TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Bradley Voytek and Tim Verstynen: Diagnosing a zombie Brain and body (Part one)

Unscramble the Blue Letters

(Zombie sounds) dotocr 1: So, how did it get to be this way? Doctor 2: Well, it's my piefnassrool opinion that the lgare gaping bite mark on its shoulder might have something to do with it. D1: Thanks. I mean, what causes its behavioral abnormalities? D2: Well, we know all behaviors are rooted in the brain, so I'd expect that something's gone teirbrly wrong probably in there. D1: Thanks again, Doctor Obvious. Let me be more specific. What changes in the brain would have to occur in order to cause this kind of behavior? D2: Hmm. Well, let's see. The first thing I notice is how it moves. Stiff legged, with long, lumbering setps, very slow and awkward. Almost like what you'd see in Parkinson's disease. Maybe something's wrong with his baasl gailgna? Those are a collection of deep biarn reonigs that regulate movement, through a neurochemical called dopamine. Although most people think of dopamine as the "happy" ccmiahel of the brain, the dopamine-containing nuneors in the basal ganglia die off in Parkinson's disseae, that's what causes it. Makes it more and more difficult to initiate actions. D1: What? Look again at how it moves. Stiff legs, long stance, These aren't Parkinsonian mneoemvts, Parkinson's patients take short, shuffling steps, and the posture's all wrong. This looks to me like what happens when the cerebellum is damaged. The cerebellum's a little cauliflower-shaped area in the back of your head, but don't let its size fool you. That little guy contains almost half of the neurons in the entire brain. Patients who suffer daeergenotin from this region, something called spino-cerebellar atxaia, show a lack of coordination that results in stiff legs, wide snacte, and a lumbering walk. My money's on the cerebellum. D2: tohcué. OK. So we've nailed its motor problems. Now what about that whole groaning, lack of talking thing? D1: Hmm. You know, it sounds kind of like expressive aphasia, or Broca's aphasia, which makes producing words difficult. This is caused by daamge to the inferior frontal gyrus, or plbossiy the anterior insula, both regions behind your temple on the left side of your head. D2: I think you're only half right. Zombies definitely can't communicate, that's for sure. But they don't seem to do a good job of understanding things either. Watch this. Hey, Walker! Your father smelt of elderberries! (laguhs) See? No rcaoietn. Either it's not a Monty Python fan, or it can't understand me. I'd say this is like spot-on fluent Wernicke's aphasia, damage to an area at the junction of two of the brain's lobes, temporal and parietal, tyiallpcy on the left side of the brain, is the culprit. This area is physically connected to Broca's area, that you mtinnoeed, by a massive bundle of neurofibers cllead the arcuate fasciculus. I hypothesize that this massive bundle of connections is completely wiped out in a zombie. It would be like taking out the superhighway between two cities. One city that muntfecaaurs a product, and the other that ships it out to the rest of the world. Without that highway, the product distribution just shuts down. D1: So, basically it's a moot point to reason with a zombie, since they can't uannsdretd you, let alone talk back. D2: (Laughs) I mean, you could try, man, but I'm going to stay on this side of the glass.

Open Cloze

(Zombie sounds) ______ 1: So, how did it get to be this way? Doctor 2: Well, it's my ____________ opinion that the _____ gaping bite mark on its shoulder might have something to do with it. D1: Thanks. I mean, what causes its behavioral abnormalities? D2: Well, we know all behaviors are rooted in the brain, so I'd expect that something's gone ________ wrong probably in there. D1: Thanks again, Doctor Obvious. Let me be more specific. What changes in the brain would have to occur in order to cause this kind of behavior? D2: Hmm. Well, let's see. The first thing I notice is how it moves. Stiff legged, with long, lumbering _____, very slow and awkward. Almost like what you'd see in Parkinson's disease. Maybe something's wrong with his _____ _______? Those are a collection of deep _____ _______ that regulate movement, through a neurochemical called dopamine. Although most people think of dopamine as the "happy" ________ of the brain, the dopamine-containing _______ in the basal ganglia die off in Parkinson's _______, that's what causes it. Makes it more and more difficult to initiate actions. D1: What? Look again at how it moves. Stiff legs, long stance, These aren't Parkinsonian _________, Parkinson's patients take short, shuffling steps, and the posture's all wrong. This looks to me like what happens when the cerebellum is damaged. The cerebellum's a little cauliflower-shaped area in the back of your head, but don't let its size fool you. That little guy contains almost half of the neurons in the entire brain. Patients who suffer ____________ from this region, something called spino-cerebellar ______, show a lack of coordination that results in stiff legs, wide ______, and a lumbering walk. My money's on the cerebellum. D2: ______. OK. So we've nailed its motor problems. Now what about that whole groaning, lack of talking thing? D1: Hmm. You know, it sounds kind of like expressive aphasia, or Broca's aphasia, which makes producing words difficult. This is caused by ______ to the inferior frontal gyrus, or ________ the anterior insula, both regions behind your temple on the left side of your head. D2: I think you're only half right. Zombies definitely can't communicate, that's for sure. But they don't seem to do a good job of understanding things either. Watch this. Hey, Walker! Your father smelt of elderberries! (______) See? No ________. Either it's not a Monty Python fan, or it can't understand me. I'd say this is like spot-on fluent Wernicke's aphasia, damage to an area at the junction of two of the brain's lobes, temporal and parietal, _________ on the left side of the brain, is the culprit. This area is physically connected to Broca's area, that you _________, by a massive bundle of neurofibers ______ the arcuate fasciculus. I hypothesize that this massive bundle of connections is completely wiped out in a zombie. It would be like taking out the superhighway between two cities. One city that ____________ a product, and the other that ships it out to the rest of the world. Without that highway, the product distribution just shuts down. D1: So, basically it's a moot point to reason with a zombie, since they can't __________ you, let alone talk back. D2: (Laughs) I mean, you could try, man, but I'm going to stay on this side of the glass.

