Brain Structure & Function

Hindbrain

cerebellum, medulla oblongata and pons

Midbrain

helps to regulate movement

Forebrain

entire cerebrum, the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the pineal gland and the limbic system - basal ganglia

Frontal Lobe

• Higher Mental Abilities - problem-solving & decision-making

• planning

• emotion

• personality

• voluntary motor movements

• speech & language production

Parietal Lobe

• Processing sensory information

• touch, temperature & pressure

• understanding of the body in space - spatial awareness

• attention

Occipital Lobe

Receiving and processing visual information

Temporal Lobe

• Registering and processing auditory information

• involved in memory & language

Cerebellum

• helps coordinate voluntary movements - posture and balance

• plays a part in memory, emotion regulation, timing, emotional modulation and sensory discrimination

Hippocampus

• consolidation of short-term memories to long-term memories.

• learning

Amygdala

• almond shaped neural clusters

• responsible for emotions

• linked to emotions of anger and fear

• fight, flight, freeze response

Thalamus

• brain’s “sensory switchboard”, located on top of the brainstem

• filters and directs messages to the sensory areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

• except smell

Cerebral Cortex

• outer layer of the brain - most visible

• 3mm thick, wrinkled

• divided into 4 lobes

Brainstem

• oldest part of the brain

• controls automatic survival functions - breathing, heartbeat, digestion & blood pressure

Medulla

• controls heart rate, swallowing, breathing, blood pressure, vomiting, salivating and sneezing

• lowest part of the brain, continuation of the spinal cord

Pons

• involved in sleep, dreaming & waking up

• helps to control breathing & coordination

• can be a bridge/message transfer between areas

• above the medulla on top of spinal cord

Wernicke’s Area

• a brain area involved in language comprehension

• in the left temporal lobe

Broca’s Area

• Controls language expression

• Area in the left frontal lobe

• Directs the muscle movements involved in producing speech.

Primary Motor Cortex

• plans, controls & coordinates all voluntary muscle movement

• Inside the frontal lobe

Primary Somatosensory Cortex

• Receives and processes touch, temperature and pressure from the senses

• Located in the parietal lobe

Primary Visual Cortex

• Receives visual stimuli from the eyes

• Located in the occipital lobe

Primary Auditory Cortex

• Processes sound information

• Located in the Temporal Lobe

Corpus Callosum

The large band of fibres connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.

Cerebrum

• two large hemispheres of the upper part of the brain

• learning, memory, sight, hearing, motor function, hearing, spatial awareness

Basal Ganglia

learning, procedural memory, routine behaviour & emotions, planning & control of fine motor control

Contralateral organisation

he left side of the brain controls and receives from the right side of the body and vice versa

Hemispheric Specialisation

when on cerebral hemisphere has a specialised function that is not possessed, or is controlled by a lesser extent, by the other

Neocortex

the top layer of the cerebral cortex

involved in higher-order mental processes such as:

• Language

• Attention

• Memory

Left Hemisphere

• verbal tasks - speech production, comprehension, reading, writing

• analysis (maths, sequential tasks)

• logical reasoning

Right Hemisphere

• non-verbal

• processing things as a whole not in bits

• spatial and visual thinking

• creativity

• fantasy - imagination/daydreaming

• appreciation of art