The document summarizes key aspects of brain structure and function in 3 paragraphs or less:
The brainstem controls automatic functions like breathing and heart rate. The cerebellum aids in movement coordination and balance. The limbic system processes emotions and memories. The cerebral cortex is the brain's control center, with different lobes having distinct functions - frontal lobe for planning, parietal for senses, occipital for vision, and temporal for hearing. Within the cortex, specialized areas control motor skills, language processing, and other cognitive abilities. The brain is plastic and can reorganize over time based on experiences. Sensory systems like vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell detect environmental inputs which the brain interprets as perceptions
2. “If the human brain were so
simple that we could
understand it, we would be so
simple that we couldn’t”
-Emerson Pugh, The Biological Origin of Human
Values (1977)
3. Phineas Gage
• September 13th, 1848
• Phineas 25 years old
• Rutland & Burlington
Railroad, Cavendish, VT
• Paving the way for new RR tracks
• “Tamping Iron”
– 1.25in x 3ft
4.
5. • Accident
– Quick Recovery
• Months later: “No longer Gage”
– Before: capable, efficient, best foreman, well-balanced
mind
– After: extravagant, anti-social, liar, grossly profane
• Stint with P.T Barnum
• Died 12 years later
Phineas Gage
8. BRAINSTEM Heart
rate and breathing
CEREBELLUM
Coordination
and balance
Parts of the Brain
amygdala
pituitary
hippocampus
THALAMUS
Relays
messages
11. The Limbic System
• Hypothalamus, pituitary, amy
gdala, and hippocampus all
deal with basic
drives, emotions, and
memory
• Hippocampus Memory
processing
• Amygdala Aggression
(fight) and fear (flight)
• Hypothalamus
Hunger, thirst, body
temperature, pleasure;
regulates pituitary gland
12. The Limbic System
Hypothalamus
neural structure lying
below (hypo) the
thalamus; directs several
maintenance activities
eating
drinking
body temperature
helps govern the
endocrine system via the
pituitary gland
linked to emotion
16. The Brain
• Thalamus
– the brain’s sensory
switchboard, located
on top of the
brainstem
– it directs messages to
the sensory receiving
areas in the cortex
and transmits replies
to the cerebellum and
medulla
17. The Cerebral Cortex
• Cerebral Cortex
–the body’s
ultimate control
and information
processing
center
19. The lobes of the cerebral hemispheres
Planning, decision
making speech
Sensory
Auditory
Vision
20. The Cerebral Cortex
• Frontal Lobes
–involved in speaking and
muscle movements and in
making plans and judgments
–the “executive”
• Parietal Lobes
–include the sensory cortex
21. The Cerebral Cortex
• Occipital Lobes
–include the visual areas, which
receive visual information from the
opposite visual field
• Temporal Lobes
–include the auditory areas, each of
which receives auditory information
primarily from the opposite ear
22. The Cerebral Cortex
• Frontal (Forehead to top) Motor Cortex
• Parietal (Top to rear) Sensory Cortex
• Occipital (Back) Visual Cortex
• Temporal (Above ears) Auditory Cortex
26. The Cerebral Cortex
Aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left
hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area
(impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area
(impairing understanding) –see clips
Broca’s Area
an area of the left frontal lobe that directs the
muscle movements involved in speech
Wernicke’s Area
an area of the left temporal lobe involved in
language comprehension and expression
27. Language Areas
• Broca
Expression
• Wernicke
Comprehension
and reception
• Aphasias
LEFT HEMISPHERE
29. Techniques to examine functions
of the brain
1. Remove part of
the brain & see
what effect it has
on behavior
2. Examine humans
who have suffered
brain damage
35. Contra-lateral
division of labor
• Right hemisphere
controls left side of
body and visual field
• Left hemisphere
controls right side of
body and visual field
36. Split Brain Patients
• Epileptic patients had corpus callosum cut
to reduce seizures in the brain
• Lives largely unaffected, seizures reduced
• Affected abilities related to naming objects
in the left visual field
38. Brain Plasticity
• The ability of the brain to
reorganize neural pathways
based on new experiences
• Persistent functional changes in
the brain represent new
knowledge
• Age dependent component
• Brain injuries
41. Sensation
• The process by which the central
nervous system receives input from
the environment via sensory neurons
• Bottom up processing
42. Perception
• The process by which the brain
interprets and organizes sensory
information
• Top-down processing
43. The psychophysics of sensation
• Absolute threshold the minimum
stimulation needed to detect a stimulus with
50% accuracy
• Subliminal stimulation below the
absolute threshold for conscious awareness
– May affect behavior without conscious
awareness
• Sensory adaptation/habituation
diminished sensitivity to an unchanging
stimulus
44. The five major senses
• Vision – electromagnetic
– Occipital lobe
• Hearing – mechanical
– Temporal lobe
• Touch – mechanical
– Sensory cortex
• Taste – chemical
– Gustatory insular cortex
• Smell – chemical
– Olfactory bulb
– Orbitofrontal cortex
– Vomeronasal organ?
45. The sixth sense
• Vestibular balance and motion
– Inner ear
• Proprioceptive relative position of body
parts
– Parietal lobe
• Temperature heat
– Thermoreceptors throughout the body, sensory cortex
• Nociception pain
– Nociceptors throughout the body, sensory cortex
And the seventh…and eighth…and ninth…