Brain Lobes and Damage

• Lesson 2 presentation on nervous system, presented on 04/02/25.
• Lesson 3 presentation on brain lobes, presented on 06/02/25.
• Lesson 4 presentation on brain hemispheres, presented on 13/02/25.

Nervous System Lesson Overview

• The lesson aims to provide an understanding of the nervous system as a whole.
• The lesson will develop an understanding of the roles of the nervous system's individual components.
• You should be able to differentiate between the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral nervous system (PNS).
• You should be able to explain the nervous system’s sub-systems within each of the CNS and PNS.

Branches of the Nervous System

• All living animals have nervous systems.
• Jellyfish have simple nervous systems with few nerve cells, adapted for basic survival activities like eating, breathing, and moving.
• Human beings require advanced nervous systems for complex tasks like problem-solving, creative thinking, communication, sports, relationship, and computer programming.
• The human nervous system extends throughout the entire body.
• Although a single system, it is structured with different sub-systems called "divisions".
• The Central Nervous System includes the brain and spinal cord.
• The Peripheral Nervous System encompasses all other nerves.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

• The CNS carries messages to and from the PNS
• The brain is responsible for virtually everything humans think, feel, and do.
• The spinal cord connects the brain and PNS, and initiates spinal reflexes.
• The brain controls everything, including thoughts and feelings.
• The spinal cord has two main functions: to receive sensory information from the body and send it to the brain, and to receive motor information from the brain and send it to the relevant parts of the body.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

• The PNS carries messages to and from the CNS.
• The PNS has two systems: Somatic and Autonomic
• The Somatic Nervous System (SNS) controls voluntary responses.
• The SNS carries sensory information to the CNS.
• The SNS sends motor information from the CNS to muscles.
• The somatic nervous system sends information about touch from the skin to the brain, resulting in the sensation of touch
• Voluntary movement of body parts demonstrates the motor function of the SNS.
• The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates internal organs automatically, without conscious thought including Heart rate, breathing, digestion, salivation and perspiration.
• The ANS is broken down into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
• The autonomic system has two branches: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic.

Sympathetic Nervous System

• Activates the body in extreme emotion such threatened or stressed: fight, flight, or freeze.
• Causes aroused responses for an immediate emergency.
• Adaptive reaction called the fight-flight-freeze response.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Helps maintain the internal body environment in a steady, balanced state of normal functioning
• Counterbalances the activities of the sympathetic nervous system, promoting a state of calm once the need for sympathetic activation has passed.

Lobes of the Brain Lesson Overview

• The lesson provides the understanding of the different lobes and cortex areas of the brain.
• The lesson provides the roles and responsibilities of each area within the brain.
• You should be able to label the lobes of the brain.
• You should be able to identify the cortex area that corresponds with each lobe and discuss the lessons in groups.

Lobes of the Brain

• Brain contains Frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe and occipital lobe.

Frontal Lobe

• It is the largest of the four lobes
• It responsible for planning, judging, initiating movement, attention, regulating emotions and executive role in our thinking
• The Primary cortex is responsible for movement initiating and controls voluntary movements. The motor cortex in the left hemisphere controls voluntary movements on the body's right side, and vice versa.
• The Broca's area has a role in producing clear and fluent speech it is located next to the primary motor cortex

Parietal Lobe

• It receives and processes bodily information such as touch, temperature, sensations and information about muscle movement
• The primary somatosensory cortex is responsible for receiving and processing sensory information from the skin and body. The left lobe receives and processes information from the right side of the body, and vice versa.

Occipital Lobe

• This lobe almost is exclusively devoted to the sense of vision
• Some areas of other lobes also have important visual functions.
• The primary visual cortex that is located there is major destination for visual information come from the retina of the eyes
• The left half of each eye receives sensory information from the right half of the visual field and sends information to the visual cortex in the left occipital lobe.

Temporal Lobe

• Primarily is associated with hearing.
• Also has an important role in memory.
• Decides which features of environments people will remember.
• Is responsible for facial recognition
• The primary auditory cortex receives and processes sounds from both ears so people can perceive and make sense of the noise, different areas of the cortex are specialised to register different sounds
• The Wernicke’s Area is responsible for speech comprehension and interpreting human speech with a small role in speech production
• Comprehension happens when words have been processed

Hemispheres of the Brain Lesson Overview

• The lesson provides to understand how damage to particular areas of the brain can result in the specific impairments.
• You will be able to confidently identify the cortex area that corresponds with each lobe and consolidate understanding of damage to certain brain areas.

