The Brain

• The left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body
• The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body
• Frontal lobe


  decision making, impulse control
• Temporal lobe


  auditory/sound processing, speech, language
• Parietal lobe


  sensory info processing, attention
• Occipital lobe


  visual processing, object recognition
• left side of the brain


  speech, language, logic, writing
• right side of the brain


  spacial reasoning, art, music, emotions
• Motor Cortex


  in charge of all voluntary movement in body
• Cerebral Cortex


  control/information processing center
• Brainstem


  contains pons and medulla
• medulla


  controls breathing, heartbeat
• pons


  sleep (REM), coordinate movements
• Reticular Formation


  arousal, alertness
• Limbic system


  contains thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus
• Thalamus


  relay station for incoming/outgoing sensory information to reach the cerebral cortex (except smell)
• Amygdala


  emotion, fear, aggression, attraction, fight/flight reaction
• hypothalamus


  directs eating, drinking, body temperature ; governs endocrine system
• cerebellum


  process sensory input, memory, nonverbal learning, coordinate movement
• the Four F's

  1. Fighting
  2. Fleeing
  3. Feeding
  4. "Mating"
• hippocampus


  process storage of conscious memories of facts/events
• The female brain is symmetrical
• The male brain is asymmetrical
• Phineas Gage


  brain injury to left frontal lobe, paved the way for the theory that different regions of the brain have specific functions
• Broca's Area


  comprehension of language
• Wernicke's Area


  production of language
• Aphasia


  loss of ability to recognize/understand speech
• apraxia


  lose ability to coordinate movement
• agnosia


  lose ability to recognize objects and/or faces
• Three ways to study the brain

  1. strokes
  2. injury
  3. surgery
• plasticity


  other parts of the brain have the ability to help when brain damage occurs in a seperate region
• Split brain


  surgery in which the corpus callosum is severed, seperating the left and right hemispheres
• Sperry


  conducted experiments on split brain
• Joe Case Study


  left and right brains work independently after split brain surgery
• hemispherectomy


  surgery where one hemisphere is removed/disabled
• CAT scan


  Image - Brain structure
• MRI


  more detailed picture - brain structure
• EEG


  electrical fields - brain function
• MEG


  magnetic fields - brain function
• fMRI


  structure, brain activity