Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Human Brain


                                                                Ted Talks Presentation 

While searching www.Ted.com video presentations, I found an interesting presentation about the human brain. This presentation caught my attention due to the arguments and comparisons the presenter makes to get to the conclusion. The Presentation is called What is so special about the human brain?” by Suzana Herculano-Houzel.

Suzana Herculano-Houzel starts her presentation by asking the following questions to obtain her audience’s attention “What is so special about the human brain? “Why do we study animals instead of them studying us?” “What does a human brain have or do that no other brain does?” When I heard those questions about the human brain, she caught my attention and I notice how smoothly she made a transition from asking questions to her argument, “Not all brains are the same”.

She presented her argument with pictures comparing different types of brains to the human brain and giving examples on how the brain relates to the body, for example how a monkey’s brain relates to his/her body. For one of her arguments on “Not all Brains are the same “she compares a monkey’s brain and a cow’s brains. She argues that both of the brains have the same amount of neurons, but yet the monkey is more intelligent than the cow.  She finishes these argument with a little humor, “Maybe the cows is more visual, intelligent, and just does not want to let us know, but we eat them”.

Throughout her presentation, she uses different visuals such as a soup made of mouse brain, she uses this to prove and show how the neurons of the brain can be count and how she got to the conclusion that the “human brain has 86 billion neurons”, this is what separate human brain from the rest. The form she used to present her argument and the path she follow shows that she did her research by experimenting and studying different brains. Although the audience was engage as well as I was, there was not an opportunity to ask questions related to her topic. I believe if she had provided an opportunity for the audience to ask questions, she would make her presentations stronger.

Well, that’s only my point of view, in my opinion her presentation and topic were really interesting and that shows that she really was prepare to make her argument and defend it. I recommend viewing this presentation, it will get you thinking.

 

Link to Suzana Herculano-Houzel: What is so special about the human brain? Presentation:

 

No comments:

Post a Comment