Hemispheres of the Brain

• The left side of the brain specializes in language, analytical, logic, Movement and sensation of the right side of the body whereas the right side specialises in with Non-verbal, Spatial, Music & art appreciation and Movement and sensation of the left side of the body
• Brain injury refers to any brain damage that impairs, or interferes with, the normal functioning of the brain, either temporarily or permanently

Frontal Lobe Damage

• There is a case study for Phineas Gage who was harmed by an iron beam being shot throughhis skull.
• Most cases of brain damage occur after birth and in such instances are referred to as acquired brain injury.
• Accidental incidents, intentional blows, violent shaking of the head, stroke, alcohol and other drugs, brain surgery, infection, or a brain disease, e.g., Parkinson's Disease may cause brain damage.
• As Gage was packing down gunpowder, a spark from the rod ignited the gunpowder and blew the rod into his cheek and out through the top of his skull
• There was no immediate affects to the mental or physical abilties however he became impatient, crudely spoken, aggressive, irresponsible and hard to get along with
• Also it causes biological changes like movement problems, inability to move face properly to form facial expressions, psychological changes like feeling little emotions and personality and thinking and also social changes such mostly behaviours in social situations, socially inappropriate , breakdown in relationships and also unemployment
• Broca's aphasia a possible result, damage to the Broca's area in the left frontal lobe. This is a state where it cannot produce fluent speech and Generally, only short sentences are used (less than 4 words) also finding the right words is often a long process

Parietal Lobe Damage

• Individuals are unable to notice anything either on their left or right side even though there may be no sensory loss hence neglecting on the left side of their world

Occipital Lobe Damage

• It may cause: Partial Blindness, Word blindness (inability to recognize written words) and colour blindness.

Temporal Lobe Damage

• There can be Wernicke's aphasia where there is damage to the Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe
• This results to Inability to understand language and speech although words may still be produced fluently but they often do not make sense which is known as word salad

Activities, Function and Neurons

• Vital functions necessary for life are Nutrition, Reproduction and Response to Stimuli
• The nervous system is responsible for analysing these stimuli and producing those responses
• The brain is responsible for performing all activities like thinking, playing soccer, helping to choose clothes and being responsible for feeling those emotions
• 2% of the body weight is brain, yet needs a lot of energy. It is essential for delivering oxygen and nutrients, about 15% of the blood flows through the brain around 750 ml of blood per minute
• The neuron is composed of a Cell body/soma, Dendrites and an Axon. Neurons sends and receives signals in throughout the body

Synapses and Parts of the Nervous System

• Neurons communicate with each other through synapses. The axon of a neuron binds to the dendrites of other neurons to transmit information
• They are activated for all brain functions like perceptions, movements, emotions, cognition, and thoughts.
• Some axons are surrounded by white matter, which increases the speed of nerve signals. This white matter is found in neurons where rapid responses are essential, such as muscle neurons
• The central nervous system consists of Cerebrum, Cerebellum and the brainstem. The Spinal Cord is an extension of the brain. Nerves are fibres that connects all over the body
• Nerves have an essential role of carrying information from organs like eyes, ears, skin etc. to the brain and spinal cord. There are motor nerves that delivers command to the muscles
• The central nervous system’s components work to process sensory information, makes decisions, and sends orders to the rest of the body.

Interesting facts about the brain

• Our brains are similar to that of our parents. Brain development is Genetic as well as environmental
• The Brain’s energy consumption varies with age: New born = 60%, Adolescent = 25% and Adults = 20%

Brain Health

• Food is antioxidant rich such as fruits and vegetables to help combat oxidative stress that can harm neurons
• Foods rich in omega—like salmon or walnuts—support brain function and structure
• Maintain the intake of vitamins and minerals like Vitamin B and magnesium.
• Maintain good exercise, mental stimulation, sleep and proper stress control

Explore the effects of damage to different brain lobes, including the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. Understand conditions like Broca's aphasia and spatial neglect. Learn about hemispheric specialization and acquired brain injuries.