Outline

A. Human Brain
a) Neurolinguistics

b) Neurophysiology

c) Size of the Brain

d) Study of the Brain

B. Functions of the Brain

a) Cerebral Cortex

b) Left Hemisphere

c) Right Hemisphere

d) Corpus Callosum

e) Frontal Lobe

f) Parietal Lobe

g) Occipital Lobe

h) Temporal Lobe

i) Limbic System

j) Basal Ganglia

C. Anatomy of the Brain

a) Basic Bodily Functions

b) Movements

c) Ideas and Decisions

 d) Social Interaction

e) Memory

f) Touch

g) Speech & Language

h) Vision

i) Smell & Taste

j) Sound

k) Emotions

l) Problems

D. Brain’s Ability
a) Levitation

b) Survival Mode

c) Sense Danger

d) Control of our nerves

e) Rewire itself after stroke

f) Brain repairs itself while sleeping

Anatomy of Brain

a) Body Function

The Brainstem is a part of the hindbrain. The Primitive core of the brain, it regulates our
vital functions such as homeostasis – the amount of water in the body –heart rate, blood
pressure; in short the basic requirements of life. Loss of brainstem function is better
known as being “brain dead” – the end of autonomous vital functions.

b) Movement

Neurons in the spinal cord control muscle movement and automatic, simple patterns
such as walking. In the prefrontal cortex, neurons govern more sophisticated goals and
ideas about taking action. It would be impossible for these separate parts of the brain to
communicate without intermediate areas translating signals. For Example, the prefrontal
cortex passes information to the premotor cortex, becoming an action plan to be passed
to primary motor cortex, where plans become patterns of movements. Both premotor
and primary motor cortices signal to the spinal cord, converting ideas about movements
into muscle contractions via a constant cascade of information. Other areas also assist
and connect to the cortical system to control movement. The cerebellum stores
“procedural” memories for movement while the basal ganglia helps generate sequence
of movements.

c) Ideas & Decisions

The most sophisticated part of the frontal lobe is the prefrontal cortex, where our
decision-making and problem-solving abilities happen. At vey front of the brain, perched
above the eyes, it coordinates mental functions and organizes behavior; interacting over
many parts of the cortex can result in difficulties suppressing inappropriate behavior and
decision-making problems often because of a failure to register the consequences of
actions. Neuroscientists think this part of the brain helps with understanding relationship
and rules relating to actions, outcomes and current circumstances. This part also stores
information on short-term basis: our “working memory”.

d) Social Interactions

Primates –including humans spend a great deal of time watching others in an effort to
determine their future behaviour or to work out what they might be thinking. Living and
surviving in social groups depends on the ability to represent the contents of other
people’s minds inside our own. Modern scientific methods have revealed specific areas
that become active when we try to decide about what’s going on in someone else’s
mind. The parcingulate cortex is a particularly important area sited on the front part of
the inner surface of each hemisphere. In autistic individuals, who have trouble
understanding other are metal states, this area may work differently from those of non-
autistic people.

e) Memory

Long-term memory allows the brain to store and recall information for periods from 30
seconds to a lifetime. No single place in the brain stores all these memories. Instead,
different brain circuits control the two types of long-term memory. Procedural memory is
unconscious, converging tasks such as driving that, once learned, are remembered
without conscious effort. Procedures memories are thought to be stored in the
cerebellum. Declarative memory is conscious. Episodic declarative memory stores
information about specific spans of time; semantic declarative memory covers “timeless”
meaning and knowledge. Both sets are encoded in the neurons of the hippocampus and
surrounding temporal cortex. Exactly how the brain encodes these memories remains
controversial.

f) Touch
Nerve fibres in the skin are sensitive to stimulation from pain to a light touch and they
send their sensory information to the primary somatosensory cortex. Like the motor
cortex, neurons here process information from adjacent body parts “topographically”,
sending it on the parts of the cortex that process it with greater refinement.

g) Speech & Language

Specialized systems in the brain comprehend and generate information. Areas in the
brain’s left hemisphere operate the language system. Control of the speech production
system happens in the parts of the left frontal lobe called Broca’s area, connected to
parts of the motor cortex controlling facial muscles. If Broca’s area becomes damaged,
patients’ ability to generate speech suffers (Broca’s aphasia). At the very back of the left
temporal lobe, Wernicke’s area plays a key role in speech comprehension and is
connected to some processing cortical areas. If damaged, important sensory aspects of
language such as emotional content, pitch and tone become difficult to interpret
(Wernicke’s aphasia). In brain imaging of healthy adults comprehending and producing
speech, both areas show heightened activity.

h) Vision
The eye’s retina contains a layered sheet of light-sensitive neurons. When light reaches
them, the active neurons send signals to the primary visual cortex located at the rear of
the brain. This part of cortex specializes in processing visual information. When
something appears and the field of vision, very specific parts of the cortex respond and
then distribute information to other parts of the cortex that process data such as motion
and color even more specifically.

i) Smell & Taste

Smell and taste information is processed differently from other sensations. Both are
conveyed from receptors in the nose and tongue directly to the orbitofrontal cortex in the
prefrontal cortex.

j) Sound
Cells in the ear are sensitive to different frequencies of the sound. These reach the
primary auditory cortex after passing through chains of neurons in the brainstem and
thalamus, where specialized neurons deal with particular sonic frequencies. The cortex
area sends on these information to the areas processing sounds such as speech in
more sophisticated ways.

k) Emotions

The emotional brain contains specialized areas that helps us react quickly and
appropriately in particular situations, especially when there is little time or great danger
involved. Areas of the brain dealing with emotions belong to what is sometimes called
the limbic system. The amygdale is one of the brain’s most important emotional centres,
processing information about all kinds of stimuli, positive and negative, from the reading
of facial expressions to “phobic”, irrational responses to stimuli such as house spiders.
The ventral striatum processes data about rewards and punishment such as food and,
in humans, money. In the prefrontal cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex above the eye seems
specialize in attaching reward value to objects, with neurons signaling the extent
specific rewards are favored.
 l) Problems

Well known for monitoring performance anterior cingulated cortex is located on the inner
surface of each hemisphere near the front of the brain. Neurons here react specifically
to situations where a person has made a mistake or failed to correctly predict an
outcome of a decision. Mood disorders such as clinical depression are also implicated
here