The Cerebral Cortex

Cerebral Cortex

intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres, body's ultimate control and info processing center

Glial Cells

GLUE: cells in nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons

Frontal Lobes

involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements, motor/PFC, behind forehead

Parietal Lobes

include sensory cortex, crucial role in processing and integrating sensory information, located in top of head

Occipital Lobes

visual processing, include visual areas which receive visual info from opposite visual fields, eyes in the back of head

Temporal Lobes

processes auditory info, encoding memories, and understanding language, includes auditory areas, located near temple

Motor Cortex

controls voluntary movement, near rear of frontal lobe

Sensory Cortex

registers and processes body sensations like touch/pain, front of parietal lobes registers and process

Homunculus

a map of the body in the brain's cortex that shows how the brain processes sensory and motor functions, larger areas dedicated to body parts like the hands and face, because they have higher concentration of sensory nerves and require more precise motor control

Broca's Area

area left of frontal lobe that directs muscle movement involved in speech.

damage = broken speech, difficulty producing speech

Wernicke's Area

area of left temporal lobe involved in language comprehension and expression

damage = fluent speech with little meaning (word salad)

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage to Broca's and Wernicke's area

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

brain's executive control center, responsible for high-levels functions like planning, decision-making, personality, and critical role in emotional regulation, impulse control and attention.