Brain

• Motor area (voluntary movement)
• Muscle memory
• Broca's area - speech
• Eye movement
• Prefrontal cortex - Intellect, cognition, recall, and personality. Linked to limbic system - emotional part of brain.

• Association area
• Integrates sensory information
• Wernicke's area - Language

Vision

• Hearing
• Taste
• Smell
• Visceral sensory area
• Vestibular cortex - balance

Recieves information signals and calculates the best way to perform a movement

• Midbrain
• Pons
• Medulla Oblongata

• Thalamus
• Hypothalamus
• Epithalamus
• Integration of mind and body

• Parts of temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes
• Recognition of:
• 1. Patterns and faces
• 2. Localization in space - Where am I in this room?
• 3. Self as related to environment

each hemisphere has abilities not shared with its partner

designated the hemisphere dominant for language

• controls:
• 1. language
• 2. math
• 3. logic

• controls:
• 1. visual-spatial skills
• 2. emotion
• 3. artistic skills

• Corpus Striatum
•   1. Caudate Nucleus
•      a) Substantia nigra
•   2. Lentiform Nucleus
•      a) Putamen
•      b) Globus palidus
• Control of movement, monitoring motor intensity, multiple actions at once.
• Damaged in Parkinson's Disease

Post office of the brain - gathers all sensory information coming in and directs it to the correct area of the brain.

• Regulates involuntary systems - blood pressure, rate and force of heartbeat, digestive tract motility, rate and depth of breathing.
• Limbic funtions - pleasure, fear, and rage.
• Maintains normal body temp
• Regulates feeling of hunger and thirst
• Regulates sleep cycle
• Endocrine function - releases hormones

• Regulates sleep
• Pineal gland secretes melatonin
• Melatonin - a hormone involved with sleep regulation, sleep cycles, and mood.

• 1. Frontal
• 2. Parietal
• 3. Occipital
• 4. Temporal
• 5. Cerebellum

• Electroencephalogram
• Measures the sum of post-synaptic potentials across surface of the brain

• Postitron Emission Tomography
• Measures radioactivity as a measure of metabolic activity

• magnetic resonance imaging
• Can image structures based on their water content, including blood flow.

• computed tomography
• Is basically 3D X-ray, to pinpoint lesions or tumors.

• NREM stages include:
• Stage 1 – eyes are closed and relaxation begins; the EEG shows alpha waves; one can be easily aroused.
• Stage 2 – EEG pattern is irregular with sleep spindles (high-voltage wave bursts); arousal is more difficult.
• Stage 3 – sleep deepens; theta and delta waves appear; vital signs decline; dreaming is common.
• Stage 4 – EEG pattern is dominated by delta waves; skeletal muscles are relaxed; arousal is difficult.

• The EEG shows beta waves = fully alert??..yet not easily aroused.
• Quite a bit of dreaming; vivid & emotional.
• Motor activity (except eyes!) is inhibited, so you don’t act out dreams in REM.

lapsing abruptly into REM sleep from the awake state

chronic inability to obtain the amount or quality of sleep needed

temporary cessation of breathing during sleep

• Emotional state – we learn best when we are alert, motivated, and aroused.
• Rehearsal – repeating or rehearsing material enhances memory.
• Association – associating new information with old memories in LTM enhances memory.
• Automatic memory – subconscious information stored in LTM - to which new memories connect.

• Three connective tissue membranes lie external to the CNS – dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater
• Functions of the meninges:
•    1–Cover and protect the CNS
•    2–Protect blood vessels
•    3–Contain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
•    4–Form partitions within the skull

• Leathery, strong meninx composed of two fibrous connective tissue layers.
• The two layers separate in certain areas and form dural sinuses - drain venus blood back to jugular veins.
• Three dural septa extend inward and limit excessive movement of the brain.

• The middle meninx, which forms a loose brain covering
• It is separated from the dura mater by the subdural space.
• Beneath the arachnoid is a wide subarachnoid space filled with CSF and large blood vessels.
• Arachnoid villi protrude superiorly and permit CSF to be absorbed into venous blood.

Deep meninx composed of delicate connective tissue that clings tightly to the brain.

• Watery solution similar in composition to blood plasma.
• Contains less protein and different ion concentrations than plasma.
• Forms a liquid cushion that gives buoyancy to the CNS organs.
• Prevents the brain from crushing under its own weight.
• Protects the CNS from blows and other trauma.
• Nourishes the brain and carries chemical signals throughout it.

• Clusters of capillaries that form fluid filters, which hang from the roof of each ventricle.
• Allows fluid to enter ventricles via diffusion from capillaries.
• Have ion pumps that allow them to alter ion concentrations of the CSF.
• Help cleanse CSF by removing wastes.

• Protective mechanism that helps maintain a stable environment for the brain.
• Selective barrier that allows nutrients to pass freely.
• Is ineffective against substances that can diffuse through plasma membranes (ethanol, nicotine, some other drugs).
• Absent in some areas (vomiting center and the hypothalamus), allowing these areas to monitor the chemical composition of the blood.
• Stress, some chemicals, viruses increase the ability of chemicals to pass through the blood-brain barrier.

a progressive degenerative disease of the brain that results in dementia

degeneration of the dopamine-releasing neurons of the substantia nigra

a fatal hereditary disorder caused by accumulation of the protein huntingtin that leads to degeneration of the basal nuclei.

• Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease
• Mad-cow Disease