Brain Regions And Strucutres Flashcards
Brainstem
The oldest part of the brain and the central brain core, a crossover point
Thalamus
- located in middle of brain or top of brainstem
- directs messages to the cortex sensory areas and transmits replies to the cerebellum
- pushes information to different parts of the brain
- Ex. Airport analogy
What is the only sense not processed by the thalamus?
Smell
Reticular formation
A nerve network that travels through the brainstem into the thalamus
- involved in non verbal learning and memory
- controls arousal
Cerebellum!
Involved in movement and non verbal memory
Amygdala
-2 bean sized neural clusters
- takes in events and assigns a emotion to them, both positives and negatives
Hypothalamus
-neural system below the thalamus
- directs maintenance activities such as hunger, thirst, sexual arousal and fear
- does unconsciously
Prader Willli Syndrome
A case in which a part of the hypothalamus is not working and so you are constantly hungry as a result
Hippocampus!
- neighbors with the amygdala, it stores the important events/emotions
- long term memory store center
- shape of a seahorse
Cerebral cortex
-everything on the outside layer
- 20 billion brain nerve cells
- 300 trillion synaptic connections
- ultimate control and information processing center of the body
Cerebral hemisphere
-generally symmetrical
- paired and covered with a intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells
Frontal lobe
- at the forehead
- takes up about 30-40% of lobe space
Motor cortex
- at the rear of the frontal
- controls voluntary movements
Parietal
- at back top of brain
- heavily involved in sensory processing
Somatosensory cortex
- involved with parietal
- in between parietal and frontal
- touch and spatial information
- receives incoming messages from skin senses and the movements of body parts
Occipital
- has a primary role of vision
Visual cortex
- associated with occipital
- located at back of brain
- sends information to other task specialized areas
Temporal
- by the ear
- involved in some sensory processing
Auditory cortex
- associated with temporal
- receives information from the ears
- circuitous route from one ear to the auditory cortex
FPOT
Frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal
Prefrontal cortex!
- at the tip of the frontal
- enables social interactions and personality
- if this was damaged, you wouldn’t be you
- the human being powerhouse
Neural plasticity and reorganization
- may occur after serious damage especially in young children because the brain is still developing
- at about age 25 the brain ceases to develop
- makes unused brain areas available for use
Corpus callosum
Connects two halves and lets information pass back and forth, can be severed in very severe cases such as epilepsy when medications don’t work except it will stop info from being passed
Split Brain
When the two hemispheres work indpendently
