Brain Areas

Question 1

The Occipital Lobe

Answer 1

The occipital lobes sit at the back of the head and are responsible for visual perception, including colour, form and motion.

Question 2

Precentral Gyrus or Primary Motor Cortex

Answer 2

The precentral gyrus, also known as the primary motor cortex, is a very important structure involved in executing voluntary motor movements.

Question 3

Hypothalamus or Anterior Cingulate Gyrus

Answer 3

A component of the limbic system, it is involved in processing emotions and behavior regulation. It also helps to regulate autonomic motor function.
Your hypothalamus helps manage your: Body temperature, Blood pressure, Hunger and thirst, Sense of fullness when eating, Mood, Sex drive, and Sleep.

Question 4

Cerebellum

Answer 4

Maintaining balance: The cerebellum has special sensors that detect shifts in balance and movement. It sends signals for the body to adjust and move.
Coordinating movement: Most body movements require the coordination of multiple muscle groups. The cerebellum times muscle actions so that the body can move smoothly.
Vision: The cerebellum coordinates eye movements.
Motor learning: The cerebellum helps the body to learn movements that require practice and fine-tuning. For example, the cerebellum plays a role in learning to ride a bicycle or play a musical instrument.
Other functions: Researchers believe the cerebellum has some role in thinking, including processing language and mood. However, findings on these functions are yet to receive full exploration.

Question 5

Temporal Lobe

Answer 5

They are most commonly associated with processing auditory information and with the encoding of memory. The temporal lobes are also believed to play an important role in processing affect/emotions, language, and certain aspects of visual perception.

Question 6

Postcentral Gyrus or Somatosensory Cortex

Answer 6

The postcentral gyrus is the primary somatosensory cortex and receives the majority of the somatic sensory relay information from the thalamus.

Question 7

Prefrontal Cortex of the Frontal Lobe

Answer 7

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the cerebral cortex covering the front part of the frontal lobe. This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behaviour. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social “control” (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes).

Question 8

Corpus Callosum

Answer 8

The two hemispheres in your brain are connected by a thick bundle of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum that ensures both sides of the brain can communicate and send signals to each other.

Question 9

Spinal Cord

Answer 9

The three primary roles of the spinal cord are to send motor commands from the brain to the body, send sensory information from the body to the brain, and coordinate reflexes.

Question 10

Hippocampus

Answer 10

Being an integral part of the limbic system, hippocampus plays a vital role in regulating learning, memory encoding, memory consolidation, and spatial navigation.

Question 11

Sympathetic Division of the Autonomic Nervous System

Answer 11

Thus, the sympathetic division increases heart rate and the force of heart contractions and widens (dilates) the airways to make breathing easier. It causes the body to release stored energy. Muscular strength is increased. This division also causes palms to sweat, pupils to dilate, and hair to stand on end.

Question 12

Wernicke’s Area

Answer 12

This area appears to be uniquely important for the comprehension of speech sounds and is considered to be the receptive language, or language comprehension, centre.

Question 13

Broca’s Area

Answer 13

Broca’s area is a region of the brain in the frontal lobe involved in speech production. It is responsible for the planning and production of speech. It helps coordinate the muscles involved in speech and plays a role in understanding language.

Question 14

Autonomic Nervous System

Answer 14

The autonomic nervous system is a component of the peripheral nervous system that regulates involuntary physiologic processes, including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and sexual arousal.

Question 15

Substantia Nigra of the Midbrain

Answer 15

The substantia nigra is a brain structure that is part of your basal ganglia. While it’s very small, this structure is essential in how your brain controls your body’s movements. It also plays a part in the chemical signaling in your brain, which affects learning, mood, judgment, decision-making and other processes. (Parkinsons)

Question 16

Amygdala of the Limbic System

Answer 16

A central role in our emotional responses, including feelings like pleasure, fear, anxiety and anger.

Question 17

Pons

Answer 17

It handles unconscious processes and jobs, such as your sleep-wake cycle and breathing. Need to pee. The pons links your brain to your spinal cord. Your pons handles all of your unconscious movements and processes. These cycles include everything from your sleeping to your breathing. Multiple nerve points in your pons also control your muscles and affect your head and facial nerves.

Question 18

Somatic Division of the Motor Division of the Peripheral Nervous System

Answer 18

Your somatic nervous system is a subdivision of your peripheral nervous system, which is all of your nervous system except your brain and spinal cord. Your somatic nervous system allows you to move and control muscles throughout your body. It also feeds information from four of your senses — smell, sound, taste and touch — into your brain.

Question 19

Parietal Lobe

Answer 19

It processes your sense of touch and assembles input from your other senses into a form you can use. Your parietal lobe also helps you understand where you are in relation to other things that your senses are picking up around you.
Self-perception:Your parietal lobe is a processing center for sensations you can feel with your sense of touch. These include temperature (hot and cold), pressure, vibration and pain. Self-perception also uses your sense of touch to tell you where parts of your body are without needing to see them (the technical term for this is “proprioception”). A good way to test this is to close your eyes and bring the palm of your hand up to your face. Even with your eyes closed, you can usually tell the approximate position of your hand (and avoid smacking yourself in the face).
Sensory integration: Other brain areas process sensory information they’re responsible for, and then forward what they processed to your parietal lobe. Your parietal lobe takes that information, including the self-perception information mentioned above, and integrates it into a form you can understand. It then sends information to other areas of your brain so you can respond (or not respond) to what you sense.
Learned movements: Your parietal lobe also helps you learn each time you plan and carry out complex, precise movements. A big example of this is writing. That’s why writing gets easier with practice. The same is true of similar activities like doing math by hand.
Location awareness: Your parietal lobe plays a key role in how you understand where things are around you. Knowing if something is on your left or right side, for example, is a function that relies on your parietal lobe. Your parietal lobe is also an important part of “big picture” perception. It helps you process situations when you perceive multiple objects in a related context. An example of this would be seeing a stove, countertops, sink and refrigerator and understanding that you’re looking at a kitchen.

Question 20

Medulla

Answer 20

Your medulla is where your cardiovascular and respiratory systems link together into a united system that controls your heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and more. Manages other automatic processes. These are things that your body often does without you having to think about them.