Cortical Functioning and Association Areas Quiz

Association Areas

• Multimodal association areas receive and integrate input from multiple regions of the cortex, processing multiple sensory modalities.
• Sensory association areas make associations between kinds of sensory information.

Cortical Functioning

• Left cerebral hemisphere: controls language abilities, math, and logic.
• Right cerebral hemisphere: involved in visual-spatial skills, reading facial expressions, intuition, emotion, artistic, and musical skills.

Cerebral White Matter

• Comprises the largest part of white matter, facilitating communication between different areas of the cerebral cortex, brain stem, and spinal cord.
• Types of tracts: myelinated, commissural, association, and projection fibers.
• Commissures (e.g., Corpus callosum) allow communication between hemispheres with fibers running horizontally.
• Association fibers connect parts of the same hemisphere with fibers running horizontally (e.g., Wernicke's and Broca's areas).
• Projection fibers descend from the cerebral cortex to more caudal parts of the CNS or ascend from the lower region to the cortex, running vertically.

Deep Grey of Matter of the Cerebrum

• Basal ganglia: involved in motor control.
• Basal forebrain nuclei: associated with memory.
• Claustrum: nucleus of unknown function.
• Amygdala: located in the cerebrum, part of the limbic system.

The Diencephalon

• Forms the center core of the forebrain, surrounded by cerebral hemispheres, and borders the third ventricle.
• Composed of gray matter, with the thalamus comprising 80% of the diencephalon.
• Thalamus: processes sensory information according to importance, contains a dozen major nuclei, and acts as a gateway to the cerebral cortex.

Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF)

• Produced by the choroid plexus at a rate of 500m/day.
• Fills the ventricles, flows through the subarachnoid space, and is absorbed into dural venous sinuses via the arachnoid villi.
• CSF provides a liquid cushion, nourishes the brain and spinal cord, removes wastes, and carries chemical signals between parts of the CNS.

Cerebral Hemispheres

• Bilaterally symmetrical, comprising the largest portion (80%) of the brain.
• Controls logical thought, conscious awareness of the environment, and highest sensory and motor activity.
• Made up mostly of grey matter (cell bodies, dendrites, and unmyelinated axons).

Cerebral Hemisphere Lobes

• 5 lobes: frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal, and insula.
• Frontal lobe: motor, voluntary motor, control of skeletal muscle, and higher intellectual processes (planning, decision making).
• Parietal lobe: sensory, interpretation of sensory, understanding speech, and formulating words to express thoughts and emotions.
• Occipital lobe: vision, integration of movements in focusing the eye, and correlation of visual images with previous visual experiences.
• Temporal lobe: auditory, interpretation of auditory sensations, and storage of auditory and visual experiences.
• Insula: memory, perception of pain, and visceral integration of cardiac response and stress.

Fissures, Sulci, and Gyri

• Fissures: deep grooves, separating major regions of the brain.
• Sulci: shallow grooves, dividing the cerebrum into lobes.
• Gyri: bumps on the surface, bordering central sulcus.
• Central sulcus: separates frontal and parietal lobes.
• Parieto-occipital sulcus: separates parietal and occipital lobes.
• Lateral sulcus: separates parietal, frontal, and temporal lobes.

Gray and White Matter

• Cerebral cortex: outer grey matter, composed of neuronal cell bodies, dendrites, and short axons.
• Cerebral white matter: composed of myelinated axons.
• Basal ganglia: deep grey matter, center or nucleus.

Broadmann Areas

• 47/52 areas, referencing the brain, with distinct motor and sensory functions.
• Memory and language spread over a wide area.
• Region where sensory info comes in (cortex) and area where it's understood (association).

Functional Areas

• Motor area: plans and initiates voluntary motor functions, located in the posterior frontal lobe.
• Primary motor cortex: controls motor functions, located in the precentral gyrus.
• Premotor cortex: controls more complex movements, receives processed sensory information, and is involved in planning movements.
• Frontal eye field: controls voluntary movement of the eyes.
• Broca's area: manages speech production.

Sensory Area

• Primary somatosensory cortex: detects change from outside, pain, temperature, pressure, and touch, involved in conscious awareness of general somatic senses.
• Location: postcentral gyrus of parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex.
• Spatial discrimination: precisely locates a stimulus.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

• Higher-level thinking, most complex neural functions, intelligence, consciousness, memory, and sensory-motor integration.
• Involved in innervation of the head, controlling bodily functions, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, autonomic nervous system, and endocrine system.

Ventricles of the Brain

• Expansion of the brain's central cavity, filled with cerebrospinal fluid, and lined with ciliated ependymal cells.
• Continuous with each other and the central canal of the spinal cord.
• CSF-filled ventricles, subarachnoid space, and cerebral aqueduct.
• Venous blood-filled subdural space.

Protection of the Brain

• Skull: provides protection.
• Meninges: cover and protect the CNS, enclose and protect the vessels that supply the CNS, contain CSF, and provide a blood-brain barrier.
• Layers: dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater.
• Dural sinuses: between the periosteal and meningeal layers, containing deoxygenated venous blood.
• Subdural space: between dura mater and arachnoid mater, with venous blood.
• Subarachnoid space: between arachnoid and pia maters, with CSF.