The Brain Flashcards
What are the three major divisions of the brain?
- Forebrain
- Midbrain
- Hindbrain
What is the hindbrain?
The hindbrain is located at the back of the head at the base of the brain and looks like an extension of the spinal-cord. It is also known as the brainstem.
What is the Medulla Oblongata?
It controls the involuntary processes of the autonomic nervous system, including the respiratory Centre, cardiac Centre, digestion and reflexes .
What is the cerebellum?
It controls balance, posture, coordination of muscles, muscle memory, motor learning and every day voluntary but automatic tasks, i.e. walking and writing
What is the midbrain?
The midbrain is located in between the forebrain and hindbrain in the centre of the brain.
What is reticular formation?
A complex network of brainstem nuclei and neurons that serve as a major integration and relay centre for many vital brain systems to coordinate functions necessary for survival.
What is the forebrain?
The forebrain is the largest and most highly developed part of the brain. It is located at the top ‘brain’ looking part.
What is the thalamus?
It relays sensory and motor signals to, and from the cerebral
What is the hypothalamus?
It regulate the release of hormones that control body temperature, water levels, sleep, sex drive, and food intake.
What is the cerebrum?
The cerebrum is the primary control centre for voluntary muscle movements. It is also the Primary processing centre of sensory information.
What are the two parts to the cerebrum?
- Cerebral cortex
- Corpus callosum
What are the lobes of the cerebrum?
- Frontal lobe
- Parietal lobe
- Occipital lobe
- Temporal lobe
What is the cerebral cortex?
The cerebral cortex is the outmost layer of the cerebrum. It is comprised of folded grey matter.
What is grey matter?
Contains the cell bodies, dendrites and axon terminals of neurons
What is white matter?
Made of axons that connect different parts of grey matter to each other
What are the hemispheres of the cerebrum?
- Left
- Right
What is the corpus callosum?
It connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain and allows them to communicate
What is the longitudinal fissure?
It is what separates the left and right cerebral hemispheres of the cerebrum
What is contralateral control?
It is when the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
Hemisphere collateralisation is a tendency for certain mental processes to be specialised to one side of the brain or the other
What is a corpus colostomy?
It is when the two hemispheres of the brain are disconnected by cutting the corpus callosum
What are the three parts to the Frontal Lobe?
- Primary motor cortex
- Prefrontal cortex
- Broca’s area
What is the primary motor cortex?
The primary motor cortex generates neural impulses that control the initiation and execution of voluntary movement
What is the prefrontal cortex?
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functioning. For example, abstract thinking, problem-solving, logic, judgement, personality, and emotional regulation.
What is Broca’s area?
It is the motor speech area. It helps in the movement of tongue, throat, and/or facial muscles for word formation and speech production
What is broca’s aphasia?
Broca’s aphasia is when patients have difficulty producing grammatical sentences, and their speech is limited, mainly to short utterances of less than four words.
What are the two parts to the temporal lobe?
- Primary auditory cortex
- Wernicke’s area
What is the primary auditory cortex?
It controls the processing of auditory stimuli
What is wernicke’s area?
It is involved with the understanding of spoken and written language
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
Wernicke’s aphasia is when patients typically speak in long sentences and speech comes easily. However the words they are saying do not make sense.
How are neurons in the Primary auditory cortex organised?
They are organised according to the frequency of sound to which they respond to best
What is the occipital lobe?
The occipital lobe is responsible for visual processing areas
What is the Visual Processing Area?
It receives and processes, visual information, e.g. colour, shape, and motion
What is the parietal lobe?
The parietal lobe is responsible for primary sensory areas - bodily sensations, spatial awareness, perception, reading, spelling and arithmetic.
What is the primary sensory cortex?
The primary sensory cortex receives general sensory information from skin and proprioceptors of skeletal muscle, joints and tendons. It is also capable of spatial discrimination, i.e. the identification of body regions being stimulated.
