Shadowing Practice: AP Psychology- The Human Brain - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Hi, my name is Nicole McIntyre and I'd like to talk to you about psychology.
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Hi, my name is Nicole McIntyre and I'd like to talk to you about psychology.
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Psychology is interesting to study because of how it relates to other sciences and to the real world.
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Today, let's study the human brain.
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The brain is easily the most intricate and interesting psychological phenomenon that we know.
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If you're taking AP Psychology,
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an intro-level psychology class in college,
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or if you're just curious about the most important thing that makes us human,
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you'll want to get to know the brain.
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The brain is a part of the nervous system,
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or more specifically, the central nervous system.
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The CNS is comprised of the brain and the spinal cord,
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and it makes all the big decisions for your body.
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But what those big decisions are and how it makes them is complicated.
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As you probably imagine, it's very difficult to study brain activity.
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The brain does nothing on the outside to indicate anything it might be doing on the inside.
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This is why we use technology to try and find connections between the brain and behavior.
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We have EEGs, CT and PET scans,
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MRI and fMRI machines, all of which provide many details about the brain structure,
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but only some of which,
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the EEG, PET scan and fMRI,
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show us exactly how the brain functions.
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Now back before we had this kind of technology and even now,
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an important way in which we study the brain is through accidents.
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In 1848, a railroad worker named Phineas Gage was involved in a gunpowder accident
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that sent a metal rod through the front part of his skull.
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Though he miraculously survived and retained his ability to function completely as before,
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the brain damage to his frontal lobe somehow altered his entire personality.
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He was no longer himself,
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but rather mean, emotional, and impulsive.
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And so researchers concluded that the areas in which the brain was damaged must have controlled behavior.
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The idea that different areas of the brain control different parts of behavior is called brain localization.
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And brain localization can help us divide the brain into separate categories so that we can study both its structure and function.
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There are three major parts of the brain,
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the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain,
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each of which serve different purposes.
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The hindbrain rests at the top of the spinal cord and is the oldest,
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most ancient part of the brain.
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It evolved first and has kept us alive by controlling our most basic biological functions.
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It consists of the brainstem,
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the central connection between the spinal cord and our skull,
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the medulla, which controls involuntary but necessary actions such as our breathing,
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blood pressure, and heart rate,
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the pons, which passes neural information between the three brain regions and helps coordinate movement such as facial expression,
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the reticular activating system that controls arousal or our alertness,
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the thalamus, which receives and relays sensory information,
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and our cerebellum, which means little brain,
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because it controls many important things like muscle movement,
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balance, and emotions, and because it looks like a literal little brain attached to the underside of our hindbrain.
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The midbrain follows, sitting just above the spinal cord and just below the forebrain,
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and primarily functions using sensory information to coordinate simple movements.
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Its major components are the tectum and tegmentum,
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the brain's roof and floor.
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Lastly is the forebrain, containing our limbic system,
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or the emotional center of our brain.
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You may recall that the forebrain is where Phineas Gage sustained the most damage.
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Had the rod hit him any lower,
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he may have died, but instead he just changed.
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This is because the limbic system contains three very important things that allow for higher brain function and human behavior.
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The hippocampus is involved in processing new learning and new memories.
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The amygdala is more involved in the expression of emotions,
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such as anger and frustration.
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And the hypothalamus controls many things,
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such as our body's temperature,
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water balance and hunger, our sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system,
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and even our sex drive and sleeping patterns.
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The forebrain is essentially the most human part of our brain,
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and it's the part that we're most familiar with.
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Part of it is the cerebral cortex,
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all that pink and wrinkly stuff that we know and love.
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This is the gray matter full of densely packed neurons that cover the entire brain.
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As we grow and develop,
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our cerebral cortex grows as well,
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allowing it to wrinkle even more and fill our brain with more and more neural connections.
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The cerebral cortex covers our two hemispheres,
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left and right, each specializing in different functions,
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which is what we call brain laterization or hemispheric specialization.
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The left hemisphere is involved in language processing and logical tasks,
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while the right hemisphere is more involved in creative and spatial reasoning.
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The hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum,
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a very important band of nerve fibers between them that allows them to work together.
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But neuropsychologist Roger Sperry discovered that each hemisphere can also operate independently of the other in split brain patients.
