We are going to present an episode of an animated serie called « Il était une fois la vie », from Netflix, intended for children and adults interested in the human body behavior. This is a scientific popularization serie whose each episode lasts about twenty minutes. It tells in a funny and appropriate way to big kids the cells composition and the organs functions. Those microscopic descriptions of the different human body components are used in educational scenarios. So then this serie makes people understand more the human body while having fun.
We are now going to talk about the brain episod that seem relevant to us. This animated short film explains that the brain is complex and contains about 90 billion neurons. The episod starts by telling the history of the brain and its different parts:
– the reptiles’ archicortex (their brain want everything immediately, with the defence of their territories and their primal needs).
– The paleo cortex : beginning of the fear and the memory (preservation instinct) with a sense for the escape to survive.
– The neocortex: the modern human’s brain, ideas combinations, inventions, allows to dream, mathematics, abstractions, art, make mankind almost civilised.
All the brains fit to form only one. However, the communication is not always perfect. For instance, when we are angry, the archicortex will get the upper hand then will regulate this primal behaviour. In other words, when we are angry, our first intention is to lose our temper, then our reason leads us to calm down. These behaviours are ruled by the different brains.
The short film stages many characters in the form of red blood cells: the red blood cell teacher and his red blood cell students. This will make the audience understand easily the interest of the body cells. These red blood cells, represented as characters, underline the importance of their functions. Indeed, they insure the oxygen provision to the brain. Without this, the brain would die.
During this episode, we get to see how the information spreads in the body, how it is analysed by the control center and how the decisions are made.
The short film first stages a little boy running. This activity increases the heart rate and creates a sweating reaction. The enzymes deliver feelings to the control center. Childrens can understand that the neurotransmitters are abundant and helps to transmit information. The brain is a privileged place of relations and exchanges with the neighbouring environment. Therefore, the chemical neurotransmitters will transmit the feeling to the brain ordered by the medulla oblongata. The brain receives information from all the organs and divides them in the neurons.
We have another example of a little boy running with a rose in his hands. He gives it to a girl and she pricks herself with it. There is a pain handover, that is to say that the neurotransmitters will forward this information to the brain. For example, the information registered can can be: “a thorn pricks“, “a thorn hurts“, “a thorn can make us bleed“. Here, the two children understand that the brain retains all the information that we perceive during our life to learn from our experiences. This process makes us grow and learn even more about life. The brain is a place where we put information. It circulates permanently and permits the production of unified, consistent and stable images by the integration of sensory and motor data.
We enjoyed to explain this episod that makes kids understand how our brain works. It is important to understand its process, even for big kids, because it is a fascinating organ that psychology students.
Vocabulary
Une cellule = a cell
Un dessin animé = an animated serie
Divertissant = entertaining
Ludique = playful
Comportement = behavior
Jessica Kozlowski and Estelle Mexique