Areas of the Brain and their Functions

Question 1

Frontal Lobe: 
Consists of 3 areas. 
1. Precentral cortex
2. prefrontal cortex
3. premotor cortex

Answer 1

Functions:

1. precentral cortex = voluntary mm activation. damage results in weakness of limbs and trunk on the opposite side of the damage.
2. prefrontal cortex = emotions / judgement / higher-order cognitive functions like ideation/abstraction. damage results in executive dysfunction, ideational apraxia, decreased organization and sequencing.
3. promotor cortex = planning movements, including Broca’s area that controls motor aspects of speech. damage results in Broca’s (expressive) Aphasia, and motor apraxia.

Question 2

parietal lobe:

Post Central Gyrus

Answer 2

Post central gyrus = integration of sensation including touch, proprioception, pain, temperature from opposite side of body.
damage results in contralateral sensory loss

Question 3

temporal lobe:
auditory cortex
Wernicke’s area

Answer 3

Auditory cortex: processes/receives auditory stimuli
Wernicke’s area: language comprehension
damage results in receptive aphasia

Question 4

Occipital Lobe:
Primary visual cortex
Visual Association cortex

Answer 4

Occipital Lobe:
Primary visual cortex = receives/ processes visual stimuli
Visual Association cortex = processes visual stimuli

damage to these areas results in visual impairment such as visual spatial relations impairment.

Question 5

Insula:

Answer 5

insula: Associated with visceral functions
homeostatic functions related to basic survival needs, such as taste, visceral sensation, and autonomic control. damage can cause apathy, inability to taste fresh from rotten food etc.

Question 6

Limbic System:

Structures include the hippocampus, limbic lobe, amygdaloid nucleus, hypothalamus, etc.

Answer 6

Limbic System: Oldest part of brain controls survival/ instincts and emotions.
feeding/emotions/sexual response/ long term memory.
damage results in poor emotional regulation and long term memory loss.

Question 7

Basal Ganglia:

Answer 7

basal ganglia:
motor planning, sensorimotor cortex to scale and adjust movements.
damage results in difficulty with controlling speech, movement, posture (common in Parkinson’s)

Question 8

Cerebellum

Answer 8

Cerebellum: damage results in decreased motor coordination such as Apraxia