Brain

Central Nervous System

central nervous system —> brain —> spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System

somatic —> autonomic —> (below) —> sympathetic —> parasympathetic

Dual Functions of the Autonomic Nervous System (sympathetic)

arousal and stress

Dual Functions of the Autonomic Nervous System (parasympathetic)

returning the body its resting state

Prenatal Brain Development

• By three weeks, a primitive neural tube of stem cells has formed.

• The neural stem cells divide and multiply, eventually producing neurons and glial cells.

• The top of the neural tube gradually thickens into three bulges that develop into the three main brain regions - hindbrain, midbrain, & forebrain.

Brain Maturation: the formative years - birth 3 years

Branching ‘neural networks’ enable walking, talking, and remembering.

Brain Maturation: the formative years - birth 3-6 years

frontal lobes develop, enabling rational planning

Brain Maturation: the formative years - 6-13 years

Association areas in the cortex proliferate, enriching thinking, memory, language and reading skills

Brainstem

• Supports life- sustaining bodily functions.

• Contains the medulla, pons, & midbrain

Medulla

• Controls heart rate, blood pressure, & breathing

• Controls reflexes such as vomiting, sneezing, & coughing

• (part of brainstem, connects to spinal cord)

Pons

• Helps regulate functions such as

breathing, salivating, & swallowing

• Helps coordinate basic motor control & balance

• Receives sensory input such as auditory and pain signals

neurogensis

pumps out new neurons based on your practices/enviornment

synapotogenesis

Cerebellum

• Helps coordinate and fine tune motor activity.

• When we learn new complex motor skills via practice, these become procedural memories. ie. dribble basketball

• Gives us the ability to act on ‘auto-pilot’ whenever these skills are used.

hunt disease and motor control

effects cerebellum, thalamus, basal ganglia = fine tune and coordinate our movements. motor is affect

The Limbic System

• A system of brain structures that plays a major role in emotional processing and memory formation.

• Allows us to adapt and respond efficiently to the massive amount of incoming information streaming through our senses every second of the day.

The Limbic System includes

• Thalamus

• Hypothalamus

• Hippocampus

• Amygdala

• Anterior cingulate cortex

Thalamus

• The brain’s central router.

• It receives most sensory information and routes it to the cortex for further

perceptual processing. ei. eavesdropping

• Modulates our attention and is vital for basic consciousness.

Hypothalamus

• Located below the thalamus.

• Helps govern the endocrine system.

• By regulating ALL our hormones, it controls vital functions such as

our stress response.

• Specialized neurons in the hypothalamus regulate our sleep-

wake cycle

• Regulates the endocrine system via the pituitary gland

Hippocampus

• Helps encode long-term memories such as your personal experiences & the material in this lecture.

• Helps distribute these memories into networks of knowledge stored

throughout the brain.

• Helps us remember how to get from point A to point B

(spatial navigation)

• Neurogenesis

Amygdala

• Plays a central role in modulating our emotional and motivational states

• Helps ‘spotlight’ ambiguous stimuli for further assessment

• For example, one of its functions is to act as a ‘threat management system’ – fear processing

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

• Connects limbic system with prefrontal cortex

• Top-down control of emotion

• Active when we are cognitively ‘working through’ or ‘dealing’ with immediate emotional experiences

• Helps optimize our behavioral response to the

situation.

Cerebral Cortex

• Outer surface of the brain

• Primary cortex vs. Association cortex

• The entire cortex is responsible for the most complex aspects of

perception, emotion, movement, and thought.

Cerebral Lobes (occipital)

• visual information (visual cortex)

Cerebral Lobes (Temporal)

hearing (auditory cortex), language comprehension

Cerebral Lobes (Parietal)

• information about touch (somatosensory cortex)

Cerebral Lobes (frontal)

Planning, reasoning, abstract thinking, language production, impulse

control, movement (motor cortex)

distinction between primary and association cortex

-

primary motor cortex

contain map of body.

motor cortex - back of front lobes, large strip of brain that helps exceute all of our movements

primary somatosensory cortex

manages all highly sensative places of our contralleteral processing

contralateral control

brain plasticity

phantom limb sensations for amputees

• People’s brains change as a result of experience.

• Children’s brains are much more plastic than adults’.

• Plasticity allows for learning.

• Deaf people develop enhanced vision as parts of their auditory cortex become adapted to respond to visual stimuli.

• If language is disrupted in left hemisphere, in some cases, the right hemisphere may compensate

Hypothalamus 2

the hypothalamus regulates the endocrine system via the pituitary gland