Neuroanatomy Lab Exam 1

Frontal Lobe

• decision making/problem solving

• planning and reasoning

• voluntary movement

• speech production

• emotional control/personality

• primary motor cortex/voluntary movement

• prefrontal cortex: attention, judgment, planning, impulse control

Parietal Lobe

• processes sensory information

• spatial awareness/navigation

• proprioception

• primary somatosensory cortex: touch, pain, pressure, temperature

Temporal Lobe

• auditory processing

• language comprehension

• memory formation- medial temporal lobe, hippocampus

• emotional responses- connections with amygdala

Occipital Lobe

• visual processing

• recognition of shapes, colors, and motion

Corpus Callosum

• largest commissural white matter tract

• connects R & L cerebral hemispheres

Septum Pellucidum

• thin membrane between L&R ventricles

• below corpus and fornix

Thalamus

• relay station/switchboard

• receives sensory information and filters, routes, and relays to cerebral cortex

• participates in motor loops with basal ganglia and cerebellum

Hypothalamus

• inferior to thalamus

• homeostasis

• regulates autonomic nervous system

• home of pituary gland

• oversees temp, hunger, thirst, circadian rhythm, stress

Cingulate Gyrus

• curved gyrus above corpus callosum

• helps link emotional experience to action (emotional response)

Hippocampus

• formation of new declarative memories and spatial memory

• located deep in medial temporal lobe

Lateral Ventricle

located in cerebral hemispheres

Third Ventricle

located in diencephalon

Fourth Ventricle

located in hindbrain

Cerebral Aqueduct

Amygdala

• threat detection, fear/emotional salience, emotional memory

• located in anterior medial temporal lobe

• anterior to hippocampus

Caudate Nucleus

• C-shaped part of striatum involved in action selection and habits

• deep gray matter, part of the basal ganglia

• goal directed action, habits, learning from feedback

Putamen

• helps plan, prepare, and execute smooth voluntary movements

• major role in habits and motor learning

Globus Pallidus

• medial to putamen

• controls, inhibits, and regulates voluntary movement

Claustrum

• thin sheet of gray matter located lateral to external capsule

Nucleus Accumbens

located where the caudate and putamen meet anteriorly

Mammillary body

• memory circuitry, important relay in memory circuits

• works closely with thalamus and hippocampus

• small rounded structures on interior surface of hypothalamus

Anterior commissure

• small bundle of white matter fibers that cross midline

• located anteriorly near hypothalamic reigon

Fornix

• c-shaped white matter tract located beneath corpus callosum

• important pathway of limbic system

Internal Capsule

• white matter tract located between deep gray matter structures

• carries motor and sensory fibers between cerebral cortex and deep CNS structures

External Capsule

thin layer of white matter located lateral to the putamen

Cerebellum

• located dorsal to pons and medulla

• coordinates timing, precision, error correction, balance, and motor learning

• coordinates smooth and accurate movements

• compares intended movement to actual

• important for balance, posture, gait, and eye movement coordination

Pons

• bridge between midbrain and medulla oblongata

• helps modulate breathing rhythm with medullary conters

• involved in sleep, arousal, and REM

• supports facial sensation, chewing, facial expression, hearing and balance

• CN V-VIII

Medulla Oblongata

• autonomic vital centers, cranial nerve nuclei, transition to spinal cord

• contains cardiovascular and respiratory control centers

• regulate heart rate, blood pressure, breathing

• coordinates swallowing, coughing, sneezing, gagging, and vomiting reflexes

• CN IX-XII

Midbrain

• superior brainstem, contains major motor/sensory pathways, oculary motor nuclei, colliculi, substantia nigra, and cerebral aqueduct

• controls eye movements (CN III, IV)

• helps with visual orienting reflexes and auditory reflex pathways

• dopamine related movement circuits

Spinal Cord

Optic Chiasm

• inferior to hypothalamus and anterior to pituary stalk

• where optic nerve fivers cross to the opposite side

• part of visual pathway