brain

• Forebrain


  Involved in complex, perceptual, behavioral and cognitive processes
• Cerebral Cortex


  • Has bumps and depressions known as Convolutions
  • Divided into two hemispheres right and left connected through corpus callosum
• Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex

  • Frontal lobe
  • Temporal lobe
  • Parietal lobe
  • Occipital lobe
• Frontal lobe


  Involved in reasoning, thinking, perception, memory, emotions, and higher mental processes
• Subdivisions of Frontal lobe

  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Motor Cortex
• Prefrontal Cortex


  Integrates numerous cognitive and behavioral processes
• Motor Cortex


  Sends out motor commands to muscles
• Association area


  Combines input from diverse brain regions
• Projection area


  Receives sensory information or sends motor impulses to muscles
• Broca's area


  Important for speech production, located in left hemisphere
• Parietal lobe


  Contains somatosensory cortex, involved in processing somatosensory information (touch, temperature, pressure, pain)
• Occipital lobe


  Contains visual cortex, involved in learning and motor control
• Temporal lobe


  Contains auditory cortex, involved in language reception and comprehension, memory processing, emotional control and language
• Limbic system


  Interconnected structure involved in emotions and memory
• Septum


  Primary pleasure centre, inhibits aggression
• Amygdala


  Plays a vital role in defensive and aggressive behavior
• Hippocampus


  Involved in learning and memory processing
• Anterograde Amnesia


  Unable to establish new long term memories, but childhood/distant memories intact
• Retrograde Amnesia


  Able to establish new memories but forget all past events
• Basal Ganglia


  Coordinates muscle movement, damage leads to Parkinson's disease
• Thalamus


  Relay station for all sensations and distributes them to their location
• Hypothalamus


  Serves homeostatic functioning, controls emotions, sexual behavior, temperature, thirst, hunger
• Lateral Hypothalamus


  Hunger centre, initiates hunger
• Ventromedial Hypothalamus


  Satisfaction centre, stops hunger
• Anterior Hypothalamus


  Controls sexual activities
• Midbrain


  Involuntary reflexive responses are controlled and coordinated
• Superior Colliculus


  Receives visual sensory information
• Inferior Colliculus


  Receives auditory sensory information
• Hindbrain


  Lowest part of the brain
• Medulla Oblongata


  Regulates breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure
• Pons


  Contains sensory and motor tracks between cortex and medulla
• Cerebellum


  Helps maintain posture and balance, coordinates body movements
• Reticular Formation


  Regulates alertness, arousal and attention
• Which side of the brain is affected is important as the functions of the two cerebral hemispheres are not identical
• Most functions require coordination of several areas in both hemispheres, so both hemispheres must be damaged for complete loss of function
• Damage to the back part of the frontal lobe


  Causes weakness or paralysis on the opposite side of the body
• Damage to the middle part of the frontal lobe


  Causes apathy, inattentiveness, slow thinking and responses
• Damage to the middle back part of the left frontal lobe (Broca's area)


  Causes difficulty expressing words (Broca's aphasia)
• Damage to the front part of the frontal lobe


  Can cause working memory issues, reduced speech fluency, apathy, inattentiveness, lack of inhibition
• Damage to the front part of the parietal lobe


  Causes numbness and impaired sensation on the opposite side of the body