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HD 3700: Psych Prelim 2
The Brain Stem
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1. Medulla
2. Pons
3. Midbrain
4. Cerebellum
5. Basal Ganglia
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Medulla |
Sits right on top of the spine and regulates our heart rate, blood pressure, rate of respiration...basic, essential functions
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Pons |
A switch for sleep and wakefulness
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The Midbrain
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Sitting right on top of the Pons, controls body movement in fighting, sex, and lowers pain when doing both.
The midbrain carries out orders from the cortex, and in lower mammals essentially calls the shots.
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Cerebellum
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Takes sensory information from the nervous system but also communicates with the frontal lobes, so that physical motion (in fighting, sex, and everything else) can be precise and nuanced.
When the cerebellum is damaged, the patient's motions become jerky and "gross"
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The Basal Ganglia
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A higher level of motor control that is involved with the control of slow movements and the large muscles of the body. It is involved with learning specific actions.
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Thalamus |
Another component of the brain which evolved to process more deeply and with more detail sensory information before sending it on to the frontal lobes. It has two parts, one for each hemisphere.
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Hypothalamus |
A "little Thalamus"
It also takes information from the sensory organs, yet it also seems to regulate the pituitary gland which has a powerful influence on the body through the release of hormones. And so, the hypothalamus is involved with eating, drinking, and sexual behavior.
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The Limbic System
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Found on the border of the cerebral hemispheres and brain stem, bringing information form the cerebellum, routing it to the centers of the brain generating conscious thought, while also contributing to awareness, emotion, aggression, and memory.
Contains the Hippocampus and the Amygdala
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The Hippocampus
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Responsible for "episodic memory," presumably directing its "storage" and retrieval. It also encodes spatial memories as well, at last for rats whose hippocampi have been shown responsible for their remembering their way through mazes.
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The Amygdala
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Perhaps the center for "instinctive" aggression, it controls fight or flight in lower mammals and plays a role in our response to threats or trauma. Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder often show increased activation of the amygdala.
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Cerebral Cortex
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Structure: two hemispheres connected byt he Corpus Callosum. Each hemisphere has four areas or "lobes"
1. Occipital Lobe
2. Temporal Lobe.
3. Parietal Lobe.
4. Frontal Lobes.
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The Occipital Lobe
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Includes the visual cortex, which generates images from the information sent up through the brain stem, and the visual association cortex...where visual memories, categories, and focus are generated.
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The Temporal Lobe
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The primary auditory cortex and its association area.
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The primary auditory cortex and its association area.
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Including the primary somato-sensory cortex and the somato-sensory association area.
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The Frontal Lobes
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Although this region controls fine movement, it also seems to be where language, thought, and judgment are generated. The prefrontal Cortex in particular, that space behind our newly evolved extended forehead, "rewires" during adolescence, resulting in abstract thinking and higher orders of analysis and creativity.
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