How the Brain Works

Overview

• Ways of Studying the Brain• How is the Brain Organized?

Studying the Brain

• Autopsy• EEG and evoked potentials• Brain Imaging

– fMRI – PET

Hindbrain

• Pons: connects spinal cord and brain• Medulla: controls vital functions• Cerebellum: plans and monitors movement

The Cerebrum

• Four lobes• Limbic system• Cortex is outer surface

• Thalamus: organizes sensory information• Hypothalamus: regulates body states• Hippocampus: forms memories• Amygdala: controls emotions

The Limbic System

The Four Lobes

• Occipital: vision• Temporal: hearing, language• Frontal: personality, thinking, motor control• Parietal: touch, temperature, pain

Cerebral Cortex

• Highly organized• motor cortex: strip of frontal lobes that

generates commands for movement• somatosensory cortex: strip of parietal

lobes that processes touch information

The Two Hemispheres

• Similar, but not identical in structure or function

• Most nerve fibers cross to the other side of the brain

• Right hemisphere controls left side of body, and vice versa

Left Brain-Right Brain

• Left Hemisphere specialized for language, logic, math

• Right Hemisphere specialized for spatial ability, music, art

• True for almost all right-handers and many left-handers.