The Brain and its Functions

Study Notes

The brain is responsible for mental functioning.
The brain consists of three main structures: cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem.
The surface of the cerebrum is called the cortex, which contains 16 billion neurons.
The cortex is made up of gray matter, which consists of nerve cell bodies, and white matter, which consists of long nerve fibers (axons).
The brainstem sits at the bottom of the brain and regulates balance, breathing, and heart rate.
The cerebrum is responsible for most brain functions, including thought and movement.
The cerebellum plays a vital role in physical movement, including maintaining balance, coordinating movement, vision, motor learning, and potentially processing language and mood.

The cerebrum is divided into four lobes: frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal.
Frontal lobe: Responsible for thoughts, language, memory, learning, and perception.
Temporal lobe: Responsible for understanding language, memory, hearing, sequencing, and organization.
Occipital lobe: Located at the back of the brain and responsible for vision.
Parietal lobe: Interprets language, interprets signals from vision, hearing, motor, sensory, and memory, and is responsible for spatial and visual perception.

The brain is divided into two hemispheres: left and right.
The left hemisphere is associated with logical abilities, including language processing and analytical thinking.
The right hemisphere is often associated with creativity, including spatial reasoning, artistic abilities, and emotional processing.
The corpus callosum connects both hemispheres and allows communication between them.
Females tend to have a thicker corpus callosum than males.
Damage to the left hemisphere can lead to speech abnormalities.
The right hemisphere is associated with spatial reasoning and visual-spatial tasks.