AP Psych

Amygdala

Processes our emotions like flight or fight response.

Basal Ganglia

Involved in cognitive and emotional behaviors and play an important role in reward and reinforcement, addictive behaviors and habit formation.

Brain Stem

It plays an important role in maintaining homeostasis by controlling autonomic functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. Can organize motor movements such as reflexes, it coordinates with the motor cortex and associated areas to contribute to fine movements of limbs and the face.

Broca’s Area

Involved mainly in the production of spoken and written language and also in language processing and comprehension.

Cerebellum

Monitors and regulates motor behavior, particularly automatic movements. Some recent studies have associated with cognitive functions, such as learning and attention.

Corpus Callosum

Consists of a large bundle of fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Each hemisphere controls movement in the opposite (contralateral) side of the body and can also specialize in performing specific cognitive and perceptual functions. Allows information to move between hemispheres

Frontal lobe

They are the main site of so–called 'higher' cognitive functions. contain a number of important substructures, including the prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, motor and premotor cortices, and Broca's area. These substructures are involved in attention and thought, voluntary movement, decision–making, and language.

Hippocampus

 It is important as an early storage place for long–term memory, and it is involved in the transition of long–term memory to even more enduring permanent memory. Plays an important role in spatial navigation.

Hypothalamus

 It controls many autonomic functions such as hunger, thirst, body temperature, and sexual activity.

Limbic System

Involved in processing and regulating emotions, memory, and sexual arousal, also responsible for processing the body's response to odors.

Occipital lobe

Primary visual area of the brain. It receives projections from the retina (via the thalamus) from where different groups of neurons separately encode different visual information such as color, orientation, and motion.

Parietal Lobe

Perception and integration of somatosensory information (e.g. touch, pressure, temperature, and pain), visuospatial processing, spatial attention, spatial mapping, number representation

The Prefrontal Cortex

Executive processes (voluntary behavior such as decision–making, planning, problem–solving, and thinking), attention, inhibition, intelligence, and social skills.

 Premotor Cortex

Planning and executing motor movements, imitation, and empathy.

Primary Motor Cortex

 Areas of the motor cortex correspond precisely to specific body parts, but, not all body parts are equally represented by surface area or cell density

 Temporal Lobes

Recognition, perception (hearing, vision, smell), understanding language, and learning and memory

Thalamus

Relaying motor and sensory information, memory, alertness, consciousness, and it contributes to perception and cognition.

Ventricles

They have no unique function but provide cushioning against brain damage and are useful landmarks for determining the location of other brain structures.

Wernicke's Area

Language comprehension