Pinnacle Charter School – Mr. Tomasino The Brain Pinnacle Charter School – Mr. Tomasino

What is it? The brain weighs about three pounds. It is the size of a grapefruit. It has the consistency of a ripe avocado. From atop it looks like a walnut – hence walnut brain.

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Why Do We Have It? THE HUMAN BRAIN might just be the most complex thing in the world, and there is a lot we do not know about it. It holds our memories, keeps our heart beating, tells our muscles to move, allows us to learn and speak, it even allows us to feel emotions and have fun.

Its Parts CEREBRUM: Holds our memories, and controls how we respond to different sensory signals from the world around us CEREBELLUM: Coordinates all of your movement and muscles to help you walk and remain balanced

Its Parts FRONTAL LOBE: Controls our ability to use words and speech as well as how we react to situations emotionally. PARIETAL LOBE: Controls our sense of touch as well as how we use our hands to complete tasks

Its Parts OCCIPITAL LOBE: This is where our sense of vision is controlled from TEMPORAL LOBE: This is where our sense of hearing is centered as well as our ability to organize things. PONS: Controls our breathing and heartbeat BRAIN STEM: Sends all of the decisions that the brain makes to the rest of the body.

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Hypothalamus The main function of the hypothalamus is homeostasis, or maintaining the body's status quo. Factors such as blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance, and body weight are held to a precise value called the set-point. Although this set-point can migrate over time, from day to day it is remarkably fixed.

The Amygdala

The Seat of All Passion The Amygdala is an almond shaped cluster of interconnected structures perched above the brainstem, near the bottom of the limbic ring. There are two of them – one on each side of the brain nestled toward the side of the head.

Emotional Matters The Amygdala is the specialist for emotional matters. If it is severed from the brain, it results in an inability to gauge the emotional significance of events – affective blindness. The Amygdala is like an alarm company ready to send out an emergency.

An Alarm? When it is alarmed, it sends out the signals for the body to go into fear – fight or flight. Amygdala arousal imprints in memory moments of emotional arousal with an added degree of strength – that is why we are more likely to remember where we went on our first date, or where we were when we heard the news of 9-11.

Emotional Memories – Faulty Guides? Birth and early life traumas imprint the emotional center distorting reality. When we experience something in the present that the Amygdala associates with the past, it commands the body to react the same way.

Present at birth Since the Amygdala is present at birth, it imprints when needs are not met. Fear is the response. Early traumas can lead to impulsive emotional outbursts when the Amygdala identifies the stimuli with trauma from the past.

Emotional Intelligence This is why some very smart people can react impulsively to external stimuli. They are not emotionally mature. Despite their intellectual potential, these are the children at highest risk for problems like academic failure, alcoholism, and criminality.