Brain Building
Frontal Lobe- Prefrontal Cortex
Frontal Lobe-Premotor Cortex
Frontal Lobe-Motor Cortex
Frontal Lobe-Brocca’s Area
Parietal Lobe-Sensory Cortex
Parietal Lobe Proper
Temporal Lobe
Temporal Lobe-Primary Auditory Area
Temporal Lobe-Wernicke’s Area
Occipital Lobe
Occipital Lobe-Primary Visual Area
Occipital Lobe-Associative Visual Area
Cerebrum-4 Lobes
Cerebellum-Arbor Vitae and Vermis
Diencephalon
Cerebellum
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Pons and Medulla Oblongata
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Pituitary Gland (light Pink) Pineal Gland (maroon)
Corpus Callosum
Eye and Optic Nerve
RAS-Reticulating Activating System
Spinal Cord and Spinal Nerves (31 Pairs)
Brain Facts
The brain is about
3 lbs and is 78%
water, like Jell-O.
Neurons develop at
a rate of 250,000
per minute during
pregnancy.
Touch is the first
sense to develop at 8
weeks. The other
senses develop by 12
weeks
The brain has no
pain receptors, so
patients are kept
awake during many
brain surgeries.
Your brain has
100 billion
neurons, each
with 1,000
connections.
The outside 3mm
of your cerebral
cortex grows
thicker as you learn
to use it.
Lack of sleep actually
hurts your ability to
consolidate memories
that last.
There are people known
as Supertasters. They
have bigger tasting
centers in their brains.
Japanese researchers
have been able to put
people’s dreams on a
screen to view after
they are awake.
12% of all people
dream in black and
white, 88% in color. If
you are snoring, you
are not dreaming,
Brain Facts
The capacity for
such emotions as
joy, happiness, fear,
and shyness are
developed by birth.
The brain uses 20% of
all oxygen breathed
in. 20% of all blood
circulating is in the
brain.
Children who learn a
second language before
age 5 have a different
brain structure than
those that don’t.
Excess emotional and
psychological stress
destroys brain cells.
Most people dream 90
minutes per night, having
4-7 separate dreams. You
can only remember 10%
of a dream.
The amygdala is a part
of the brain that allows
you to “read” people’s
faces and know what
they are feeling.
Men think more
efficiently than
women, but women
think more thoroughly
than men.
Estrogen (a female
hormone in both
sexes) and insulin
both help build
stronger memories.
You can’t tickle yourself
because your brain
distinguishes between
unexpected external touch
and your own touch.
The average human has
70,000 thoughts per
day. Some people have
up to 300,000, and
some as few as 240.
Some people have more
channels to send cold
data to the brain and so
hate the cold more.
Your brain uses about 12
watts; less energy than a
light bulb. A light bulb
uses about 14 watts.
Laughing engages 5
different parts of the
brain and lowers stress,
helping memories form.
Taxi drivers who memorize
city streets have a larger
hippocampus.
Memorization builds a
bigger hippocampus.
Eating seafood once a
week can lower
chances of developing
dementia by 30%.
Nervous System
Introduction
 Two Principal divisions
 CNS-Brain and Spinal Cord
 PNS- Cranial and spinal nerves
Ganglia and sensory receptors
1. Somatic-Controls skeletal muscles
2. Autonomic-Controls smooth and
cardiac mm & glands
i.
Sympathetic-Accelerator
ii.
Parasympathetic-Brake
3. Enteric
External Brain Structure
o Cerebral Hemispheres
 Gyri
 Sulci
 Fissures
o Lobes of the Cerebrum
 Frontal
 Parietal
 Temporal
Look at the chart above and say the color NOT
 Occipital
the word.
o Identifiable Landmarks on the Cerebrum
 Longitudinal fissure
 Central Sulcus
The Left-Right Conflict: Your right brain tries to
say the color but the left brain insists on reading the
word!
 Lateral Sulcus
 Parieto-occipital sulcus
Right/ Left Brain Specialties- Whole brain defines who we are and how we experience the
world-all cognitive functions are the result of integration of many simple processing
mechanisms that =complexity.
Brain Structures: Specific Functions
Frontal Lobe: Prefrontal Cortex, Premotor Cortex and the Motor Strip

Assigns emotions to music

Remembers musical melodies

Recognizes mistakes in musical tunes

Gatekeeper of Inhibition

Judgment of daily routine

Cognition-thinking, learning, intellect

Attention to thought

Word Associations

Assigns meaning to the words we choose

Controls how we act and react to our environment

Evaluation, Synthesis, and Analysis

Expression of personality

Elaboration of thought

Value assessments

Exact mathematical calculations

Expressive language

Premotor cortex-Mirror neurons

Empathy, Sympathy, Understanding, Irony, Sarcasm, and Deception-Defective in full range of Autism

Develops earlier in females, not fully developed until age 25

Motor strip- Controls body movements that are voluntary and goal directed. Homunculus

Memories of habits and motor speech.

Broca’s Area-left frontal lobe in 97%-produces written and spoken language, and complex syntax.
(Expressive, not receptive language)
Parietal Lobe-Sensory Strip (anterior) and Parietal Lobe Proper (posterior)

Touch reception

Integration of information or parts into a whole concept (orange)

Inferior portion-binary operations (X is inverse of Y, X +Y=Z)

Sensory discrimination

Comparisons and analogies

Visual attention, phantom pain

Manipulation of objects in space, and rotating objects mentally

Estimations

Cause and Effect

Develops sooner in males

Sensory strip aligned to the motor strip. Homunculus
Temporal Lobe

Hearing

Musical beats

Auditory memories-voice, timber, inflections, accents, amplitude, frequency, includes Wernicke’s areaincludes 95% of all receptive language (comprehension) Superior temporal gyrus

Perceptions of visual details

Catalogs and Classifies

Sensory input for speech and hearing

Sense of identity

Diencephalon layered over it medially

Medial lobe shrinks in Alzheimer’s patients first- test open Peanut butter and if can smell-good
Occipital Lobe

Vision and visual fields (peripheral and night)

Encodes different visual information, color, orientation, movement
2 streams- Dorsal stream takes information to the parietal lobe-locates the correct object in space and the
ventral stream takes information to the temporal lobe to be able the name the object.

