4B'' - Parts of the Brain

Question 1

Medulla

Answer 1

Controls vital bodily functions such as:
- breathing
- heart rate blood pressure
- vomiting
- salivating
- couching and sneezing

Question 2

Pons

Answer 2

The pons acts as a bridge, relaying information between different brain areas, such as between the medulla and the midbrain.
Helps control:
- Sleeping
- dreaming
- waking
- breathing

Question 3

Cerebellum

Answer 3

It’s about the size of a tennis ball, holds most of the brain’s neurons, and helps control smooth movement, balance, and posture, and automatic movement.

Question 4

Reticular Formation

Answer 4

A network of neurons runs through the midbrain and hindbrain. It filters incoming information, alerts the brain to important signals, helps with consciousness, arousal, and muscle tone.

Question 5

Reticular Activating system

Answer 5

Part of the reticular formation, it has pathways that carry signals between the cerebral cortex and the spine. It controls arousal and affects what we focus on.

Question 6

Hypothalamus

Answer 6

It helps keep the body’s internal balance (homeostasis) by controlling hormone release. It also regulates hunger, thirst, body temperature, and sleep, and is part of the limbic system.

Question 7

Thalamus

Answer 7

It filters sensory info (except smell), sends it to the brain, and helps focus attention on important details.

Question 8

Cerebrum

Answer 8

Made of neural tissue and the outer cerebral cortex, it controls everything we consciously think, feel, and do. It has two hemispheres joined by the corpus callosum.