Brain Flashcards
What are the three regions of the brainstem?
- midbrain
- pons
- medulla oblongata
What is found within the ciencephalon?
- thalamus and the hypothalamus
What is the largest portion of the brain?
- cerebrum
What is a gyrus?
- elevated ridge of folded grey matter
What is the core of the cerebrum made of?
- white matter
What is a sulcus?
- a depression in the grey matter of the cerebrum
Which fissure divides the brain into left and right hemispheres?
- the longitudinal fissure
What is found at the floor of the longitudinal fissure?
- corpus callosum
What is the corpus callosum?
- a mass of transversely
running axons that connect the left and right hemispheres
The cerebral white matter consists of several tracts of axons that transmit signals
between the various portions of the cerebrum. What are the names of these tracts?
- association tracts
- commissural tracts
- projection tracts
What do the association tracts do?
- connect regions of the same hemisphere
What do the commissural tracts do?
- connect analogous regions of the two hemispheres (the
largest of these tracts is the corpus callosum)
What do the projection tracts do?
- carry signals between the cerebrum and other portions of the brain and spinal cord
What are the names of the four lobes in each hemisphere of the cerebral grey matter cortex?
- parietal
- frontal
- temporal
- occipital
How are the lobes separated?
- prominent sulci
What lobes does the parieto-occipital sulcus divide?
- the parietal and occipital lobe
What lobes does the central sulcus divide?
- the parietal and frontal lobe
What lobes does the lateral sulcus divide?
- the temporal lobe from the frontal lobe
- the temporal lobe from the parietal lobe
Why is the frontal lobe important? MOTOR HOMUNCULUS
- primary motor area – initiation of voluntary movements
- premotor area – a “memory bank” of learned movements
- prefrontal cortex – “higher functions” (intellect, learning, memory, planning, judgment, personality, mood)
- articulation of speech
- recognition of olfactory stimuli
Why is the parietal lobe important? SENSORY HOMUNCULUS
- primary somatosensory area – perception of somatic sensations
- common integrative area – receives and integrates information from a variety of sensory inputs (somatic, visual, smell)
- object recognition based on touch (shape, texture)