Brain Structure and Function

Question 1

What is axial/transverse?

Answer 1

top and bottom cut

Question 2

What is coronal?

Answer 2

front and back cut

Question 3

What is sagittal?

Answer 3

two sides cut

Question 4

What side of the body does the left side of the brain control and why?

Answer 4

right side

nerves cross over at brain stem

Question 5

What are the furrows and hills on the outer surface called?

Answer 5

sulci (furrows)

gyri (hills)

Question 6

What are the four lobes of the brain, where are they located and what is their purpose?

Answer 6

Frontal lobe: at front, personality, thinking, planning, problem solving, emotions, behavior

Parietal lobe: back at top, perception, object classification, spelling, numbers, visuospatial processing

Temporal lobe: front at bottom, memory, language, facial recognition, speech, vision, hearing

Occipital lobe: back at bottom, vision, visual processing, colour

Question 7

Where is the cerebellum located and what does it do?

Answer 7

“mini brain’ structure at back down bottom, gross and fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, balance

Question 8

Where is grey matter found and what is it comprised of?

Answer 8

cerebral cortex (outside border)

comprised of unmyelinated axons and basal ganglia

Question 9

What does white matter do and what is it comprised of?

Answer 9

connects left and right hemispheres

comprised of myelinated axons

Question 10

What are the three types of myelinated axons?

Answer 10

association fibres
commissural fibres
projection fibres

Question 11

Where are commissural fibres found and what do they do?

Answer 11

corpus callosum
connects right and left hemisphere
pathway for communication
contains 200 million axons

Question 12

What are the three functional areas of the cerebrum?

Answer 12

sensory areas: receive and process sensory info

motor areas: initiate and control motor movements

association areas: perform functions related to either sensory or motor areas

Question 13

What is the limbic system responsible for?

Answer 13

‘emotional nervous system’

memory, motivation, learning, emotion

Question 14

Where is the limbic system located and what is it comprised of?

Answer 14

central underside of cerebrum

diencephalon (hypothalamus and thalamus), hippocampus (seahorse shape), corpus callosum, basal ganglia, amygdala (memory, fear, almond-shape)

Question 15

What does the limbic system act on? (2)

Answer 15

endocrine system and autonomic nervous system

Question 16

What is the brain stem comprised of? (3)

Answer 16

midbrain: connects front and back of brain
pons: relays messages from forebrain to cerebellum to control respiration, sleep, swallowing, etc.

medulla oblongata: connects brain and spinal cord, contains nuclei associated with cardiac, respiratory and vasomotor functions

Question 17

What does the cerebellum do? (3)

Answer 17

autonomic processing centre
motor control (coordination, precision, timing, NOT initiation)
fine tuning