Divisions of the Brain

  1. Medulla
    • Includes lots of sensory and motor tracts traveling between brain and spinal cord
    • Also regulates breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, vomiting, muscle coordination
  2. Pons
    • Continuation of tracts between brain and spinal cord
    • Connections with cerebellum (lots of fascicles that connect two hemispheres of cerebellum)
  3. Locked-In Syndrome
    • Typically caused by damage to ventral pons
    • Patient is fully conscious but can't move
    • Sometimes voluntary eye blinks and some facial movements are possible
  4. Midbrain
    • Auditory and visual attention, movement regulation, pain processing
    • Continuation of tracts between telencephalon and spinal cord
  5. Substantia Nigra
    • "Black substance" that prevents unwanted movements
    • Degenerates in Parkinson's disease
  6. Reticular Foramen
    • Web of cell bodies throughout brainstem
    • Lots of connections with cerebral cortex (via thalamus) and spinal cord
  7. Functions of Reticular Formation
    • Motor control: rhythmic coordination of breathing and swallowing; balance; posture; combines auditory, visual, vestibular information to regulate muscle coordination
    • Cardiovascular control
    • Pain modulation
    • Sleep and consciousness
    • Habituation
  8. Coma
    • Often results from damage to reticular formation
    • Tests for brainstem function: breathing pattern, posture, eye movement reflexes, and pupillary reflexes
  9. Cerebellum
    • 2 hemispheres, vermis in the middle
    • Folia and sulci make up cerebellar cortex
    • Contains 50% of the neurons in the brain
  10. Cerebellar Peduncles
    Connect cerebellum to pons
  11. Function of Cerebellum
    • Motor coordination
    • Motor learning
    • Timekeeper
  12. Diencephalon
    Main components are thalamus and hypothalamus
  13. Thalamus
    • Gateway to the cerebral cortex
    • Processes almost all sensory information passing to cortex
  14. Functions of Thalamus
    Memory, emotion, awareness of emotions,
  15. Hypothalamus
    Important for basic functions: thirst, hunger, reproduction, aggression, and circadian rhythms
  16. Hypothalamus Monitors Signals in Blood
    • Circle of Willis surround hypothalamus
    • Hormones, body temperature, glucose levels monitored by hypothalamus
  17. Paraventricular Nucleus of Hypothalamus
    • Lots of neurons project to pituitary gland which controls the release of hormones
    • Releases oxytocin and vasopressin into the bloodstream
    • Regulates some functions of the brainstem
  18. Suprachiasmatic Nucleus of the Hypothalamus
    • SCN has approximately 24 hours of gene expression that regulates sleep, alertness, body temperature, hormone secretion and digestion
    • Eyes have pathway to SCN so that light can adjust cycle
  19. Mammillary Nucleus (bodies)
    • Involved in memory processing (especially smell-associated memories)
    • Caused by vitamin B deficiency (chronic alcoholism)
    • Results in anterograde memory loss
  20. Superior Temporal Lobe
    Auditory
  21. Medial Temporal Lobe
    Memory
  22. Inferior Temporal Lobe
    Visual
  23. Frontal Lobe
    • Motor cortex: cell bodies of corticospinal tract
    • Premotor cortex: motor planning
    • Prefrontal cortex: decision making, planning, social judgment, motivation
  24. Phineas Gage
    Iron rod went through his left frontal lobe = fitful and irreverent
  25. Parietal Lobe
    • Somatosensory Cortex: touch, pain, and temperature
    • Sensory integration and visual localization
  26. Insular Cortex
    Gustatory cortex (taste), emotion, degree of pain, and effects autonomic nervous system
  27. Cingulate Cortex
    • Part of limbic system
    • Emotional processing, learning and memory
  28. Aphasia
    Language deficit due to lesions (damage) to Broca or Wernicke area
  29. Broca's Aphasia
    Slow speech, can't find correct words
  30. Wernicke's Aphasia
    Can't understand written or spoken words
  31. Basal Ganglia
    Helps regulate movement
  32. Amygdala
    • Lots of connection to/from hypothalamus
    • Lots of olfactory input
    • Involved in fear perception, emotional memory formation, social behavior and sexual desire
  33. Hippocampus
    • Just under medial temporal lobe (and lots of connections)
    • Involved in memory formation and spatial learning
  34. H.M.
    • Medial temporal lobe cortex and hippocampus removed bilaterally to reduce seizures
    • Anterograde memory loss, and some retrograde memory loss
  35. Alzheimer's Disease
    Preferentially destroys hippocampus
Author
crzhazen
ID
62780
Card Set
Divisions of the Brain
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Divisions of the Brain
Updated