Parts of Forebrain (1.4) Flashcards
Forebrain is…
largest portion of the brain by weight and volume
What does the thalamus do?
- serves as an important
relay station for incoming sensory information except
for smell - sorts and transmits them to the appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex
Functions of the Hypothalamus?
Feeding
Fighting
Flighting
Fucking
What does lateral hypothalamus do?
detect when the body needs more food or
fluids.
What does anterior hypothalamus do?
sexual behavior, regulates sleep and body temperature.
What is the posterior pituitary comprised of?
- comprised of axonal projections from the hypothalamus
-site of release for the hypothalamic hormones (ADH i.e. vasopression) and oxcytocin
What does the pineal gland do?
- key player in several biological rhythms
- secretes melatonin, regulates circadian, receives signals from retina
How does the basal ganglia function?
Using the extrapyramidal system which gathers information about body position and carries this information to the CNS, but does not function
directly through motor neurons.
What’s in the limbic system?
septal nuclei, amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior
cingulate cortex
What is the septal nuclei?
One of the primary pleasure centers in the brain
What do lesions to the amygdala cause?
docility and hypersexual states
Where does the hippocampus redistribute memories?
Redistribute remote memories to the cerebral cortex
How does the hippocampus communicates with other portions of the limbic
system?
Long projection called the fornix
What’s anterograde amnesia?
Not being able to establish new long-term memories
What’s retrograde amnesia?
memory loss of events that transpired before brain injury
What does the anterior
cingulate cortex do?
- functions in higher order cognitive processes,
- regulation of impulse control and decision-making.
- emotion and motivation (via connection to limbic)
What is the cerebral cortex sometimes called?
Neocortex
What does the prefrontal cortex do?
- Manages executive function by supervising and directing the operations of other brain regions.
- regulate attention and alertness
- communicates with the
reticular formation in the brainstem, telling an individual either to wake up
or to relax - associated with perception, memory, emotion, impulse control, and longterm
planning. - reminds individuals that they
have something to remember at a
What do prefrontal lesions do?
- Impulsivity
- less in control of their behavior
- angry outbursts
- higher predisposition to
crying - vulgar and inappropriate sexual remarks
- apathetic to the
emotional responses of others
What is an association area?
integrates input from diverse regions of the brain
Where is the primary motor cortex?
on the precentral gyrus, just in front of the central sulcus that divides the frontal and parietal lobes.
- a projection area
How are fine motor controls reflected in the cortex?
they take up additional space in the cortex relative to
their size in the body
What is the central region of the parietal lobe associated with?
- spatial processing and manipulation
- makes it possible to orient oneself and other objects in three-dimensional space
*Basically proprioception
What is the visual cortex also called?
Striate Cortex
What does the occiptal lobe also do?
learning and motor control
How do motor neurons coordinate movement?
motor neurons on the left side of the brain activate movements on the right side of the body
What sense communicates Ipsalaterally?
Hearing
What does the dominant (left) hemisphere do?
- primarily analytic
- manages details
- language, logic, and math skills
- screens incoming language to analyze its content
What does the nondominant (right) hemisphere do?
- intuition
- creativity
- music cognition
- spatial processing
- more sensitive to the emotional tone of spoken language, and permits us to recognize others’ moods based
on visual and auditory cue
