The CNS and human behaviour

Question 1

Define the CNS

Answer 1

Consists of the brain and spinal cord and its origin of all complex commands and decisions

Question 2

What are the 2 main functions of the CNS?

Answer 2

• It collects, processes responds to information in the environment
• It coordinates the working of different organs and cells in the body

Question 3

What does the Thalamus do?

Answer 3

• This is the brain’s relay station.
• It receives information from your senses (not smell) and passes it on to the appropriate areas of the cerebal cortex for higher level processing.
  -Thought to play a role in sleep, wakefulness and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Question 4

What is the role of the Hypothalamus?

Answer 4

-Sits below the Thalamus (hypo)
-Controls motivational behaviour- such as hunger, thirst and sex
-Key role in the body’s stress response through its control of “fight or flight”
-Maintains balance in the body: homeostasis, hormones

Question 5

What is the role of the limbic system?

Answer 5

-Consists of several structures such as the amygdala which plays a large role in regulating emotional response
-It has a role in regulating emotional responses (aggression)
-It has a role in memory and learning
-Highly interconnected with areas of the cortex, integrating cortical and subcortical parts of the brain

Question 6

What is the role of Cerebellum?

Answer 6

-Two hemispheres and is highly convoluted (wrinkles)
-It main purpose is to coordinate posture, balance and movement
-50% of it is made up of neurons

Question 7

What is the role of the Corpus callosum?

Answer 7

-This dense collection of nerve cells physically connects the 2 hemispheres below the cerbral cortex
-passes signals
-important to interact between each hemisphere

Question 8

What is lateralisation?

Answer 8

The left and right sides of the brain are specialised to attend to different information, to process sensory inputs in different ways and to control different types of motor behaviour.

Question 9

What is localisation?

Answer 9

Within each hemisphere, certain areas are responsible for specific functions and behaviour

Question 10

How many lobes is the cerebral cortex have?

Answer 10

4

Question 11

Why does the cerebral cortex wrinkles?

Answer 11

To increase the surface area- giving it more processing power

Question 12

Where are the frontal lobes?

Answer 12

Located at the front of your brain, the frontal lobes make up about 40% of the cerebral cortex in humans

Question 13

What is the function of the frontal lobes?

Answer 13

They control high level of cognitive functions such as thinking, problem solving and decision making. (They also contain the motor cortex- controls voluntary movements on the opposite side of the body)

Question 14

Where is the Parietal lobes?

Answer 14

Theses are found on the other side of the central sulcus, further back in the brain.

Question 15

What is the pariental lobes?

Answer 15

-The somatosensory cortex processes sensory information from the skin (touch, temperature and pressure) in a contralateral manner

Question 16

Where are the temporal lobes?

Answer 16

They lie beneath the lateral sulcus of each hemisphere

Question 17

What are in the temporal lobes and what are their role?

Answer 17

-Each contains an auditory cortex which deals with sound information coming mainly from the opposite ear.
-They process the location, volume and pitch of counds and therefore have a role in understanding language.

Question 18

Where are the ocicipital lobes?

Answer 18

Located at the back of the brain

Question 19

What are in the occipital lobes and what are their roles?

Answer 19

-Contains a primary visual cortex and several secondary areas.
-Everything we see to the right of our field of vision (both right and left eye) is initially processed by our left visual cortex before being shared (via the corpus callosum) with the righ visual cortex and vise versa.

Question 20

What are the 2 language areas of the brain?

Answer 20

-Broca’s area
-Wernicke’s area

Question 21

What is the Broca’s area?

Answer 21

-Small area in the left frontal lobe responsible for speech production
- Damage to this area causes Broca’s aphrasia, the main feature of which is slow, laborious speech lacking in fluency.

Question 22

What is the Wernicke’s area?

Answer 22

Wernicke was describing patients who had difficulty understadning langage, producing fluent but meaningless speech. He located the main area of damage in the left temporal lobe.