L22 - the brain Flashcards
what is the brain stem connected to?
spinal cord (brain stem comes up from spinal cord)
what is the mid brain?
middle of brain, helps cortex do its job
what does the brain stem do?
essential subconscious things (e.g respiration, BR, HR)
what does the cortex do?
conscious decision making, higher order thinking (emotions, memory, mood)
as you go up the brain it becomes more?
evolutionary advanced
bigger cortex =
more evolutionary advanced]
cerebral cortex (cortical structures)
- subdivided into lobes
- frontal lobes: front
- occipital lobe: back
- temporal lobes where ears are
- parietal lobe (underneath crown of skull)
somatosensory cortex
receives input from sense of touch (mechanoceptors)
functional localisation in the cerebral cortex
- somatosensory (somatic) cortex
- motor cortex
- visual cortex
- auditory cortex
motor cortex
neurones responsible for providing output to skeletal muscle to move it
ascending pathways
neuronal pathway goes from spinal cord up to brain
descending pathway
neurone that starts in brain then goes down to spinal cord to provide output to periphery
voluntary movement
- involves primary visual cortex: receives input from eyes (tells brain what eyes are seeing)
- secondary visual cortex: interprets what out eyes tell us
premotor cortex in voluntary movement
provides output to skeletal muscle in right order (e.g walking)
frontal cortex in voluntary movement
mood, emotion, executive control (risk benefit analysis, decision making)
wenicke’s area in voluntary movement
responsible for language, and when you read
broca’s area in voluntary movement
involved when you actually speak and write (learns language and interprets what ears hear)
basal ganglia in midbrain
- allow different parts of cortex to communicate with each other
prefrontal cortex
involved in personality
cerebellum
- involved in motor memory/ skeletal muscle movement
- once you learn how to ride bike, you can do it forever
which region of the brain contains the primary visual cortex?
occipital lobe
fast neurotransmitter examples
Glutamate and GABA
what is glutamate?
- excitatory
- opens ligand gated ion channels (Na+)
what is GABA?
- inhibitory
- opens ligand gated ion channels (Cl-)
examples of slow NT’s
5-HT, ACh, dopaminę, noradrenaline/ norapinephrine
what do slow NT’s do?
activate G-protein coupled receptors, have more slow physiological effect
which lobe is the somatosensory cortex localised?
parietal lobe
which lobe is the motor cortex localised in?
frontal lobe
which lobe is the auditory cortex located in?
temporal lobe
