brain

• plays critical role in the central nervous system
• controls complex behaviour
• contains billions of interconnected neurones
• different parts of brain carry out different functions
• cerebral cortex

  language, memory, consciousness
• cerebellum

  balance, coordination, movement
• medulla

  heart rate, breathing rate
• studying the brain is extremely difficult
• difficult to treat brain damage and brain disease
• why is the brain hard to study?

  • protected by skull - difficult to access
  • structures are extremely complex - difficult to work out exactly which parts carry out specific functions
  • extremely delicate - easy to damage
• methods of studying the brain

  • look at patients who have suffered brain damage - look to see where damage took place - can link that part of brain to its function
  • electrically stimulate parts of brain - look at effects on person's behaviour - narrow down specific regions to their functions
  • mri scanning - look at which parts of brain are most active during different activities