brain

• How are patients able to be awake during a brain surgery?

  you have no pain receptors in the brain
• What is the function of the cerebral cortex/cerebral hemisphere/cerebrum?

  -voluntary actions

  -memory
• Function of the medulla oblangata

  -involuntary actions

  -e.g. heart rate and breathing rate
• Function of the cerebellum

  balance and movement
• Function of prefrontal cortex

  controls personality
• CT scan

  -x-ray pictures taken of different angles of brain

  -machine forms a 3D image

  -thick materials absorb more x-rays causing whiter areas
• MRI scan

  -patient lies in large magnet

  -machine measures magnetic field

  -3D image formed

  -image is more detailed
• PET scan


  -patient is injected with a radioactive tracer attached to glucose

  -cells need glucose for respiration to release energy

  -tracer breaks down and releases gamma rays

  -metabollically active parts take in more glucose for respiration and give off more gamma rays

  -gamma rays detected and image of body created