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These patients are so called
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because of a surgery they obtained to have their corpus callosum cut in order to treat severe seizures.
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Okay, so bear with me.
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I know that you've been given a lot of ways to categorize the brain already,
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but the cerebral cortex can still be broken down even further.
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Within each hemisphere of the cortex are four distinct lobes,
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the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital.
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These lobes are categorized based on how they receive sensory information and control muscle movements.
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What What comes in is your sensory cortex and what goes out is your motor cortex.
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In the frontal lobe, higher level thinking takes place.
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Living right behind your eyes is your prefrontal cortex,
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which can be thought of as your brain's boss of sorts.
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It's associated with executive thought processing and emotional control.
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It thinks ahead to pursue success and to foresee consequence.
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It allows for judgment, abstract thought,
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a lot of our personality,
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and even speech, because also within the frontal lobe,
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but typically only in the left hemisphere,
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is one of the brain's two language processing centers.
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The Broca's area was discovered by Paul Broca as able to control speech production
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when he noticed that damage to this area caused expressive aphasia,
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or the inability to speak.
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In the parietal lobe, we have our somatosensory cortex,
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or as I called it before,
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our sensory cortex, which receives touch sensations,
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as well as information about our body's temperature and position.
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The occipital lobes are furthest from our eyes but house our visual cortex.
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When your right eye sends visual information to the brain,
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it's interpreted by your right occipital lobe,
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and when your left eye does so,
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it's interpreted by your left occipital lobe.
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And the temporal lobes right by our ears process sound.
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Sound, unlike sight, is not lateralized,
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and when it enters our left ear,
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is processed in both hemispheres.
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And this is also where our second language processing center is located, Wernicke's area.
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This center interprets speech, and when damaged,
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cause receptive aphasia, or the inability to comprehend speech.
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The rest of the cerebral cortex is made up of association areas,
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which deal with complicated, sophisticated thinking,
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the stuff that you're always trying to get better at,
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like learning, remembering, or being funny.
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And though while because the brain is localized and has these unimaginably complex functions that come from its very specific structure,
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it's still somewhat flexible.
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The brain's plasticity is what allows it to adapt, grow, and heal itself.
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I know, that was a lot of biology for a discussion on psychology,
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but psychology is very complex and has a lot of different parts to it,
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not unlike the human brain itself.
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Thank you for listening today and learning about the brain structure and function.
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Goodbye!
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Context & Background
In this insightful session, Nicole McIntyre dives into the intriguing world of psychology, with a specific focus on the human brain. This discourse sheds light on how the brain is not only essential for our daily functions but also offers a fascinating connection to both the sciences and our everyday experiences. For students taking AP Psychology or anyone keen on understanding the foundation of human behavior, this explanation provides valuable insights into the structure and function of the brain.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "The brain is the most intricate psychological phenomenon."
- "The brain makes all the big decisions for your body."
- "Different areas of the brain control different parts of behavior."
- "The cerebellum controls muscle movement, balance, and emotions."
- "I would like to talk to you about psychology."
These phrases can be exceptionally useful when engaging in English speaking practice discussions related to psychology, allowing you to express complex ideas clearly.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
Shadowing is an effective technique for improving your speaking skills, and by using a shadowing app, you can enhance your proficiency in English. Here’s how to tackle the video's content effectively:
- Initial Listening: Watch the video without any distractions to get a grasp of the overall message. Focus on the intonation and pronunciation of specific terms related to psychology.
- Phrase Extraction: Note down the top phrases highlighted earlier. Use them as focal points in your practice sessions to help anchor your learning.
- Repeated Listening: Play the video in segments, pausing after each phrase. Try to mimic Nicole’s speech patterns as closely as possible. This acts as an excellent method for IELTS speaking practice.
- Practice with Variation: Once you're comfortable with the phrases, start incorporating them into your own sentences or discussions about psychology, which can deepen your understanding and improve your shadow speech.
- Record and Review: Use the shadowing app to record your attempts. Listening to your own speech can help identify areas for improvement in clarity and fluency during your English speaking practice.
By following this structured approach, you’ll not only enhance your vocabulary around complex concepts but also increase your confidence in verbalizing your ideas on such intricate topics.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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