Parts of The Brain | Psychology Brain Functions

Medulla:

• Just above the top of the spinal cord where it enters the brain.
• Controls involuntary action like breathing heartbeat, respiration, peristalsis of the gut.

Pons:

• Just above medulla concerned with balance, coordinating muscles and hearing.

Cerebellum:

• Its is located above the medulla and behind the pons.
• It controls body balance so that we ca walk a straight line, (usually drugs depress its activity).
• Also play an important role in intellectual functions, analysis and coordination of sensory information and problem solving.

Mid Brain:

• The mid brain concerned with senses especially with eye.
• It is also related / concerned with Automatic movement of the eyes on a moving object.
• The mid brain is also connected with the orientation of head to ensure sound clarity.

Regular Formation:

• The mid brain also sends “alert” signals to higher and specialized centers of the brain in response to incoming messages.
• Mid brain activate other parts of the brain to produce general body awareness to determine where the response is necessary.
• During sleep it tries to avoid and filter out stimuli to allow us to sleep undisturbed.

Forebrain | Cognition | Motivation | Emotions | Action.

• Largest part of the brain.
• Structurally it consists of two distinct areas.
• In area one there is..
• a.Thalamus.
• b.Hypothalamus.
• c.Limbic system.
• d.Amugdalla:
• e.Preasure Cebters:
• f.Hippocampus:
• In area two there is only..
• Cerebral Cortex:

Thalamus:

• Switching station for messages going to and from the brain.
• Routes incoming stimuli from the sense organs to the appropriate parts of the brain.
• Links upper and lower centers of the brain.
• Also plays a role in preliminary processing of sensory info.

Hypothalamus:

• Located just below the thalamus size of a finger tip.
• Most important function is homeostasis the keeping of a steady internal environment.
• ---- > regulation of body temperature.
• ---- > osmotic pressure in blood.
• ---- > appetite and emotions related to se.
• Vital look between the brain and endocrine system.

Limbic System

• Some of the pleasure areas are in the limbic system.
• Doughnut shaped structures amygdale and hippo campus.
• Basic functions are.
• Eating.
• Aggression.
• Reproduction.
• Emotions, learning, memory.

Amygdalla:

• Plays a key role in aggression as well as processing information about stimuli.
• Injury to amygdalla in animals can turn them into very wild sauages, conversely animals that are wild can become meek and obedient.

Pleasure Centers:

• Research on rats has concluded that when filled with electrodes implanted in their head, they would pvers it again and again to receive pleasurable electric stimulation.
• Even when they are on the way to food.
• In humans too the experience has been reported to be immensely pleasurable, similar to some respects to sexual orgasam.
• Some rats would actually stimulate themselves literally thousands of time an hours until they collapsed with fatigue.

Hippocampus.

• Involved in the formation of new memories for example a patient whose hippo campus is damaged might be able to talk to other persons but even a few minutes later he would be unable to recall what had been discussed.
• Also involved in processing emotions related information and comparing it to the stored information.

Cerebral Cortex.

• Largest structure in forebrain.
• This is what makes us humans.
• Involved in all voluntary actions language and intelligence.
• Involved in human ability to think evaluate and make difficult judgments.
• Contains a lot of grey matters (cell bodies of neurons).

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