Brain structures

Brain refers to

Cerebrum, brainstem, cerebellum, and subcortical structures

Cerebrum

Left and right hemispheres

Brainstem

Connection between the brain and spinal cord

3 parts of the Brainstem

Midbrain, pons, medulla

Primary role of the brainstem

Keeps us alive, ex: heartrate, breathing

Afferent

From PNS to CNS, body to brain

Efferent

From CNS to PNS, brain to body

Cerebellum

structure on back of brain, looks like a shell, little brain

Main functions of cerebellum

Coordinate and refining movement, sending signals to different muscle groups

Damage to cerebellum

Problems coordinating movement

Subcortical structures

Diencephalon and basal ganglia

Diencephalon

Thalamus, hypothalamus, subthalamus, epithalamus

Left hemisphere

Language and cognition processes

Right hemisphere

Supporting role

Hills

Gyrus

Valleys

Sulcus, fissures

Lobes of brain

Frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal

Central sulcus

Divides frontal lobe from parietal lobe

Parts of frontal lobe

Broca's area, premotor cortex, motor cortex, prefrontal lobe

Frontal lobe

Higher executive functioning

Broca's area

Important for language production. Ex: finding the right words, organizing the syntax

Premotor cortex

Planning and programming motor sequences for speech production. building the code

Motor cortex

Sends neural signals from the frontal lobes towards the body to produce speech

Prefrontal lobe

Important for cognition, especially executive functions (planning, reasoning, organizing)

Parietal lobe

Mainly sensory, important for perception, body awareness, helps w/ lang. Comprehension

Primary sensory cortex

Receives nerve signals about sensation from the body (ex: pain)

Temporal lobe

Mainly hearing

Parts of the temporal lobe

Primary auditory cortex (Heschl's gyrus), wernicke's area, ventral stream, memory, emotion, social skill and empathy

Heschl's gyrus

Processes auditory signals

Wernicke's area

Language comprehension

Ventral stream

Neural pathway with visual images, helps to recognize faces and objects

Occipital lobe

Processes visual information from the eyes

Parts of occipital lobe

Dorsal and ventral stream

Dorsal stream

Visual signals sent from occipital lobe to parietal lobe to get info about the "where" (spatial info)

Insula

Sits deep in sylvian fissure, is a helper lobe

Basal ganglia

A collection of cell bodies, sits inside the cerebellum

Parts of the basal ganglia

Caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus

Primary role of basal ganglia

Motor system, producing movements

Damage to basal ganglia

Would cause issues producing movements

Thalamus

A collection of cell bodies, part of diencephalon

Roles of thalamus

helper structure

• Process and relay sensory signals and motor movement information

• Sends info to brainstem about consciousness

• Helps process language signals

insular lobe

sits deep in the sylvian fissure

roles of the insular lobe

helper, helps with autonomic system, processing sensory information, social cognition, regulating attention, and coordinating motor movements for articulation