The Cerebral Cortex Functions of the cortex are localised into discrete areas: Sensory Areas- these receive impulses via sensory neurones from receptors that detect the stimuli reaching the body. The skin has more receptors in some parts of the body than others. Motor areas send impulses to skeletal muscles along nerve fibres passing down the brain stem and spinal cord. As with the sensory areas the part of the body is represented by an area of the motor cortex.  Association areas make decisions and send impulses through the motor areas.

The Lobes Prefrontal Lobe

Frontal Lobe Function: This lobe is divided into three different areas and is responsible for cognition, memory and emotional intelligence. Prefrontal Area – This area is responsible for planning, complex ideas, behaviors,  concentration and the ability to focus. This area is also responsible for emotional traits, judgment and inhibition. Motor – The rear-most portion of the frontal lobe, this area is responsible for voluntary motor activity. Premotor –This area is involved with volitional movement (storage of motor patterns) and motor activity to the opposite side of the body. In other words, the right side of the brain is responsible for the left side of the body.

Frontal Lobe Injury Injury to this area, or a lack of accurate sensory information from the lower levels of the brain, causes among other things: inability to retrieve recent memories, inattentiveness, lack of focus, difficulty learning new information, lack of inhibition, and inappropriate sexual and social behavior.

Frontal Lobotomy Was a surgical procedure in which about one-third of the frontal part of the frontal lobe was cut away from the rest of the brain. This was to help those people with sever emotional problems. 18,000 done in the 1940s and 1950s.

Temporal Lobe This lobe is responsible for receiving auditory information and recognizing words; it is thus central to the process of learning and understanding language. It is also an important structure for emotions, for making new memories, and for short-term memory. Other parts of this lobe appear to integrate memories of taste, sound, sight, and touch. Injury to the temporal lobe, or a lack of accurate sensory information from the lower levels of the brain, impairs the ability to process auditory information accurately, as well as other hearing impairments. Injury to this area can also cause a person to become overly agitated or irritable, and to exhibit childish behavior.

Parietal Lobe This lobe is responsible for processing sensory input and sensory discrimination. It is also called the ‘association area’.  It is responsible to receive and utilize from the lower levels of the brain, information about: temperature, taste, touch, and movement from the rest of the body – such as distance and position of objects.  It is also responsible for reading and arithmetic. Injury to this area, or lack of accurate sensory information from the lower levels of the brain, create an inability to discriminate between different stimuli, locate and recognize parts of the body, inability to write and disorientation in environmental space.

Occipital Lobe This is the primary visual center of the brain. It processes information from the eyes, and links that information with images stored in memory. In other words, this area helps you determine what you are looking at. The most common effect of injury to the occipital lobe is visual impairment; severe injury to this lobe can cause blindness. Along with visual impairment, injury to the occipital lobe can cause hallucinations, can cause objects to appear larger or smaller than they are, and can cause colors to appear abnormal.

Visual Processing  The visual sensory area is at the back of the brain and receives sensory input from the optic nerve.  Neurones from the left half of the retinas of both eyes go to the visual sensory area in the left hemisphere and likewise for the right half of the retina.  Therefore the two hemispheres see slightly different images from opposite sides of the visual field, these differences help judge distance.

The Midbrain The Midbrain – is a sub cortical level of the brain. Through the body of the midbrain pass a substantial number of various fiber tracts especially related to vision, voluntary muscle activity and other important functions. The midbrain contains: Thalamus Hypothalamus Hippocampus Basal Ganglia Pineal Body Corpus Callosum

Thalamus Thalamus - A main sensory relay and integrative center connecting with many areas of the brain, including the cerebral cortex.

Hypothalamus Hypothalmamus – The master control of the autonomic nervous system, parasympathetic and sympathetic. This system stimulates and controls structures such as the heart, most glands and smooth muscles. In effect, this system allows your systems to excite and relax, as needed. This system integrates the autonomic and endocrine functions with behavior.

Hippocampus Hippocampus – This area of the brain, apart from its other functions, is primarily responsible for short term memory.

Amygdala (part of Basal Ganglia) Amygdala –is involved in forming, recognizing, and remembering emotional experiences, especially fear as well as emotional facial expressions.

