General Features of the Brain Flashcards
What are the frontal lobes made up of?
Primary motor cortex and prefrontal cortex
What are the temporal lobes made up of?
Primary auditory cortex and auditory association cortex
What are the occipital lobes made up of?
Primary visual and visual association cortex
What are the parietal lobes made up of?
Primary somatosensory cortex and association cortex
What does the cerebellum control?
Balance
Posture
Muscle tone
Fine movement
Coordination
What does the brainstem contain?
Made up of midbrain, pons, medulla
Contains:
Ascending and descending tracts
Cranial nerve nuclei
What are gyri?
The rolls/ridges of the cerebral cortex
What are sulci?
The grooves between the gyri
What is the central sulcus?
Separates the frontal lobes from the parietal lobes, it is the deepest and longest sulcus
What is the lateral sulcus?
Separates the temporal lobe from the parietal and frontal lobes, also called the sylvian sulcus
What does the insula form the floor of?
The lateral sulcus
What is the oppercula (lips)?
The parts of the temporal, fronal and parietal lobes that overlie the insula
What is the longitudinal fissure?
Large fissure separating the two hemispheres
What is the corpus callosum?
A large bundle of white matter connecting the two hemispheres
What are the olfactory tracts?
Bilateral bundle of afferent nerve fibres that connects the olfactory bulb to the cerebral cortex
Where do the optic nerves converge?
The optic chiasm
What are mammillary bodies?
Two rounded eminences behind the optic chiasm
Where is the hypothalamus located when looking at the inferior side of the brain
Behind the optic chiasm and up to the mammillary bodies- only part of diencephalon visible on the outside of the brain
What are the cerebral peduncles/crus cerebri and where are they?
Two large masses of white matter- they are stalks that attach the cerebrum to the brainstem
They are behind the mammillary bodies on each side, from the cerebral hemisphere, they pass backwards and converge in the midline at the border of the pons
What is the interpeduncular fossa?
The space between the peduncles/crura roofed over by the arachnoid
Where is the pons?
Behind the point where the peduncles/crura meet.
Part of the brainstem –> Forms a bridge of neural tissue between the midbrain and medulla
What is the cerebellum?
Two lobes, one on either side of the medulla and a central vermis joining the two hemispheres
Where is the medulla?
Runs from the border of the pons to where the spinal cord was cut when the brain was removed
What is the parietal lobe involved in?
Perception
Interpretation of sensory information
Idea of complex meaningful motor responses
Dominant lobe (left) control language and mathematical operations
Non-dominant lobe (right) controls visuospatial functions
What is the frontal lobe involved in?
Motor function
Problem solving
Memory
Language
Judgement
Personality
Impusle control
social and sexual behaviour
Idea is that the frontal cortex is what makes you you
What is the temporal lobe involved in?
Language- Wernicke’s area (superior temporal gyrus)-> understanding spoken language
Memory
Emotion
Perceiving sounds
Assigning meaning to those sound
Contains amygdala, hippocampus, primary auditory cortex
What is the occipital lobe involved in?
Visual information
What does the limbic system include?
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Fornix
Cingulate
What does the limbic system regulate?
Emotion
Memory
Behaviour
Olfaction
What is the hippocampus invovled in?
Long term memory formation
What is the amygdala invovled in?
Fear and Reward
What systems does the limbic system regulate?
The endocrine system
The autonomic nervous system
What are the two layers of the dura mata?
- Outer endosteal layer- lines the interior of the skull, adhering to and sending blood vessels and fibrous processes into the cranial bones
- Inner meningeal layer- envelops the brain and spinal cord and provides tubular sheaths for the cranial nerves
What is the falx cerebri?
An arched crescent of dura lying in the longitudinal fissure between the two hemispheres
Where is the superior saggital sinus?
Where the falx cerebri attaches to the cranium
What is the superior saggital sinus?
It is a midline venous structure that receives blood from multiple draining vessels and drains the bilateral cerebral hemispheres
Where is the inferior saggital sinus?
At the inferior margin of the falx cerebri