1. A Brief Lesson on the Parts of the Brain and their Functions

3. Brain Stats
“the best organized, most functional three pounds of matter in the known universe.”
100 million interconnected neurons
has the consistency of refrigerated butter
weighs 2% of our body weight
uses about 20% of our body’s energy
arterial blood from the heart goes to the brain first and the brain takes what it needs to survive.

4. Basic Parts of the Brain
Subcortical area (lower brain)
maintains the basic body functions
Cerebral Cortex (upper brain)
The outer layer of the brain that contains the four major lobes and the two hemispheres
77% of our brain
Roughly the size of six 12”x18” sheets of construction paper

5. Sensory Strip
(Orange)
Motor Strip
(Blue)
Parietal Lobe
(Pink)
Frontal Lobe
Occipital Lobe
(Red)
Temporal Lobe
(Green)
Brain Stem

6. The Lobes of the Human Brain
Frontal Lobe:
Parietal Lobe:
Occipital Lobe:
Temporal Lobe:
Associates ideas, forms and plans activities, social control.
Area that contains the Sensory Strip. Interprets physical sensation.
Area that makes sense out of what we see.
Area responsible for hearing and some speech functions. Also, memory (hippocampus)

7. Motor Strip and Sensory Strip
Band running down the side of the Frontal Lobe that controls all bodily movements.
Band running down the side of the Parietal Lobe that registers and provides all sensation.

8. The Motor Strip

9. Three Brains in One…

10. Three Brains Each of our brains can be divided into three parts:
Forebrain: Responsible for reasoning and logic
Midbrain: Relay Station between the Forebrain and the Hindbrain
Hindbrain: Basic life support functions and muscle coordination

11. Cerebral Cortex
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Reticular activating system
Cerebellum

12. Another Image of the Brain

13. Other Parts of the Brain
Cerebral Cortex – Upper Brain
Limbic System
Amygdala – Located in the Temporal Lobe
Hippocampus – Located in the Temporal Lobe
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Pons
Medulla or Brain Stem
Cerebellum
Reticular Activating System

14. Forebrain Cerebral Cortex Limbic System Amygdala Hippocampus Thalamus
Hypothalamus

15. Cerebral Cortex The “outer shell” or “upper brain.” 1/8th inch thick.
Controls all mental processes and thought but will not keep the body running.
Contains over 100 billion neuron cells (2/3 of all the brains nerve cells).
Neurons connect to Axons which communicate with other parts of the brain.
Estimated that the number of connections between these nerves is greater than the number of particles in the universe.

16. Limbic System A group of brain structures involved with:
Memory and motivation
emotion
Body function
Smell
Contains the Amygdala and the Hippocampus

17. The Amygdala is the size and shape of an almond
The amygdala is located within the temporal lobe and controls social and sexual behavior and other emotions like aggression & fear.
Adds positive and negative feelings to long term memories for later use.
The Amygdala is the size and shape of an almond

18. Hippocampus
The hippocampus is located within the temporal lobe and is important for learning long-term memory.

19. Thalamus
The Thalamus is the “relay station” of the nervous system: it sends incoming and outgoing messages between the brain and body.
It relays all sensory information except that of smell
The Thalamus is a pair and they are the size of golf balls

20. The Hypothalamus is only the size of a large pea or a small cherry.
Regulates your basic needs, such as hunger and thirst, and emotions such as pleasure, fear, rage, and sexuality.
If a person’s rage center is stimulated that person will go on a smashing spree
The Hypothalamus is only the size of a large pea or a small cherry.

21. Midbrain: Reticular Activating System
The alertness control center that regulates the activity level of the body.
It controls stimuli that travel from the body to the brain, regulating pain.
Also controls sleepiness that comes from boredom.

22. Hindbrain
Pons
Cerebellum
Medulla

23. Named from the Latin word for ‘bridge’
Pons
Named from the Latin word for ‘bridge’
Responsible for regulating sleep and relaying information from the brainstem (medulla) and the hindbrain

24. It looks like a ball of yarn a little larger than a golf ball.
Cerebellum
The part of the brain that coordinates and organizes bodily movements for balance and accuracy.
It looks like a ball of yarn a little larger than a golf ball.

