- Forebraino Highest level of the braino Critical for complex cognitive, emotional, sensory & motor functions Cerebral cortex Subcortical structures/limbic system- motivation, emotion, memory- Corpus callosum: bundle of fibers that connect the 2 hemispheres- Thalamus: communicates between different parts of the brain (the “sensory relay station”)- Hypothalamus: bodily functions (breathing, temperature, hunger, ANS, hormone release via the pituitary gland, “pleasure center”)- Amygdala: strong emotions (fear, disgust, etc.)- Hippocampus: memory formationo The hippocampus and amygdala are close to each other b/c we often remember events w/strong emotional meaning- The limbic system separates the “older” and the “newer” parts of the braino Basal ganglia: movement, regulate dopamineo 4 lobes *Frontal lobe: higher order thought, impulses, understanding Parietal lobe: orientation, space , movement, interpretation & processing information about the environment Temporal lobe: hearing, music, memory (through the hippocampus) Occipital lobe: vision *lobes aren’t individual structures, simply regions of the brain devoted to different thingso Phineas Gage: a rod went through his head, though miraculously he survived, however he became aggressive because of damage to his frontal lobeo Cortexes in the lobes: Frontal lobe: the association cortex & the motor cortex, and Broca’s area (motoraspects of producing speech) Parietal lobe: the somatosensory cortex (relationship to sensory on body regions) Temporal lobe: Wernicke’s area (understanding language), and the auditory/“musical” cortex- E.g. a woman who had seizures heard her mother singing lullabies because the neurons in her musical cortex were firing Saying a word you see written: brain processes it in visual cortex  Angular gyrus  Wernicke’s area  Broca’s area  motor cortex E.g. Gabrielle Gifford, former senator, was in Tuscon shooting and was shot through the back of her head through her eye. She could understand speech but couldn’t talk (due to damage to Broca’s area) The somatosensory cortex: regions specialized for sense for certain parts of the body (e.g. the tongue, the jaw, etc.). The more they are used the bigger space they take up in the brain.- Brain Plasticity & Sensations in Phantom Limbso Phantom limb syndrome: following limb amputation, some patients continue to feel sensations where the missing limb would be. It is often painful.o Stimulating areas of the face & other body parts may activate sensations in the missing limb, do to compensation of cortical area in somatosensory cortexo “Mirror box” used to teach amputees new mapping to increase voluntary control over phantom limbs- How is the brain divided?o 2 hemispheres that can be separated (to stop seizures- storms of neurons firing); each has different functionso They can be testedo They are specializedo The mind is a subjective interpretero Contralateral: the left side of our body is controlled by the right side of the brain, and the right by the lefto The right visual field is processed by the left hemisphere of the brain, and the left by the right (each eye has its own left and right visual field)- Video on split braino Right and left hemispheres have different functionso Contralateral processingo Right: facial recognition & spatial & perceptual taskso Left: language centers, can “talk”- Hemineglect: damage to right parietal cortexo When people can only process information on the right sideo They forget about the left (e.g. only shaving the right side of the face)- Video: achieving hemispheric balance: improving sports performanceo Balancing strategy (which occurs 1st, in the right hemisphere) with spatial conceptualization (2nd, left hemisphere)- How does the brain change?o Plasticityo The interplay of genes & the environment wires the braino The brain rewires itself throughout lifeo The brain can recover from injuryo Frontal lobe continues to develop until your mid-20s This is why teens function differently (e.g. impulse control)o Importance of plasticity Brain changes in response to what you do Neurons fire  “well-worn paths” o However, critical periods exist E.g. Jeannie was an abused & neglected child, and was rescued around the age of 13, and learned some skills (e.g. walking, etc.) but some were unrecoverable (e.g. grammar)- Video: activity, exercise & the braino If we keep active we won’t lose brain function as quickly as we get oldero Experiment: rats in an “enhanced environment” (with toys and other rats) had larger dendritic fields and more capillaries than rats living alone with no stimulationo They also compared rats with a lot of exercise and no cognitive stimulation with those with cognitive stimulation and no exercise, and found that those with cognitive stimulation had more neural connections, and those with exercise had a higher density of blood vessels (so the 2 are independent)o This implies that children with little learning opportunities aren’t gaining as many neural connectionso “Fire together, wire together”  when you use your brain (and neurons are firing), you are establishing connections - Changes in use distort cortical mapso E.g. in London cab drivers have large hippocampi (because they need a good spatial