PARTS OF THE BRAIN

Parts Of The Brain 

Hind: 

• Structure that is on top of the spinal cord 
• Controls our basic biological structures 

Medulla:

• Located just above the spinal cord 
• It is involved in the control of breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure

The Pons:

• Located just above the Medulla
• connects the Hind brain, The Mid brain, and the Hind brain. 
• It is involved in facial expressions

 Cerebellum:

• It is the bottom rear of the brain
• It is known as the little brain
• It coordinated fine muscle movements 

The Midbrain: 

• Coordinates simple movements with sensory information 
• Most known as the reticular formation. Controls arousal and the ability to control our attention.   

Forebrain:

• What makes us human 
• It is the largest part of the brain 
• It is made up of the thalamus, the limbic system and the cerebral cortex

Thalamus:  

• Switchboard of the brain 
• It receives sensory signals from the spinal cord. And it sends them to other parts of the forebrain. Every sense except smell. 

Limbic System: 

• Hypothalamus 
• Pituitary Gland 
• Amygdala 
• Hypothalamus 

Hypothalamus: 

• Maybe most important structure of the brain. It controls and regulates. Body temperature, sexual arousal, hunger, thirst, and the endocrine system 

Hippocampus: 

• involved in the processing and storage of memories 

Amygdala: 

• It is involved in how we process memory 
• Deals with emotion as well 

Cerebral Cortex: 

• Made up of densely packed neurons we call the "gray matter" 
• Clial Cells: supports brain cells 
• wrinkles bare called fissures 

Hemispheres:

Divided into two hemispheres: 

• Contralateral control: right controls left and vice versa

• Left hemispheres: logic and sequential tasks 
• Right hemispheres: spatial and creative tasks 

Frontal lobe: 

• Abstracts thought and emotional control 
• Contains motor cortex: sends signals to our body controlling muscle movements 
• Contains Broca's Area: responsible for controlling muscles that produce speech 
• Damage to Broca's Area is called Broca's Aphasia. Unable to make movements to talk 

Parietal Lobe 

• Contains Sensory Cortex: receives incoming touch sensations from rest of the body 
• Most of the parietal lobes are made of Association Areas  

Association Areas 

• Any area not associated with understanding receives sensory information or coordinating muscle movement 

Occipital Lobes 

• Deals with vision 
• Contains: Visual Cortex. Interprets messages from our eyes into an image we can interpret 

Temporal Lobe 

• Processes sound sensed by our ears 
• Interpreted in auditory cortex 
• Contains Wernicke's area. Interpret written and spoken speech 
• Wernicke's Aphasia- unable to understand language: the syntax and grammar is jumbled 

Brain plasticity 

• The idea that the brain, will attempt to find new ways to reroute messages 
• Children's brains are more plastic than adults 

The Corpus Callosum 

• Thick bundle of nerves 
• Divides the 2 hemispheres