Parts of the Brain Kelly Caron

Breaking the Brain Apart

• The right side of the cerebrum controls things such as imagination and 3-D forms.

• The left side, controls numbering skills, posture, and reasoning.

• The hemispheres also consist of many other parts such as the lobes.

• The more we think, the more calories we burn…

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test...

• http://www.doctorhugo.org/brain4/test4.html

Each hemisphere is divided into four lobes:

1. the frontal (planning and thinking- rational and executive control center of the brain, higher order thinking, direct problem solving, and regulating excess emotion) contains self will, a.k.a. personality trauma=personality change

2. parietal (spatial orientation, calculation, and recognition)

3. temporal (deal with sound, music, face and object recognition, and some parts long term memory)

4. occipital lobes (visual processing)

Motor Cortex and Somatosensory Cortex

Motor Cortex and Somatosensory Cortex (Between Parietal and

Frontal Lobes)

Motor Cortex

• Control Body Movement• Works with cerebellum to

coordinate the learning of motor skills

Somatosensory Cortex

• Processes touch signals received from various parts of the body

Brainstem

• Oldest and Deepest part of the Brain

• 11 of 12 body nerves end here in brainstem

• Body functions (heart beat, respiration, and body temperature) are monitored and controlled

Limbic System

• Above brainstem

Four parts:

1.The Thalamus

2.The Hypothalamus

3.The Hippocampus

4.The Amygdala

Limbic System

1. The Thalamus- all incoming sensory information (except smell) goes here first

2. The Hypothalamus- monitors the internal systems to maintain the normal state of the body (homeostasis) by controlling the release of hormones it can moderate body functions (sleep, food intake, and liquid intake) WARNING- if out of balance difficult to concentrate

Limbic System (cont.)

1. The Hippocampus- major role in consolidating learning and converting information to memory (if damaged or removed can not remember anything afterward)

2. The Amygdala- plays an important role in emotions and regulates interactions with environment (attack, escape, mate, or eat)

These parts of the brain work together to ensure that we remember for a long time those events that are important and emotional!!!

Cerebrum and Cerebellum

Cerebrum

• Soft jellylike mass• Nearly 80 percent of the

brain by weight• Pale gray and wrinkled• Marked by furrows called

fissures• One large fissure runs

through and divides cerebrum into halves

• Nerves from left side cross to right (vice versa)

• Hemispheres covered by cortex (1/10th inch thick)

• Where most of the action takes place (thinking, memory, speech, and muscular movement)

• Neurons connect with each other here to form neural networks

Cerebellum

• Latin for “little brain”• 11 % of brain weight• Deeply folded and highly

structured containing more neurons than all of the rest of the brain put together

• Coordinates movement (complex motor tasks: golf swings, dancer’s footsteps, cup to lips)

• Mental rehearsal of motor tasks

• Damaging would cause slower and simpler movement

• Researchers believe it acts as a support to cognitive processing by coordinating and fine tuning our thoughts emotions, senses, and memories

What part of the brain?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErjP5xMTc8I

Movie compared to Brain…In the romantic comedy, Lucy is the main character who suffered a brain injury in a car accident. Her main symptom was loss of short-term memory. This is caused by damage to the hippocampus, inside the temporal lobe, as the hippocampus controls memory functions.

The character Oola is a friend of Henry Roth, whom helps come up with clever ideas to help Lucy fall in love with Henry everyday. Oola is affecting his neurotransmitters by the daily use of marijuana. Marijuana works as an agonist, it blocks the receptor site, and the neurotransmitters cannot get across the synapse.

Sean Astin’s character, Doug, is Lucy’s aggressive brother. This aggression can be attributed to his abuse of steroids. This steroid abuse may have affected Doug’s amygdala, the part of the limbic system that controls aggression and fear. Conversely, it may have affected Doug’s hypothalamus, which is also involved in aggression.

Visuals

• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/images/ency/fullsize/18007.jpg

• http://www.stanford.edu/group/hopes/basics/braintut/f_ab16limbic.gif

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErjP5xMTc8I

• http://www.myschoolhouse.com/courses/c/3/Images/brain.gif