Hindbrain

Pons Pons—functions as a bridge to interconnect messages between the spinal cord and brain. The pons also involved in sleep.

Medulla (Oblongata) Medulla—located at the top of the spinal cord, including a group of cells that control vital reflexes, such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure.

Cerebellum Cerebellum—located in the back and under the brain. Involved in coordinating movements but not in initiating voluntary movement. Key in timed motor activities like sports

Hemispheres (Cortex)

Left – Right Brain … Characteristics of Left Brain: Logical Sequential Rational Looks at parts Analytical Objective In addition, this part likes technicalities, numbers, data, facts, logic and precision. Characteristics of Right Brain: Random Intuitive Subjective Looks at wholes Holistic Synthesizing This part is more interested in challenge, risk, new ideas, imagination, and whole picture.

Right Brained or Left Brained When reading your left side actually reads the words and allows you to decode the words. Your right side keeps track of the story and visualizes the details and recalls related personal experiences. Both is the most likely answer.

The Cerebral Hemispheres  The upper part of the brain, the cerebrum is responsible for all voluntary activities, it is connected to the nervous system.  The cerebrum is divided down the middle by a deep cleft into two cerebral hemispheres connected by the nerve fibres of the corpus callosum  The inside contains fluid and only the outer few mm of the cerebral hemispheres contains neurones and this is called the cerebral cortex.  The cortex is highly folded providing a large surface area.

Amygdala Amygdala – limbic structure involved in many brain functions, including emotion, learning and memory. It is part of a system that processes "reflexive" emotions like fear and anxiety.

Cerebellum Cerebellum – governs movement. Coordinates (but not initiates) voluntary movement.

Cortex/Cerebrum Cortex or Cerebrum – are the four lobes of the “gray” matter. It is dived unto four major lobes and is the part of the brain used in high level brain activities.

Frontal Lobe Frontal Lobe – helps control skilled muscle movements, mood, planning for the future, setting goals and judging priorities.

Hippocampus Hippocampus – plays a significant role in the formation of long-term memories.

Medulla (Oblongata) Medulla (Oblongata) – contains centers for the control of vital processes such as heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and swallowing.

Limbic System Limbic system – a group of interconnected structures that mediate emotions, learning and memory.

Occipital Lobe – helps process visual information.

Parietal Lobe Parietal Lobe – receives and processes information about temperature, taste, touch, and movement coming from the rest of the body. Reading and arithmetic are also processed in this region.

Pons Pons – contains centers for the control of vital processes, including respiration and cardiovascular functions. It also is involved in the coordination of eye movements and balance.

Thalamus Thalamus – a major relay station between the senses and the cortex (the outer layer of the brain consisting of the parietal, occipital, frontal and temporal lobes).

Temporal Lobe – processes hearing, memory and language functions.

The Different Regions of the Brain The medulla controls heart rate, breathing, peristalsis, and reflexes such as sneezing. The hypothalamus controls temperature and water homeostasis. Also controlling the release of hormones by the pituitary gland. The thalamus is a relay station, integrating sensory input and channelling it to the sensory areas of the cerebrum. The cerebellum co-ordinates muscle movement and so controls balance, posture and movement.

Motor and Sensory Areas  The main motor area controls the main skeletal muscles of the body and the main sensory area receives input from the various skin receptors all over the body.  The areas are duplicated onto the two cerebral hemispheres, which control opposite sides of the body.  Therefore, those situated on the left cerebral hemisphere are linked to the right side of the body and vice versa.  The regions of the body with many sensory neurones have correspondingly large areas of the cortex linked to them. For example, the lips occupy a larger region of the sensory cortex than the shoulder, because they have more sensory neurones.

Association Areas Theses are involved in advanced kills such as visual recognition , language understanding, speech and memory retrieval.  The frontal lobes are particularly large in humans, they are thought to responsible for higher functions such as abstract thought, personality and emotion.  The association areas are not duplicated in the two hemispheres. The right hemisphere has association area for face recognition, spatial skills and musical sense. The left hemisphere has association areas for speech language and language mathematical logical and analytical