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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. Transmitting information.
It's electrical...
(Laticia) You have good reflexes, Jay.
(Jay) A sign of someone ready to kick off a serious campaign
to become a future Junior Scientist.
(Laticia) It would be fun to be a Junior Scientist
like the Brain Power Club kids, wouldn't it?
(Jay) Yea, I like it here in the clubhouse
and I think if we do a good job on our next mission,
we'll get promoted.
(Corty) Oh, Wow! That's just what I have for you, a mission.
(Corty) You're going to compete with the Junior Scientists
to see who can solve more missions.
(Jay and Laticia) Cool!
(Corty) The Junior Scientists solved the last one, so this is up to you.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is neurotransmission.
(Jay) So, this is a neurotrans mission?
(Corty) Not really. I mean its part of your mission,
learning about neurotransmission.
It's the process that takes information to and from the brain.
(Laticia) Huh? I must be having a neurotranmission breakdown,
because I don't get it.
(Jay) That makes two of us.
(Corty) Jay, why don't you sit down at the other computer.
Laticia, send an instant message to Jay.
(Corty) Ok, that's one way to send information.
How else can you do it?
(Jay) By telephone?
(Laticia) Or e-mail.
(Corty) Right, but brains don't have telephones or e-mail.
Well, I mean I do, but I'm different.
(Laticia) That's for sure.
(Corty) But typical brains have to find another way
to communicate with the rest of their bodies,
and they do it by using the synapses between neurons,
or brain cells, as a kind of internet.
Like when you send instant messages.
Maybe it's time to call in an expert.
(Corty) This is Elliot Stein,
a scientist friend of mine who studies neurotransmission.
He'll explain how it all works to you.
(Elliot Stein) The brains is made up of literally billions of neurons.
Each of these neurons or cells communicate with other cells in a very complex fashion.
Those communication points are known as synapses.
And we have literally an uncountable number of synapses in the brain.
But these are very important points,
because it's these points that we think learning and memory take place.
(Elliot Stein) It's at these points that every drug,
both illicit drugs as well as drugs that we use therapeutically act.
Neurotransmitters are small chemicals, small molecules,
that are produced in the neuron,
transmitted down from the cell body,
down the axon terminal, stored in the axon,
and then released as a consequence of electrical activity.
(Elliot Stein) And that gives us a better understanding of why people
call the brain a electrochemical machine,
because it requires an electrical transmission to transmit information down the axon,
and then the release of a chemical substance,
which then passes through a gap called the synapse,
a very small space between one neuron and another.
(Elliot Stein) Most, if not all drugs of abuse act directly upon this synaptic mechanism
to cause such changes in this synapse that then alters...
ultimately alters brain behavior and function.
(Corty) Now have you got it?
Your mission is to design a board game to teach other kids about neurotransmission.
(Laticia) Whoa.
(Jay) Cool. Hard, but cool.
(Corty) Of course board games are best when played in teams.
The Brain Power kids just finished a mission about the brain,
which sure would come in handy right now.
(Corty) It would be easier with more information about the brain.
It's like playing charades without a partner.
(Jay) Oh, it will be ok Corty.
We'll come up with a great game anyway.
(Corty) Ohhhh. And you kids start working on your game too, and try to work together.
[Music]
(Jay) Ta da!
(Laticia) Alright.
(Corty) Done?
(Jay) All done.
(Corty) Hey, it looks like fun. How do you play?
(Laticia) Each player is a neuron, a brain cell.
See how each piece is shaped like neurons?
The goal is to get an important piece of information to the brain.
(Jay) At the beginning of the game,
each player finds out what their piece of information is from a booklet.
(Jay) Mine is, I am being chased by a hungry lion,
and I need to let my brain know, so it can tell my body what to do.
Run!
(Laticia) I'm hungry for pizza
and I have to get that information to the brain
so my body knows how to get a slice.
(Latisha) Hold the anchovies, please.
(Corty) Very clever.
(Jay) And then there are two sets of cards.
This set tells the players how many spaces to move their pieces.
Like this card reads, neurotransmitters are just released into the synapse,
move ahead three spaces.
(Jay) A message didn't go through. Go back three spaces.
(Laticia) Then there is another set of cards called challenge cards
with questions that test players knowledge of neurotransmitters.
(Laticia) This one asked to name the parts of a neuron.
If you get it right, you move ahead two spaces.
The answer is on the back of the card.
(Jay) Explain what the myelin sheath is and why it's important.
If you are right, advance three spaces.
(Corty) Well I have a question for you.
What part of the brain would help if you are taking a test in math class?
Or if you wanted a pizza,
what part of your brain would tell you how to get some?
Which part of the brain helped you make up this game?
( Corty) Don't know?
Well, this is a good game, but it only tells half the story.
You know where you'd find the other half?
(Jay) You're the brain, you tell us.
(Laticia) Oh, oh. I think I know.
Didn't the Brain Power kids have a mission that taught them about the brain?
(Corty) Now your synapses are firing.
You need to work together to make this game a real brain teaser.
(Jay) Well, it would be more fun to be played with four.
(Corty) Maybe you can do your next mission together.
You'll need to know about the brain and neurotransmission to solve it.
(Laticia) Guess we'll have to put our heads together for that one.
(Corty) And the kids who are watching will too.
(Laticia) Yup
(Jay) Um hmm. See you next time.
(Laticia) Come back soon.
(Laticia and Jay) Think Brain Power.
Ending Music - 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!