The Brain Flashcards
Spinal Cord
Part of the CNS (interneurons)
Medulla
Controls heartbeat & breathing (life support functions)
Reticular formation
Controls arousal (nerve network) RAS
Pons
Regulates states of wakefulness & sleep
Thalamus
Sensory switchboard (except smell)
Cerebellum
Controls motor function (muscle memory) “Little Brain”
Hypothalamus
Regulates body functions (eating, drinking, body temperature) HPA Axis
Hippocampus
Memory (processes new memories for permanent storage)
Amygdala
Emotions (fear & anger)
Frontal lobes
Planning and judgement
Motor cortex
Controls voluntary movement
Sensory cortex
Registers and processes body sensations
Occipital lobes
Visual processing area
Temporal lobes
Auditory processing area
Broca’s area
Expressive language (speech muscles)
Wernicke’s area
Receptive language (interpret auditory information)
Angular gyrus
Comprehension of language (auditory stimuli and memory retrieval)
Somatosensory cortex
Sensory information from the body, such as touch, temperature, pain, and pressure:
Phineas Gage
The relation between personality and the function of the front parts of the brain
Cerebral cortex
The body’s ultimate control and information processing center
Phrenology
The study of the conformation and especially the contours of the skull based on the former belief that they are indicative of mental faculties and character
Parietal lobe
Processing information (includes mathematical reasoning and integration of memory)
Localization
The theory that specific parts of the brain are responsible for specific functions or behaviors
Lateralization
the process by which different regions of the brain become specialized to perform specific functions
Franz Gall
developed the theory of Organology and the method of Cranioscopy that would later be known as Phrenology
Split Brain operation
a surgical procedure that severs the corpus callosum, the band of nerve fibers that connects the two halves of the brain
