structures of the brain

• Hindbrain


  Structures that influence some motor functions and vital responses such as breathing and sleep. Located at the base of the brain around the brain stem.
• Cerebellum


  • Coordinates fine muscle movements, regulates posture and balance, also involved in learning and memory associated with movements. Damage results in difficulty with everyday activities like walking, throwing a ball and riding a bike.
• Medulla


  Responsible for vital reflex functions such as breathing, swallowing, heart rate and blood pressure all of which are involuntary survival responses. Damage is often fatal.
• Pons


  Coordinates voluntary movement and forms part of our reticular activating system, which increases our attention and alertness. Damage could result in a coma as they are unable to be aroused.
• Midbrain


  A collection of structures involved in movement, processing visual, auditory and tactile sensory information and contains neural pathways connecting upper and lower brain areas.
• Substantia nigra


  Important role in initiating voluntary limb movements, connects to the forebrain. Damage results in movement disorder symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
• Reticular formation


  A network of neurons that helps screen incoming information as not to overload the brain and alerts higher brain centres to important information, located through the centre of the brain stem.
• Reticular activating system


  Part of the reticular formation that extends in many different directions from the reticular formation to different parts of the brain and the spinal cord, looks like a bicycle wheel and ascending pathways extend to the cerebral cortex and its descending pathways descend to the spinal cord. Damage will profoundly disrupt the sleep-waking cycle and can result in coma or a chronic vegetative state.
• RAS Function 1


  • Controlling levels of attention - 'highlights' neural information of potential importance and directs attention and consciousness towards potentially significant events
• RAS Function 2


  • Controlling the transition between sleep and wakefulness - The RAS either increases or dampens arousal in response to feedback from upper and lower brain areas
• Forebrain


  Involved in cognitive processes such as thinking, learning, memory and perception, as well as various aspects of emotion and personality.
• Thalamus


  Receives sensory information from almost all of the sensory sites (except the nose), Receives information about our sense of arousal from our reticular formation, damage could result in blindness, deafness or loss of any other sense (except smell) or a coma.
• Hypothalamus


  Regulates the release of hormones and is part of the limbic system, which generally controls emotional and motivated behaviour and certain forms of memories, damage can result in problems with the normal sleep and waking cycle, an overwhelming urge to eat or uncontrollable anger.
• Cerebrum


  Located in front and above the cerebellum and occupies most of the forebrain, primarily responsible for almost everything we consciously think, feel and do, divided into two cerebral hemispheres and connected by the corpus callosum.
• Cerebral cortex


  Thin outer layer covering the brain, involved in information processing activities like language, problem solving and decision making.
• Left Hemisphere


  • Specialises in verbal functions (reading, writing and understanding) and analytical functions (steps and repetitive orders). Has exclusive control of sensory information and movement of the right side of the body.
• Right Hemisphere


  • Specialises in non-verbal functions (spatial and visual thinking) which includes recognizing faces and patterns. Has exclusive control of sensory information and movement of the left side of the body.
• Hemispheric specialisation


  The differential role of the left or right brain side in processing a specific neuronal task or behaviour.
• Corpus callosum


  Band of nerves connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain, allowing information to travel through each hemisphere. Damage results in confusion as messages cannot be sent to either hemisphere (split brain).
• Sensory areas


  Receives and processes information about our senses.
• Motor areas


  Receives and processes information about our movements.
• Association areas


  Integrates sensory, motor and other information and relays it to other areas of the brain.
• Cortical lobes


  Each hemisphere divided into four lobes called cortical lobes, named after the bone that covers them. Frontal, Parietal, Occipital, and Temporal.
• Frontal lobe


  Largest lobe and is located at the front of our head. 3 main parts (prefrontal cortex, primary motor cortex and broca's area).
• Prefrontal cortex


  Involved in reasoning, planning, expressions, personality and self awareness.
• Primary motor cortex


  Involved in controlling voluntary bodily movements, including contralateral control. The amount of cortex devoted to a body part shows its complexity.
• Broca's area


  Located in only the left frontal lobe, next to the primary motor cortex (which controls facial muscles). Plays a crucial role in the production and articulation of speech through the coordination of movements of the muscles required for speech.
• Broca's aphasia


  Inability to form an articulate sentence as there is a loss of normal grammatical structure.
• Occipital lobe


  Back of brain, primary in charge of vision. Damage can produce blindness.
• Primary visual cortex


  Receives and processes information from eyes. Left half of the visual field goes to the left occipital lobe, and the right half goes to the right.
• Association areas- occipital

  Interact with the primary visual cortices to select, organise, and integrate visual information as well as interacting with all the other associations areas to integrate visual information and other info like memory, language and sounds, allowing visual info to have purpose.
• Temporal lobe


  Top of each ear, mainly Auditory perception, as well as memory and aspects of visual perception, like identifying objects and faces, and emotional response to sensory info and memories.
• Primary auditory cortex


  Receive and process sound from ears with their specialised areas of sound which identify types of sounds. The 2 main sounds they identify are frequency/pitch and volume.
• Each cortex of either hemisphere is specialised to receive and process certain sounds. Verbal sounds/words = left hemisphere, Non verbal/music = right hemisphere.
• Association areas


  Involved in memory, linking emotions with memories and then determining responses to the memory. Also involved in object identification and face recognition. Damage can lead to loss of certain memories and inability to identify faces.
• Wernicke's area


  Next to the primary auditory cortex in the left lobe. Connected to broca's area by nerve bundle. Involved in speech production but has a crucial role in interpreting speech. Located words from memory appropriate in speech/writing. Sends info to broca's area to formulate speech/response. Damage is called Wernicke's aphasia and causes impairment in understanding speech and talking/fluency.
• Parietal lobe


  Located behind the frontal lobe and receives and processes sensory info from our skin senses. It also plays a role in spatial reasoning, which is the idea of the space around you. If damaged, a person could have spatial neglect which is the unawareness of the space and vision around them.
• Primary somatosensory cortex


  Located in front of parietal lobes and receives sensory info from our body and skin which allows us to feel sensations. Different parts of this cortex connect to different body parts when receiving their information (contralateral control and upside down). The amount of mass the cortex has corresponds to the sensitivity of the body part.
• Association area


  Integrates information from within the lobe or other areas of the brain.