The Brain Flashcards
Hypothalamus
Part of limbic system
Under thalamus
Linked to emotion
body temperature, storage nutrients, motivation and emotion, hunger, thirst, sexual behavior, fighting and mating
Brain stem
Oldest part and central core of brain
Beginning where spinal cord swells as it enters skull
Responsible for automatic survival functions
Midbrain
Vision and hearing
Involved in locating things in space
Reticular Activating System (RAS): attention, sleep, arousal
Association areas
Areas of cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor/sensory functions
Involved in higher mental functions (learning, remembering, thinking, speaking)
Hippocampus
Helps process explicit memories for storage
Thalamus
Relay station for sensory stimulation
Amygdala
Linked to emotions and memory, particularly fear and aggression
Corpus callosum
Large band of neural fibers connecting two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them
Cerebellum
“little brain”
attached to rear of brainstem
functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance
Pineal gland
Regulates melatonin for sleep patterns
Pituitary gland
Most influential gland
Under influence of hypothalamus, regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands
Spinal cord
Part of central nervous system
Wernicke’s area
Language comprehension
Broca’s area
Word production
Neuroplasticity
ability of brain to reform synaptic connections, especially in response to learning/experience/injury