Reading

Visual memories

Grapheme’s Synesthesia-disorder of the occipital lobe that results in blending of sensesLetters and numbers have specific colors 7 is always yellow for example or F is green. Some people with
occipital damage or lesions hear colors or see sounds.
Cerebellum

10 % of brain weight, but more neurons than all of the rest of the brain combined-it learns from the very first
twitches of muscles in a fetus.

Controls coordination and smoothness and speed of voluntary movements

Evidence of new adult neurons in this part of the brain

Balance and equilibrium

Memory of reflex acts

Proprioception

Learns to override falling instincts

Maintain posture

New evidence of olfactory function here.

Many of the dyslexia spectrum issues originate here.

2 lateral hemispheres, 3 lobes(anterior, posterior, and
flocculondular), Vermis (outer cortex-gray matter, innerwhite matter-Arbor vitae
Pons

Breathing rhythms

REM sleep (partial paralysis so you cannot carry out all actions you see while dreaming)

Relays sensory info to cerebrum and cerebellum

Sensory analysis and some motor control

Assists in autonomic controls

Adjusts levels of conscientiousness and arousal
Corpus Callosum-Bridge between the left and right cerebral hemispheres-200-400 million neurons thick

Thicker in females-lends to more diverse and thorough thinking in females and more efficient thinking in males

Males diagnosed with more learning disabilities, less connections

Allows for cross brain communication , forms the roof of the ventricles where CFS is made

Decreased volume in the CC is associated with psychotic breaks, Agenesis or partial agenesis of CC
Medulla Oblongata (homeostasis)-Primitive brain stem

Regulates Breathing

Controls Heart rate (cardiac control center)

Controls Blood Pressure (Vasomotor control center)

Swallowing

Temperature regulation

Autonomic nervous system

Ability to sleep

Sweating

Digestive regulation

Yawning

Oxygen and carbon dioxide sensitivity and control
Diencephalon and Limbic Lobe-Includes:
Thalamus

Oldest part of the Limbic lobe, switchboard operator of the brain-intake center that sorts all incoming
information and relays and updates it to appropriate functional brain areas.

Responsible for awareness and deep concentration.

Damage can result in amnesia, coma, apathy, and aphasia
Hypothalamus

Controls the more body functions than any other brain structure

Includes control of: sexual desire, orgasm, vomiting, laughing, physical response to emotions(sweaty palms and
rapid heartbeats), complex homeostatic mechanisms, pituitary regulation, feeding reflexes, hydration,
hormones, moods, serotonin and noradrenalin levels (imbalance of these can lead to OCD, thrill seeking,
cold-bloodedness, and calculated violence), hunger, salt-cravings, bladder function. Energy levels,
wakefulness, body temperature regulation, ovarian and testicular function, parenting behavior. Affected by
stress, light, smell and arousal. Part of the brain associated with depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, selfmutilation, and Alzheimer’s.
Amygdala

Integrates smell and the though and emotions associated with smells

Control complex, higher order emotions-rage, jealousy, deep-seated fears, shame, guilt, regret, panic,
embarrassment, and nightmares

Slightly larger in males

Reward processing here

Learning what and how (degree) to fear develops here

Affected in PTSD

Important to learning-emotional attachment and interest attached to learning. This is essential to long term
memory acquisition.

Damage can result in not recognizing fear for self or others. Cannot draw it either.
Hippocampus

Two parts

Lower- the subiculum- used for orientation, navigation, and Mnemonic processing

Upper-Important for short and long term learning

Separates factual, important from trivial information

Novelty and ritual are recognized here.

Can only hold information for a short time unless processing of that information is allowed. Can block
additional information if processing is not completed. Much like a single sheet of paper. When a student
reaches the end of the page, it gets torn off and tossed out, if processing does not occur. This “paper” is
about 1 minute long for each year of your life up to 21. Processing requires as little as 30 seconds for the
hippocampus to recharge.
Pineal Body

Secretes melatonin-thought to influence rhythms and cycles. Jet lag. Lesion or tumor always results in
Premature sexual maturation.
Pituitary gland

Hormone regulation-master gland

Growth Hormone Production

Production of Hormones That Act on Other Endocrine Glands

Production of Hormones That Act on the Muscles and the Kidneys

Endocrine Function Regulation

Storage of Hormones Produced by the Hypothalamus

Attached by a stalk to the 3rd ventricle
RAS

Controls the amount and flow of sensory input-alertness, waking, and dreaming

Controls Flight, fight and faint syndrome. Vasovagal responses to environmental/outside stimuli
Building the Spinal Cord and Brachial Plexus
Use Brachial Plexus Workbook
Ulnar Nerve
Radial Nerve
Radial Nerve: Superficial Branch
Radial Nerve: Deep Branch
Median Nerve
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Labeling the Brain with Pins Activity
1. Take pins out of baggie and using your sharpie, number 1-18.
2. Place pins in the correct part of the brain from the numbered key.
3. Process-Door Slap.