Category Archives: Neurobiology & Behaviour
Medmovie.com – brilliant medical animations
Medmovie is a commercial website, though they have many animations available in their media library samples and interactives, including heart beats, heart attacks, atherosclerosis and more (I can’t link directly to each one – you have to go to the main page first)
They look fantastic – some are .swf and others are .mov, though all the samples can be saved easily in Firefox.
Functions of the Liver
Here’s the powerpoint:
Download it here: functions-of-the-liver.ppt
Boring introduction (sounds like it’s narrated by Hannibal Lecter):
Introduction to liver functions from Encyclopedia Britannica
Flashy introduction, then focuses on liver cancer from the CancerCompass.com
Good tutorial with simple animation of bile secretion from Colorado State
Great EM images from Dr. Jastrow’s EM Atlas
Good histology set of specialized cells of the GI system from siumed
Digestion (Further Human Physiology) Linklist
Download it here: digestionfhp.ppt
Let’s start with the basics:
Simple Digestion animation by kitses.com
And don’t forget the excellent review materials at Click4Biology.
Fetal pig digestive system virtual dissection from Whitman College
Control of digestive juice secretion:
Straight to the Point McGraw Hill (their page on types of glands is also very helpful)
Gastric acid production by parietal cells (advanced – look at ‘normal’ only) – John Hopkins
Another Gastric acid animation (over-detailed) PPIKnow Pharmacology website
Digestion of lipids:
Good animation from Wiley.com
Control of bile secretion (advanced) from ZeroBio.com
I’m still looking for animations for the other subtopics. If you find any, let me know!
Children’s Hospital Boston – Great Flash apps for students
Thanks to Rod Murphy for this one.
eSchool News featured CHB’s site as site of the week and it’s well deserved. There are some great animations here, including a nice neurons and synapses animation, some stem cell resources, cancer information and a chance to have a go at
making an EM image.
Go have a look!
Jellinek – Drugs and the Brain
Thanks to Roger Allison for pointing out this one.
Jellinek is a Dutch drugs education website that has some great, accessible resources for neurobiology of drugs and the brain. Animations are available in multiple languages.
For more details on the brain, neurobiology and behaviour, see the DP Bio Linklist.
Hormonal Control – linklist
Donwload the powerpoint here: hormonal_control.ppt
Here’s a good simple overview of steroids and peptides – Wisconsin Online
Old school overview of the endocrine system:
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Mode of action of steroid hormones:
Clear explanation from McGraw Hill
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Mode of action of peptide steroids:
Short video, but clear – UC Davis
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Mode of action of thyroxine:
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Negative feedback and thyroxin secretion:
Control of the pituitary – Leif Saul (Biology in Motion – very good)
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Control of ADH Secretion:
Too simple, but good overview – BBC GSCE Bitesize
Focus on the kidney (reviewing the effect of ADH) – BiologyMad
Other useful links:
Neurons and Synapses: linklist
Here’s a jazzy introduction from Discovery Channel, with a soundtrack inspired by Tubular Bells:
And now for the serious animations.
Neurons and Action Potentials:
Excellent Flash from Children’s Hosital Boston
Good introduction from Harvard
Excellent comprehensive tutorial (Harvard Outreach)
Another good AP tutorial (can’t be saved) (Jordan Kerr University)
Generating Action Potential (MRothery, Watford Girls’ Grammar)
Comparing continuous and saltatory transmission (Matthews/Neurobiology)
Propagating an AP (McGraw Hill) (More from this source)
Synaptic Transmission:
Nice clear intro (McGraw Hill)
Another clear one (though missing the post-transmission ‘cleanup’) (BishopStopford)
Some Chemsketches of neurotransmitters (Harvey Project)
Neuromuscular Junction:
Neuromuscular junction step-through (Sinauer Associates)
Simple line-drawing animation (Harvey Project)
Muscle Contraction:
Nice animation of sliding filaments (Matthews/Neurobiology)
A good interactive diagram (Thomson/Brooks/Cole)
Neurotransmitters and Drugs:
Excellent, accessible overview from Jellinek, a Dutch drug education website
Good powerpoint from HHMI
Excellent overview of effects of drugs (Harvard)
Amphetamines, Cocaine, Nicotine as excitatory psychoactives (McGill ‘The Brain’)
Benzodiazepines, Cannabis, Alcohol as inhibitory psychoactives (McGill ‘The Brain’)
Parkinson’s Disease:
Short Introduction (from UPenn/ADAM)
Simple interactive – effects of lesions on inhibitory or excitatory ganglia (San Diego State College of Science)
Sample Questions: have a go at these NeuroBioHL_Qs
Social Behaviour
Attenborough and the eusocial naked mole rat. Good to see him get stuck in with a shovel.
Here’s a clip of chimpanzees grooming from www.arkive.org:
I couldn’t find a good clip of ant social behaviour that explained colony structure. Instead, here’s Vicky Pollard doing her thing as an example of anti-social behaviour:
“Where’s the baby?”
“Swapped it for a westlife CD.”
“How could you do that?”
“I know, they’re rubbish!”
Honey to the Bee
Here’s a Nature video podcast special on bees and their social structure:
Here’s a focus on the waggle dance as a means to locate food:
Here’s a focus on the waggle dance, though embedding has been disabled.
Nature again, with their importance to science and agriculture:
i-Biology 
