The brain

Question 1

What are neurons?

Answer 1

The cellular building blocks of the brain.

Question 2

What is neuroscience?

Answer 2

The study of how nerves and cells send and receive information from the brain, body, and spinal cord.

Question 3

How many neurons do scientists estimate that we have?

Answer 3

85-100 billion tiny neurons and several hundred trillion connections between them.

Question 4

What is the top-down and bottom-up phenomenon?

Answer 4

When higher regions of the brain receive information from the lower regions and respond by influencing the function of these lower regions.

Question 5

What is the cerebral cortex? What does it allow you to do?

Answer 5

The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of tissue in the brain which allows you to use cognitive skills and experience complex emotions.

Question 6

What does the outer frontal cortex do?

Answer 6

It supports your understanding of others and yourself, and controls your decisions and actions.

Question 7

What are subcortical regions?

Answer 7

Areas of the brain that are deep beneath the surface.

Question 8

What do the amygdala and hippocampus support? What happens when they are damaged?

Answer 8

They support the creation of episodic memories, especially involving emotional events. Damaging them results in being unable to form new memories.

Question 9

What are genes?

Answer 9

The basic physical and functional units of heredity that are made up of DNA.

Question 10

What is the nervous system?

Answer 10

A network of neurons running throughout your brain and body.

Question 11

What are nerves?

Answer 11

A collection of neurons that carries signals from the body to the brain.

Question 12

What is the spinal cord?

Answer 12

The major bundle of nerves, encased in your spine, that connects to your body and your brain.

Question 13

What are sensory neurons and what do they do?

Answer 13

Sensory neurons carry information from the outside world (for example, light) and within your body (for example, signals from your immune system) to your brain.

Question 14

What are motor neurons and what do they do?

Answer 14

Motor neurons send signals to get your motor running-to make the body take action-whether to move your legs, make your heart beat faster, or remove your finger from the flame of a burning candle.

Question 15

What are interneurons and what do they do?

Answer 15

Interneurons connect neurons. They interpret, store, and retrieve information about the world, allowing you to make informed decisions before you act.

Question 16

What is the central nervous system?

Answer 16

The system composed of the brain and spinal cord; information from your body travels to the brain by the way of the nerves of your spinal cord.

Question 17

What is the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 17

The system composed of the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord; connects the parts of the body to the brain.

Question 18

What is the somatic nervous system?

Answer 18

The somatic nervous system controls your conscious and voluntary movement which includes your skeletal muscles, which are attached to your skeleton.

Question 19

What is the autonomic nervous system?

Answer 19

The autonomic nervous system operates mostly outside of your conscious control and is involuntary. Because of this system, you do not have the will of your heart beat and lungs to breathe. It includes your organs, blood vessels, and glands.

Question 20

What is the sympathetic nervous system?

Answer 20

The division of the autonomic nervous system that acts on blood vessels, organs, and glands in ways that prepare the body for actions, especially in life-threatening situations.

Question 21

What is the parasympathetic nervous system?

Answer 21

A division of the autonomic nervous system that returns the body to a resting state by counteracting the actions of the sympathetic system.

Question 22

What are hormones?

Answer 22

The blood-borne chemicals that travel through the circulatory system enabling the brain to regulate the body’s activities.

Question 23

What is the endocrine system?

Answer 23

A network of glands that produces and releases hormones into the bloodstream to regulate the body’s activities.

Question 24

What are the adrenal glands?

Answer 24

The endocrine glands located on top of the kidneys; they produce a variety of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, that are central to the stress response.

Question 25

What do the two stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol do?

Answer 25

They boost your energy, increase your heart rate, blood pressure, and blood-sugar levels. They produce the familiar rush you get when you are highly nervous, anxious, or excited.

Question 26

What is the hypothalamus and where is it?

Answer 26

The hypothalamus is located in the intersection of the central nervous system and the endocrine system and is located at the bottom of the brain. It governs your motivational states like eating, drinking, and having sex.

Question 27

What is the pituitary gland and where is it?

Answer 27

The pituitary gland hangs below the hypothalamus which is a tiny pair of oval-shaped clusters. The pituitary gland sends messages to regulate other endocrine glands throughout the body, modulating hunger, sexual arousal, and via the pineal gland, sleep.

Question 28

What hormones does the pituitary gland create?

