Crash Course CNS

• Broca's area


  A specific area in the left hemisphere of the brain that is partly responsible for the ability to produce and process language
• Broca's aphasia


  A condition where a person can understand speech but is unable to produce intelligible words
• Broca's aphasia


  Can sometimes be treated by teaching patients to sing, because singing uses a different region of the brain
• A lot of what we know about how the brain works has come through studying injuries to it
• The brain is made up of super-specific areas that have super-specific functions
• Central nervous system


  Consisting of the brain and spinal cord
• Peripheral nervous system


  Made up of the nerves coming out of the central nervous system
• Spinal cord


  Conducts two-way signals between the brain and the rest of the body, while also governing basic muscle reflexes and patterns
• Cerebrospinal fluid


  Allows the brain to float somewhat in the skull, reducing its weight and letting it slosh around while the head moves
• Development of the central nervous system


  1. Neural tube

  2. Prosencephalon, mesencephalon, rhombencephalon

  3. Telencephalon, diencephalon, metencephalon, myelencephalon

  4. Brainstem, cerebellum, diencephalon, cerebral hemispheres
• Brainstem


  Regulates many basic, vital involuntary functions like heart rate, breathing, sleep, appetite, and pain sensitivity
• Midbrain


  Carries out higher-level functions like processing sensory information and sending out reflexive motor signals
• Diencephalon


  Regulates homeostasis, alertness, and reproductive activity, and is part of the limbic system which is a center for strong emotions
• Telencephalon


  Develops into the cerebrum, the largest and most complex region of the brain that performs the highest functions
• Cerebral cortex


  The wrinkled, outer layer of "gray matter" in the cerebrum
• White matter


  The inner squishy layer beneath the cerebral cortex
• Lobes of the cerebrum

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


  Governs muscle control and cognitive functions like planning, concentration, and preventing socially unacceptable behaviors
• Occipital lobe


  Processes visual information
• Parietal lobe


  Processes sensations of touch, pain, and pressure
• Temporal lobe


  Helps sort out auditory information, including language, and contains the hippocampus and amygdala
• The brain would be pretty useless if it weren't hooked up to the outside world through the peripheral nervous system