Solution

typically
neurons
ataxia
laughs
brain
touché
reaction
degeneration
called
damage
regions
understand
basal
stance
movements
ganglia
steps
disease
chemical
large
mentioned
terribly
doctor
professional
possibly
manufactures

Original Text

(Zombie sounds) Doctor 1: So, how did it get to be this way? Doctor 2: Well, it's my professional opinion that the large gaping bite mark on its shoulder might have something to do with it. D1: Thanks. I mean, what causes its behavioral abnormalities? D2: Well, we know all behaviors are rooted in the brain, so I'd expect that something's gone terribly wrong probably in there. D1: Thanks again, Doctor Obvious. Let me be more specific. What changes in the brain would have to occur in order to cause this kind of behavior? D2: Hmm. Well, let's see. The first thing I notice is how it moves. Stiff legged, with long, lumbering steps, very slow and awkward. Almost like what you'd see in Parkinson's disease. Maybe something's wrong with his basal ganglia? Those are a collection of deep brain regions that regulate movement, through a neurochemical called dopamine. Although most people think of dopamine as the "happy" chemical of the brain, the dopamine-containing neurons in the basal ganglia die off in Parkinson's disease, that's what causes it. Makes it more and more difficult to initiate actions. D1: What? Look again at how it moves. Stiff legs, long stance, These aren't Parkinsonian movements, Parkinson's patients take short, shuffling steps, and the posture's all wrong. This looks to me like what happens when the cerebellum is damaged. The cerebellum's a little cauliflower-shaped area in the back of your head, but don't let its size fool you. That little guy contains almost half of the neurons in the entire brain. Patients who suffer degeneration from this region, something called spino-cerebellar ataxia, show a lack of coordination that results in stiff legs, wide stance, and a lumbering walk. My money's on the cerebellum. D2: Touché. OK. So we've nailed its motor problems. Now what about that whole groaning, lack of talking thing? D1: Hmm. You know, it sounds kind of like expressive aphasia, or Broca's aphasia, which makes producing words difficult. This is caused by damage to the inferior frontal gyrus, or possibly the anterior insula, both regions behind your temple on the left side of your head. D2: I think you're only half right. Zombies definitely can't communicate, that's for sure. But they don't seem to do a good job of understanding things either. Watch this. Hey, Walker! Your father smelt of elderberries! (Laughs) See? No reaction. Either it's not a Monty Python fan, or it can't understand me. I'd say this is like spot-on fluent Wernicke's aphasia, damage to an area at the junction of two of the brain's lobes, temporal and parietal, typically on the left side of the brain, is the culprit. This area is physically connected to Broca's area, that you mentioned, by a massive bundle of neurofibers called the arcuate fasciculus. I hypothesize that this massive bundle of connections is completely wiped out in a zombie. It would be like taking out the superhighway between two cities. One city that manufactures a product, and the other that ships it out to the rest of the world. Without that highway, the product distribution just shuts down. D1: So, basically it's a moot point to reason with a zombie, since they can't understand you, let alone talk back. D2: (Laughs) I mean, you could try, man, but I'm going to stay on this side of the glass.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
moves stiff	2
left side	2
massive bundle	2

Important Words

abnormalities
actions
anterior
aphasia
arcuate
area
ataxia
awkward
basal
basically
behavior
behavioral
behaviors
bite
brain
bundle
called
caused
cerebellum
chemical
cities
city
collection
communicate
completely
connected
connections
coordination
culprit
damage
damaged
deep
degeneration
die
difficult
disease
distribution
doctor
dopamine
entire
expect
expressive
fan
fasciculus
father
fluent
fool
frontal
ganglia
gaping
glass
good
groaning
guy
gyrus
head
hey
highway
hmm
hypothesize
inferior
initiate
insula
job
junction
kind
lack
large
laughs
left
legged
legs
lobes
long
lumbering
man
manufactures
mark
massive
mentioned
monty
moot
motor
movement
movements
moves
nailed
neurochemical
neurofibers
neurons
notice
obvious
occur
opinion
order
parietal
parkinsonian
patients
people
physically
point
possibly
problems
producing
product
professional
python
reaction
reason
region
regions
regulate
rest
results
rooted
ships
short
shoulder
show
shuffling
shuts
side
size
slow
smelt
sounds
specific
stance
stay
steps
stiff
suffer
superhighway
talk
talking
temple
temporal
terribly
touché
typically
understand
understanding
walk
watch
wide
wiped
words
world
wrong
zombie
zombies