Answer 28

It creates sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, influencing growth, sexual development, and brain development. It also creates oxytocin which plays a role in personal trust, romantic love, and reproductive functions related to giving birth.

Question 29

What is the occipital lobe and where is it?

Answer 29

It runs along the back of the head and is largely devoted to vision.

Question 30

What is the temporal lobe and where is it?

Answer 30

It runs alongside the ears and contains the primary auditory cortex which is responsible for your ability to hear and understand language.

Question 31

What is the parietal lobe and where is it?

Answer 31

It runs alongside the the head above and below the ears and supports a map of our body’s skin surface and the sense of touch through the primary somatosensory cortex.

Question 32

What is the frontal lobe and where is it?

Answer 32

It is located at the front of the head and it is essential for movement and planning. The rearmost section of this lobe contains the primary motor cortex and a map of our muscles which works with the spinal cord to control movement. The rest of the frontal lobe is called the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for thought, planning, decision making, and self control.

Question 33

What is the insular lobe and where is it?

Answer 33

It is hidden underneath the temporal, frontal, and parietal lobes. While the outer cortex represents our ability to perceive the outer world, the insular cortex allows us to perceive the inside of our bodies. The insular cortex includes the primary taste cortex (and thus perceives what is inside our mouth), and it allows us to perceive the states of our body’s internal organs (Chikazoe, Lee, Kriegeskorte, & Anderson, 2019), such as the feeling of your heart racing or internal pain from your chest or appendix, which should send you to the emergency room.

Question 34

What does neocortex mean?

Answer 34

The evolutionarily newest cerebral cortex that is the largest part of the human brain; supports complex functions, including language, thought, problem solving, and imagination. It is the majority of the cerebral cortex.

Question 35

What are primary sensory areas?

Answer 35

The first regions of the cerebral cortex to receive signals from a sensory organ via its sensory nerve.

Question 36

What is the primary motor cortex?

Answer 36

The cortex that is responsible for voluntary movement.

Question 37

What is the primary somatosensory cortex?

Answer 37

The cortex that is responsible for touch.

Question 38

What is the association cortex?

Answer 38

The cortex that integrates information coming in from the senses with existing knowledge.

Question 39

What is the limbic system?

Answer 39

A system often associated with emotion; it bridges the older, lower brain regions that regulate the body with the newer, higher brain structures more related to complex mental functions.

Question 40

What is the basal ganglia?

Answer 40

A group of interconnected structures that are an evolutionarily older subcortical motor system necessary for planning and executing movement.

Question 41

What is the thalamus?

Answer 41

The thalamus is located between the basal ganglia resembling two large symmetrical eggs, which communicates information to and from all of the sensory systems except the olfactory (smell) system, regulating alertness and consciousness.

Question 42

What is the hypothalamus?

Answer 42

The hypothalamus sits below the thalamus and is the master controller of the brain and body. It integrates bodily signals with their associated feelings and behaviors; regulates specific functions, including hunger, body rhythm, reward seeking, and aggression.

Question 43

What is the brainstem?

Answer 43

The lowest region of the brain; it sits on top of and is continuous with the spinal cord, collecting sensory signals from the body and sending signals down from the brain to create movement and regulate vital functions.

Question 44

What is the pons?

Answer 44

The pons is apart of the brainstem and it controls breathing and relays sensations, such as hearing, taste, and balance, to the sub cortex and cortex.

Question 45

What is the medulla oblongata?

Answer 45

A lower brainstem structure that controls automatic functions including heart rate, and blood pressure, and reflexes like coughing or swallowing.

Question 46

What is the reticular formation?

Answer 46

A structure that runs through the brainstem and is connected to many parts of the brain. Plays a central role in arousal and attention.

Question 47

What is the cerebellum?

Answer 47

A hindbrain structure behind the pons and medulla which supports coordination, balance, precision, and accurate timing.

Question 48

What are executive functions?

Answer 48

The cognitive processes that allow us to plan, focus attention, and organize multiple tasks to complete our goals.

Question 49

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 49

The two halves of your brain work together via a bridge of fibers called the corpus callosum, which relays neural information between the two hemispheres.

Question 50

What does contralateral mean?

Answer 50

“opposite side,” communication between the brain and the body.

Question 51

What is a split brain procedure?

Answer 51

A surgeon performs a split brain procedure severing the corpus callosum. In addition to preventing future seizures, this procedure results in a person with two largely separate halves of the brain, rather than a united whole.