HINDBRAIN

- Continuation of the spinal cord

- Responsible for regulating important bodily processes that are essential for survivial
- This includes sleeping, blood pressure, heart rate, coordination of bodily movements and
respiration

Cerebellum

- Located just above the brain stem, roughly the size of a tennis ball
- Involved in coordination of movements (particularly rapid movement) ensure they are
smooth and efficient
- Decides which muscles groups to activate and how much
- ** It doesn’t initiate the movement** it just coordinates it
- It is most active when learning knew movement or in a sequence of movements when the
next movement can’t be predicted
- Responsible for balance and performing some cognitive actions such as speech and
language.
- Damage results in difficulty to coordinate movements such as walking, kicking or throwing a
ball.
- ** Driving is impaired after alcohol consumption because alcohol affects the cerebellum
therefore making rapid decisions delayed and uncoordinated.

Medulla

- Connects the spinal cord and the brain

- Controls vital reflex (involuntary) functions such as swallowing, breathing, vomiting,
coughing and sneezing
- Consumption of drugs such as cocaine and heroin damage the medulla
- Damage can be fatal as it interrupts breathing or heartbeat

Pons

- Located above the medulla, translates to the word ‘bridge’

- Bundle of nerve fibres that connect the spinal cord with the brain
- Sends messages from high in the brain to the cerebellum
- Important role in regulating sleep and dreaming as well as some muscle coordination
- Damage can affect sleep e.g. elongated sleep periods or reduce someone’s during of sleep

MID BRAIN

- Contains neural pathways connecting the upper and lower regions of the brain
- Integrates and coordinates sensory and motor processes, particularly those involved with
vision and hearing
- The midbrain integrates sensory input with simple motor movements – eg. Turning your
head when a car beeps
- Responsible for increasing and decreasing the speed of movement
- When a cats CNS is severed above the midbrain the cat can still perform basic muscle
movements. The only produced the behaviour if the stimuli was placed immediately before
 them. If you put a limp bird in front of the cat it will still attack it. If you put a limp bird
squeaking around the corner the cat will not move around the corner to get it.
- Invovled in organising and responding but not in cognitive processes such as decision making
and planning movements.
- People who suffer from Parkinson’s disease experience gradual neural degeneration in the
midbrain.

Reticular Formation

- Runs through the hind and the mid brain

- Network of neurons about the thickness of your middle finger which extends from the core
of the brain stem to the upper part of the mid brain.
- Responsible for regulating alertness and modifying muscle movements
- Alertness  connections to the forebrain but filters out irrelevant information before
transferring the message
- Muscle movement  Determines level of muscle tension or relaxation to allow movements
to occur
- When sleeping the reticular formation is supressed so that messages do not reach the
forebrain. General anaesthetic supresses the reticular formation hence you are in an
induced sleep and then none of the sensory information is transmitted.
- A person who suffers serious damage to the reticular formation will go into a deep sleep as
the forebrain cannot be aroused.

FOREBRAIN

- Largest and most prominent structure of the brain, ~90%

- It has hundreds of neural pathways that connect with structures in the mid and hind brain.
- Responsible for higher order cognitive processes such as thinking, learning, memory and
perception as well as aspects of emotion and personality.
- Fundamental in assisting adapting to meet the environment as it links sensory information
with stored memory.

Hypothalamus

- About the size of a sultana

- Key role in regulating the internal environment
o Influences the activity of the autonomic NS
o Controls the release of hormones
o Influences behaviours associated with biological needs
 Hunger, body temperature, thirst, sleep and sex
 Involved in emotions such as anger and fear
- Damage can be severe and depends where exactly is damaged
o Inability to refulate internal body functioning
o Overwhelming urge to eat, problems with sleeping, uncontrollable rage or
degeneration of the sex organs and sex drive (males only)

Thalamus
 - Located above the thalamus and shaped like a football
- Receives information from the sensory receptors sites (except the nose)
- It briefly analyses this info the passes it on to other areas of the brain for further processing
- Thalamus = Relay station for the brain
- Damage results on visual or hearing impairments and an inability to feel sensation when
touched
- The nose delivers its sensory information to the olfactory bulb which is near the brain that
controls emotions, potentially why smell brings back memories

Cerebral Cortex

- Makes up 75% of the brains neurons, its twists and folds and makes roughly 0.5m2 in surface
area
- Responsible for information processing activities such as speech, memory, thinking, learning
and problem solving, as well as with the control of sensory and motor abilities.
- Thinking, feeling and doing

Sensory Cortex Areas – receives information from different senses

Motor Cortex – transmits information about bodily movements

Association Cortex Areas – Integrate sensory and motor functions for more complex actions such
as perceiving, problem solving and perception.

- The entire CC is divided into Left and Right Hemispheres and each hemisphere is further
dividied into four lobes  frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal

The Two Hemispheres

- Alike in shape, structure, size and function

- A longitudinal fissure (deep grove) separates the two hemispheres but they are held
together by strands of nervous tissue, the most important being the corpus callosum.
- The perform similar functions but for different sides of the body
- The left hemisphere receives information from the right side of the brain and then controls
movements on the right side of the brain. Vice versa
- Each hemisphere has specified functions over which greater control is exerted
o Left: Verbal & analytical functions
o Right: Non Verbal  Spatial and visual thinking (reading faces, locating objects,
appreciating music and artwork)
- The interaction occurs mainly through the corpus callosum

Lobes of the Brian

- Each lobe contains a primary cortical area that has a specialised motor or sensory function.
They also have an association area
-