Brain

Corpus callosum

A bundle of axons that allow for communication between the 2 hemispheres

Cerebrum

The brain lobes

Frontal lobe

Movement, planning, and voluntary motor control

Parietal lobe

Touch, taste and processing

Occipital lobe

Vision, visual awareness, and processing

Temporal lobe

Hearing, smell, emotion, learning, and language

Cerebrum

Cerebral cortex, cerebral white matter, basal nuclei, and the limbic system

Cerebral cortex

The brain's outermost, wrinkled layer of gray matter.

Responsible for awarness, communication, memory, inititation of voluntary movements, and understandinginitiationawareness

Hemorhagic stroke

Stroke where blood leaks into brain tissue

Ischemic stroke

Stroke where a clot stops blood flow to the brain

Strokes

Hemoragic or ischemic

Cut off of blood to brain

Occurs in the brain on the opposite side of the symptoms

Dominate cerebral hemisphere

Controls speech, writing, reading, verbal skills, analytical skills, and computational skills

Non-dominate cerebral hemisphere

Controls nonverbal tasks, motor tasks, understanding and interpreting music and patterns, and emotional and intuitive thought processing

Brain plasticity

Lifelong ability to adapt, grow, and reorganize its physical structure and functional networks

Motor areas

Primary motor cortex, motor association area, and broca’s area

Primary motor cortex

Voluntary movement

Contains pyramidal cells

Forms pyramidal tracts

Motor association area

Helps plan complex movements

Broca’s area

Only if left hemisphere

Controls the muscles needed for speech production

Wernicke’s area

In posterior association area

Formulates written and spoken language (comprehension)

Aphasia

Loss of the ability to speak

Sensory areas

Conscious awareness of sensation

Primary somatosensory cortex, primary gustatory cortex, primary visual cortex, and primary auditory cortex

Primary somatosensory cortex

The brain's main hub for processing tactile inputs, including touch, pain, temperature, and proprioception.

Receives sensory data from the opposite side of the body

Sensory homunculus

A map of the body on the primary somatosensory cortex where the size of each body part reflects how much sensory information it sends to the brain

Olfactory cortex

Arises from centers deep within the cerebrum

Gustatory coretex

Near base of the central sulcus

Vestibular cortex

Conscious awareness of balance

Visceral cortex

Conscious awareness of visceral sensations

Multimodel association areas

Complex connected areas that receive inputs from multiple senses and send outputs to multiple areas

Allows us to give meaning to received information as a whole

Memories, previous knowledge, and decisions

Prefrontal cortex

Intellect, cognition, working memory, personality, judgment, and planning

Temporal lobe lesions

Spacial awareness and recognition of patterns

Parietal lobe lesions

Object or body localization in space

Limbic association area

Emotion

Multimodel association areas

Input from many sensory systems

Unimodal association areas

Input from 1 sensory system

Cerebral white matter

Association tracts, commissural tracts, and projection tracts

Association tracts

Connects different parts of the same hemisphere

Commissural tracts

Connects hemispheres (corpus colosseum) so they can fucntion as a whole

Projection tracts

Connects cerebral cortex to lower areas

Contains ascending and descending tracts

Basal nuclei

Masses of grey matter deep within the central hemisphere

Filters out unwanted movements

Contains the caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus

Nigrostriatal pathway

Regulates basal nuclei activity

Substantia nigra

Contains the neurons that produce neurotransmitter dopamine

Has both inhibitory and excitatory receptors

Parkinsons disease

Destruction of a portion of the dopamine producing neurons

Symptoms: tremor, rigidity, postural instability, soft/monotone voice, and micrographia

The limbic system

The center of emotion, motivation, and learning

Contains cerebrum and diencephalon

Hypothalamus

Maintains homeostasis by regulating the autonomic nervous system and endocrine system

Controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep, and hormone release

Hippocampus

Formation and consolidation of memories

Immediate memory

Holds information for a few seconds

Ex). Remembering a phone number long enough to dial it

Short term memory

Holds information for seconds to minutes and can be actively processed (working memory).

Long term memory

Stores information for hours to a lifetime for later retrieval

Thalamus

The relay center for sensory input to cerebral cortex and motor centers

All sensory systems run though it, besides the olfactory

Pineal gland

Produces melatonin

Brainstem

Contains the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata

Midbrain

Relays sensory and motor signals between the brain and spinal cord

Pons

Acts as a relay station between the cerebrum and cerebellum, and helps regulate breathing, sleep, and facial movements/sensory signals

Medulla oblongata

Controls vital autonomic functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and basic reflexes

Reticular formation

Promotes arousal and consciousness

Helps filter sensory information

Cerebellum

Coordinates balance, posture, and smooth/precise voluntary movements

Control the same side as body

Meninges

Connective tissue membranes of CNS

Contains the dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater

Dura mater

The tough outermost layer

Arachnoid mater

The middle spiderweb like layer that contains CSF

Pia mater

The innermost layer that dips into sulci

CSF

Prevents the brain from crushing itself and helps to prevent damage from impacts

Helps nourish brain cells and get ride of wastes

Clear in color

Ventricles

Interconnected cavities that are filled with CSF and lined by ependymal cells

Hydroencephalus

An interference with CSF ciculation that casues a buidup of pressure

Subarachnoid spae

The space between the pia mater and the arachnoid mater

Blood brain barrier

Tight junctions within the endothelial cells that act as the primary barrier

Neurofibrillary tangles

Tangles of misfolded proteins that disrups normal neuron function, leading to cell death

Causes alzheimers

Chronic tramatic encephalopathy (CTE)

Repeated concussions that lead to a change in behavior, including aggression, confusion, depression, poor judgment, and dementia

Causes a buildup of the tau protein

Tau protein

A neuronal protein that regulates the stability and assembly of microtubules

Begins to buildup in the brain after repetitive brain injury or in neurofibrillary tangles