And when the chemicals enter the blood stream directly through the lungs,
they get to the brain fast and they can do a lot of damage.
(Laticia) Inhalants effect the structure of the brain,
including the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum, and the brain stem.
They also affect the frontal cortex,
which is important for solving complex problems,
and the hippocampus which help us remember things.
(Laticia) Inhalants can cause nerve damage, hearing loss, liver problems,
and they may even kill a person by a heart attack or suffocation.
(Corty) That is pretty scary stuff.
(Jay) It is. And it makes me wonder about something.
If these drugs are so bad, why do people try them at all,
and then continue to use them once they cause problems?
(Corty) Great question.
(Laticia) Maybe people don't know what kinds of problems drugs can cause,
but once they find out, they're hooked.
(Jay) They get addicted.
(Corty) Good work!
(Corty) That's exactly what we're going to cover in our next mission.
(Corty) Time to go. We'll be right back.
(Jay and Laticia) Bye!
Ending Music - Revelation. Brain Power! Hey what makes you so smart?
It's the brain, it's the brain, it's the brain. You've got the power!