25. Medulla (Brain Stem) Responsible for breathing and heart rate
Connects the nerve pathways between the brain and the body

26. Damage to the Frontal Lobe
Damage to the Frontal Lobe can cause:
Loss of simple movement of various body parts (Paralysis).
Inability to plan a sequence of complex movements needed to complete multi-stepped tasks, such as making coffee (Sequencing).
Loss of spontaneity in interacting with others.
Loss of flexibility in thinking.
Persistence of a single thought (Perseveration).
Inability to focus on task (Attending).
Mood changes and Changes in social behavior.

27. Phineas Gage
Explosive powders propelled a three and a half foot long iron rod into Phineas Gage's face. It pierced his left cheek, traveled behind his eye, and flew out the top of his skull. He didn't die. In fact, almost immediately after the accident, Gage could talk and walk.
Before the accident, Gage had been a responsible, hard-working, fit and popular man. After the accident, Gage became a nasty, vulgar, irresponsible vagrant. His former employer, who regarded him as "the most efficient and capable foreman in their employ previous to his injury," refused to rehire him because he was so different.

30. Damage to the Parietal Lobe
Damage to the parietal lobe can cause:
Inability to attend to more than one object at a time.
Inability to name an object (Anomia).
Inability to locate the words for writing (Agraphia).
Problems with reading, drawing and math.
Difficulty in distinguishing left from right.
Lack of awareness of certain body parts and/or surrounding space (Apraxia) that leads to difficulties in self-care.
Inability to focus visual attention.
Difficulties with eye and hand coordination.

31. Damage to the Occipital Lobe
Damage to the Occipital Lobe can cause:
Defects in vision
Difficulty with locating objects in environment.
Difficulty with identifying colors
Production of hallucinations
Visual illusions - inaccurately seeing objects.
Word blindness - inability to recognize words.
Difficulty in recognizing drawn objects.
Inability to recognize the movement of an object
Difficulties with reading and writing.

32. Damage to the Temporal Lobe
Damage to the Temporal Lobe can cause:
Difficulty in recognizing faces (Prosopagnosia).
Difficulty in understanding spoken words
Disturbance with selective attention to what we see and hear.
Difficulty with identification of, and verbalization about objects.
Short-term memory loss.
Interference with long-term memory
Increased or decreased interest in sexual behavior.
Inability to catagorize objects
Right lobe damage can cause persistant talking.
Increased aggressive behavior.

33. 2 Brains in 1 Right and Left Hemisphericity

35. Brain Hemispheres
The Human Brain is divided into two hemispheres: Left and Right.
The two hemispheres are connected by a thick bundle of nerves called the Corpus Callosum.
Each hemisphere is responsible for different kinds of tasks, or kinds of thinking.
Research shows that most people prefer one side to the other and that this side is “dominant.”

36. Left Brain The Left Hemisphere controls:
Muscles on the right side of the body
In most people the left side is dominant for language skills.
Left Brained thinking is considered to be: Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts
Damage to the Left side will effect the Right side of the body.

37. Right Brain The Right Hemisphere controls:
Muscles in the Left side of the body
Right Brained thinking is considered to be:
Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes
Damage to the Right side will effect the Left side of the body.

38. Split Brain Experiments
In the 1960s a popular “cure” for epilepsy was to cut the Corpus Callosum, separating the two brain hemispheres.
Once the brain was separated scientists could learn a lot about each, individual hemisphere.

41. Did you see a man or a woman?

43. One way to determine brain hemisphere dominance…
One way that some people think you can determine brain hemisphere dominance is by studying the irises of the eyes.
Work with a partner to examine each others’ eyes
Use the images on the next two pages to figure out your brain dominance.

44. Right Eye Left Eye A right-brain dominant Jewel structure
notice there are more/larger/stronger brown dots (jewels) in the left iris indicating more activity in the right hemisphere.
Right Eye Left Eye
A right-brain dominant Flower structure
notice there are more/larger/stronger fibre petals (flowers) in the left iris indicating more activity in the right hemisphere.

45. Right Eye Left Eye A left-brain dominant Jewel structure
notice there are more/larger/stronger jewels in the right iris indicating more activity in the left hemisphere.
Right Eye Left Eye
A left-brain dominant Flower structure
notice there are more/larger/stronger flowers in the right iris indicating more activity in the left hemisphere.