Crash Course
The Mind/Brain: Crash Course History of Science
Scientists in the nineteenth century discovered a lot about life and matter. But exactly what kind of stuff is the human brain? That one was—and is—tricky. The brain sciences—with experiments and therapies tied to biological theories of...
Institute of Human Anatomy
Why Teenagers Are Reckless...
In this video, Justin from the Institute of Human Anatomy discusses the frontal cortex of the brain, it's numerous sub-regions, and their fascinating functions.
Professor Dave Explains
Introduction to Biopsychology
Let's learn all about the human brain! It's the most complex and fascinating object in the known universe. It's the source of our consciousness, so we wouldn't be much without it. This course will assume prior knowledge from my...
Professor Dave Explains
Research Methods of Biopsychology
With some information regarding the organization of neurons and neural pathways, we are ready to start getting into some deeper topics. But before we do that, it will be useful to get a general sense of precisely how we learn about the...
Professor Dave Explains
Virus-Cell Interactions Part 2 Multicellular Hosts
We just went over some basics regarding virus-cell interactions, but we have a little more to discuss. We need to understand some more details regarding how viruses interact with multicellular hosts, such as humans. Let's take a look!
Institute of Human Anatomy
The Anatomy and Function of the Frontal Cortex
In this video, the anatomy and functions of the frontal cortex are explained. It is revealed that the frontal cortex, responsible for motor control and executive functions, doesn't fully develop until the age of 25. The video also...
Professor Dave Explains
Cholera Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139
What is cholera exactly? Believe it or not, this disease isn't gone, it's still an issue in various parts of the world. It's caused by Vibrio cholerae, and in particular two serotypes of this bacterium. Let's get some details!
Professor Dave Explains
Psychiatric Disorders Schizophrenia, Depression, Mania, and Anxiety
There are lots of ways that things can go wrong in the brain, and some of these things lead to psychiatric disorders. Some of the more common ones include schizophrenia, depression, mania, and anxiety. How are these diagnosed? What are...
Professor Dave Explains
Mechanisms of Natural Selection Conflict, Spite, and Reciprocity
We learned about how altruism can evolve in certain species, which involves cooperative behavior among closely-related organisms to enhance the inclusive fitness of the group. But this is also achieved through spiteful behavior towards...
Professor Dave Explains
Mechanisms of Natural Selection Altruism and Kin Selection
We have learned all about so-called "survival of the fittest" which is a phrase we associate with natural selection. We typically associate this concept with competition for resources, but there are situations in which this involves the...
Professor Dave Explains
The Plague Yersinia pestis
The Plague! The Black Death! You've heard of some version of this disease, which wiped out massive percentages of the global population several times in recent millenia. Terrifying, no? So what causes it? Well now we know! It's a little...
Professor Dave Explains
Virus-Cell Interactions Part 1 Productive vs. Non-Productive
Now that we know a bit about viruses, we understand that they require a host cell. So let's get some more details about how viruses interact with cells. There are a few different ways this can play out, so let's start by looking at...
Professor Dave Explains
Gonorrhea Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Gonorrhea is the second-most common sexually transmitted infection, or STI, in the world. What is the pathogen responsible for this infection, how was it discovered, and precisely what does it do in the body? Let's answer these questions...
Professor Dave Explains
Introduction to Virology and Viral Classification
There are two main types of pathogens we will be focusing on in this series. The first was bacteria, and we just wrapped up a good amount of information on those. The next is viruses. These little things are much tinier than bacteria,...
Professor Dave Explains
The Biopsychology of Consciousness
We've learned a lot about brains in this series, and the types of perceptions they can facilitate. But how exactly does the brain produce consciousness? Furthermore, what exactly is consciousness? Where is it located in the brain? Let's...
Professor Dave Explains
Neurotransmitters Type, Structure, and Function
We know that neurotransmitters are signaling molecules that travel across the synaptic space to interact with receptors and propagate signals from one neuron to the next. But what are these molecules? What are their structures? How do...
Professor Dave Explains
Neural Conduction, Action Potential, and Synaptic Transmission
We have probably heard that neurons are the cells that transmit information around the body. But how does this work? Is it actual electricity? Like from the wall socket? What is a synapse? What happens there, in between one neuron and...
Professor Dave Explains
Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2)
We are probably familiar with herpes as a sexually transmitted disease, but we want to know as much as we can about this virus and the things it can do. What is the difference between HSV-1 and HSV-2? How does viral transmission work?...
Professor Dave Explains
Hunger Knowing When to Eat
Eating is one of the best parts of life, and our brains make sure to remind us to do it by producing the sensation called hunger. How does this work? Does the brain just know when we are running out of energy, and it reminds us to...
Professor Dave Explains
Gene Expression Analysis and DNA Microarray Assays
If we want to understand a biological organism, we turn to the expression of its genome. Which genes are being expressed, and in which cells, and when? How does this differ between a normal cell and a cancer cell? We have incredibly...
Professor Dave Explains
Types of Speciation Allopatric, Sympatric, Peripatric, and Parapatric
Earlier in the series we learned about evolution by natural selection, and the production of new species, which we call speciation. But did you know there are different types of speciation? There are! That's because there are different...
Professor Dave Explains
Brain Lateralization The Split Brain
The brain consists of two hemispheres, the left brain and the right brain. There are many myths surrounding the specializations of each hemisphere, and the types of personalities that they produce, so let's put those to rest, while going...
Professor Dave Explains
The Common Cold (Rhinovirus)
It's time to start going through a variety of common viruses, so let's start with the most common one of them all, the one that most often causes the common cold. It's called Rhinovirus, and it is a member of the picornavirus family....