A Tour Through the Brain Flashcards
Components of the brain stem are…
- pons
- medulla
- reticular activating system (RAS)
Function: pons
-involved in sleeping, waking, dreaming, and others
Function: medulla
-responsible for body functions that are not consciously willed (breathing, heart rate..)
Function: reticular activating system (RAS)
- a dense network of nerons in the core of the brain stem
- arouses the cortex and screens incoming information
What is atop the brain stem in the back part of the brain?
cerebellum
Function: cerebellum
- sense of balance
- coordinates muscle movement
- remembering simple skills and acquired reflexes
- plays a part in complex cognitive tasks
What is deep in the brain’s interior, roughly in the center?
thalamus
Function: thalamus
-relays sensory information to higher areas (cerebral cortex)
What is the only sense that bypasses the thalamus?
smell
What is the switching station for smell?
-olfactory bulb (lies near areas involved in emotion)
What lies beneath the thalamus?
hypothalamus
Function: hypothalamus
- involved in emotions and drives vital to survival
- controls Autonomic Nervous System
- contains biological clock
What is hanging down from the hypothalamus, cherry sized, and connected by a short stalk?
pituitary gland
Function: pituitary gland
- body’s “master gland”
- releases many hormones and regulates other endocrine glands
What causes the pituitary gland to “talk” to other endocrine glands?
-the pituitary gland follows strict orders from the hypothalamus
Define: Limbic System
-a group of brain areas involved in emotional reactions and motivated behavior
Part of the “limbic system”, what does the amygdala do?
- evaluates the emotional importance of incoming sensory information
- makes initial decision to approach or withdraw from a person or situation
- also involved in retrieving emotional memories
Part of the “limbic system”, what is involved in the storage of new memory and experience?
hippocampus
What is the largest part of the brain, where higher thinking takes place?
cerebrum
The cerebrum is divided into two cerebral hemispheres. How are the two halves connected?
corpus callosum
-large band of fibers
Define: Lateralization
-the phenomenon of the different tasks and talents of the 2 cerebral hemispheres
What is the collection of thin layers of cells covering the cerebrum, and contains 3/4 of all cells in the brain?
cerebral cortex
Which lobe is located in the lower back part of the brain…
-contains the visual cortex
occipital lope
Which lobe at the top of the brain…
-contains the somatosensory cortex
parietal lobe
Which lobe is involved in…
- memory
- perception
- emotion
- contains auditory cortex
temporal lobe
Which lobe is involved in…
- voluntary movement
- speech production
- contains motor cortex
frontal lobe
Where is Broca’s Area (speech production)?
-left frontal lobe
Which part of the frontal lobe is involved in…
- reasoning
- planning
- decision making
- emotion
prefrontal cortex
Which parts of the brain play a part in personality?
-frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex
