Brain

• Cerebrum

  • Outer layer of the brain and the largest part
  • Site of integration, receives information from senses and produces a response
  • Surface covered in sulci and gyri
  • Broken into 2 hemispheres - connected and communicate via corpus callosum
• Frontal lobe

  • Responsible for decision making, planning, muscle movements, personality, beliefs and speech
• Parietal lobe

  • Processes sensory information and spatial awareness
• Temporal lobe

  • Receives and processes hearing and smell, and develops and processes memories and behavior
• Occipital lobe

  • Receives and interprets visual information
• Diencephalon

  • Connects cerebrum to brain stem
  • Contains the thalamus (regulates consciousness)
  • Contains the hypothalamus (maintains homeostasis)
  • Contains the pituitary gland (master endocrine gland that controls other hormone releasing glands)
  • Interbrain, deep within the brain
• Brain stem

  • Responsible for basic functions such as breathing, circulation and digestion
  • Determines where information leaving and entering the brain should go
  • Made of midbrain, pons and medulla oblongata
  • Attaches spinal cord to cerebrum
• Cerebellum

  • Responsible for everyday voluntary functions
  • Involved in muscle memory
  • Involved in muscle coordination (helps with balance)
  • Latin for "little brain", located at the back of the brain