lecture 5

• Diencephalon


  Part of the forebrain, includes the hypothalamus and thalamus
• Telencephalon


  Part of the forebrain, includes the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and limbic system

  
• Forebrain


  • The most anterior and prominent part of the brain, with two cerebral hemispheres (cerebrum)
  • Comprises 80% of the human brain

  
• Hypothalamus


  • Located between pituitary gland and thalamus
  • Functions: keeps body in homeostasis, connector to endocrine systems, hormone regulation, stress response, regulates body temp, thirst, appetite, emotions, sleep cycles, sex drive, childbirth, blood pressure & heart rate, production of digestive juices, balance body fluids

  
• Hypothalamus


  • Temperature regulation: thermosensitive neurons
  • Feeding: appestat centre
• Thalamus


  Gateway for channeling sensory information to visual cortex, auditory cortex, frontal lobes

  
• Cerebral cortex


  • Four lobes: Occipital (visual info), Frontal (Finer Movement and Speech Production: Broca's Area), Temporal (Speech comprehension: Wernicke's Area), Parietal (Orientation in Space)

  
• Frontal lobes


  • Speech production (not comprehension), moves muscles for speech, makes speech clear and fluent

  
• Broca's aphasia


  Destruction of Broca's area in frontal lobe leads to "expressive" aphasia - know what you want to say but cannot express speech, "broken" speech: stuttering, stop/start

  
• Wernicke's area


  Located in temporal lobe, speech comprehension (not production), destruction leads to "fluent" aphasia - fluent but meaningless speech, lack of stutters, starts/stops
• Basal ganglia


  Collection of nuclei just below the white matter of the cortex, 3 principal structures: caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, all form a 'motor loop' with the motor area in the frontal lobes

  
• Basal ganglia


  • Function: controls goal/voluntary/fluid movement (e.g., choreographed dancing), motor and sensory association areas send information to the basal ganglia to execute particular movement, but disorders are common (e.g., Tourette's Syndrome)
• Limbic system


  Group of structures between the neocortex and brain stem, principal structures: Amygdala (Emotions, fear etc.), Hippocampus (Memory)

  
• CASE STUDY TIME: HENRY MALAISON