Name: The cockroach beatbox
Uploaded: 2012-03-12T15:49:00Z
Duration: 6 min 15 s
Description: By dissecting a cockroach ... yes, live on stage ... TED Fellow and neuroscientist Greg Gage shows how brains receive and deliver electric impulses -- and how legs can respond. This talk comes from the TED-Ed project.

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By dissecting a cockroach ... yes, live on stage ... TED Fellow and neuroscientist Greg Gage shows how brains receive and deliver electric impulses -- and how legs can respond. This talk comes from the TED-Ed project.

The cockroach beatbox

The brain is not a simple machine like a heart or lung, but a living network powered by electrical impulses. Using a cockroach's leg and a simple device, scientists can listen to neurons 'spiking' as they sense the world. One hundred billion cells create these patterns in every human brain, shaping everything seen, heard, or felt. Even music played through a phone can make a cockroach leg dance, revealing the universal language of the nervous system.

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TED Fellows

TED-Ed

brain

neuroscience

science

technology

biology

insects

nature

sound

humor

human body

TED-Ed Original

Greg Gage: The cockroach beatbox