Brain Anatomy

Question 1

Subdivisions of Embryonic Brain

Answer 1

FOREBRAIN – complex, perceptual, cognitive, behavioral processes
MIDBRAIN – sensorimotor reflexes
HINDBRAIN – basic functions, balance, motor coordination, breathing, digestion

Question 2

HINDBRAIN

Answer 2

PONS – relays information from spinal cord, regulates sleep
MEDULLA OBLONGATA – regulates breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure
CEREBELLUM – posture, balance, body movements

Question 3

MIDBRAIN

Answer 3

SUPERIOR COLLICULUS – receives visual sensory input

INFERIOR COLLICULUS – receives auditory sensory input

Question 4

FOREBRAIN (hemispheres)

Answer 4

LEFT BRAIN (DOMINANT) -- analytical, language, logic, math, left hearing, right movement
RIGHT BRAIN (NON-DOMINANT) -- emotion, intuition, creativity, spatial processing, right hearing, left movement

COPRUS CALLOSUM – connects left and right hemispheres

IPSILATERAL CONTROL – same side control (hearing)
CONTRALATERAL CONTROL – opposite side control (movement)

Question 5

FOREBRAIN

Answer 5

TELENCEPHALON: cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system
DIENCEPHALON: thalamus, posterior pituitary, pineal gland

Question 6

FOREBRAIN – DIENCEPHALON

Answer 6

THALAMUS: relay station for sensory information, receiving sensory stimuli from all senses but smell, sorts and transmits impulses to regions of cerebral cortex

HYPOTHALAMUS: regulation of homeostasis (4 F’s)

• • Lateral Hypothalamus (LH): triggers eating/drinking
• • Ventromedial Hypothalamus (VH): satiety center
• • Anterior Hypothalamus (AH): sexual behavior

POSTERIOR PITUITARY: secrete hypothalamic hormones – ADH and OXYTOCIN

PINEAL GLAND: biological rhythms and melatonin

Question 7

FOREBRAIN – TELENCEPHALON

Answer 7

BASAL GANGLIA: coordinates muscle movement and routes info to the brain
– MALFUNCTIONS: Parkinson’s disease,
Schizophrenia, and OCD

LIMBIC SYSTEM: group of connected structures that surround the central portion of the brain, primarily associated with emotions and memory
– HIPPOCAMPUS: memory and learning
– AMYGDALA: emotion and memory,
aggression/defensiveness

CEREBRAL CORTEX: cognitive and behavioral processes
– FRONTAL LOBE: executive function, regulates
behavior and processing of other regions
– PARIETAL LOBE: process spatial orientation
– OCCIPITAL LOBE: visual cortex
– TEMPORAL LOBE: auditory cortex, emotional control,
language, music

SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX: within the PARIETAL LOBE
MOTOR CORTEX: within the FRONTAL LOBE
– cortices lie close together, as the SC receives sensory stimuli collected by PNS, processes how to respond and the MC will initiate voluntary muscle movement in response to that stimuli, sending signal down spinal cord to PNS