Medulla: controls breathing and heartbeat (if you damage your medulla you’ll medie)

Cerebellum: involved in balance, coordination, and classically conditioned responses (cerebellum = cerebalance)

Reticular formation: responsible for the sleep-wake cycle (think reticular, REM)

Thalamus: receives sensory input and transfers it to the cortex for processing (hello, this is your thalamus speaking, how may I direct your call?)

Hypothalamus: monitors your blood chemistry, oversees the endocrine system by controlling pituitary gland, involved in eating, drinking, and sexual activity. (hypothalamus, I’m hyper hungry; hypothalamus = hi pituitary!_

Amygdala: involved in fear, aggression, and detecting emotion on people’s faces (think AHHHHHmygdala)

Hippocampus: involved in learning and the storage of long-term memories (memory consolidation)(you would remember if you saw a hippo on campus!)

Broca’s area: involved in speech production [Broca / boca (mouth in Spanish), Broca brings words out of your mouth)

Wernicke’s area: involved in understanding the meaning of language (Wernicke’s, what do you mean?)

Prefrontal cortex: involved in personality, problem solving, decision making, planning, and other executive functions (prefrontal = problem solving, planning, personality)

Motor cortex: controls voluntary muscles movement (motor, movement, muscles)

Somatosensory cortex: processes physical sensations (soma = body, sensory = sensation)

Occipital lobes: processes vision (occipital, optical, optometrist, o looks like an eye)

Temporal lobes: involved in hearing, language processing, and long-term memory storage (temporal = tempo in music; you hear music)

Basal Ganglia: involved in procedural memory (completing tasks that don’t require conscious effort)(basal, bike)

GABA:

§ Calms/slows down the brain

§ Tells neurons to stop firing

Glutamate:

§ Encourages neurons to fire

§ Too much can cause seizures

Norepinephrine:

§ Involved in fight-or-flight

§ Arousal (the type that helps with fight or flight)

Serotonin:

§ Mood regulation

§ Low levels associated with depression

Dopamine:

§ Motivation/reward/pleasure

§ Low levels = Parkinson’s

§ High levels = Schizophrenia

Acetylcholine:

§ Muscle contraction

§ Learning

§ Memory

§ Low levels = Alzheimer’s

Endorphins:

§ Body’s natural opiates (pain killers)

§ Released during exercise