The Brain How does your brain work It

The Brain

How does your brain work • It is made up of 100 billion nerve cells. • Each cell is connected to around 10, 000 others. • The total number of connections in your brain is about 1000 trillion. • Parts of the Brain

Synapse

Types of Neurotransmitters

Cerebrum

Parts of the Brain Cerebellum=coordinates and balances the actions of the muscles so that the body can move gracefully and efficiently. Cerebellum

Parts of the Brain • The Brain Stem and Midbrain • Evolutionary viewpoint, the oldest and most primitive part of the brain. • The medulla oblongata and pons control heart rate, constriction of blood vessels, digestion and respiration.

The Brain Pons Brain stem Medulla oblongata

Thalamus acts as a switching center for nerve messages. Thalamus Hypothalamus

Hypothalamus controls recognition and analysis of hunger, thirst, fatigue, anger, and body temperature. It controls coordination of the nervous and endocrine systems. Thalamus Hypothalamus

Cerebral Cortex • The most recently evolved region of the vertebrate brain. • Fish have no cerebral cortex, amphibians and reptiles have only rudiments of this area • 4 lobes

Occipital & Temporal Lobe • Occipital- responsible for receiving and processing visual information • Temporal responsible for processing auditory signals, memory, emotion, and language

Parietal & Frontal Lobe • Parietal- processes information about touch, taste, pressure, pain, and heat and cold. • Frontal lobe- is responsible for decision making, problem solving, planning, and speech

Our unique human brain • During human evolution, our forebrain became larger as our cerebral cortex increased in size. • Humans have a larger cerebral cortex relative to the rest of the brain than any other animal. • The cerebral cortex handles many of our unique skills, like language and problem solving.

A brain of two halves • The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, and the left hemisphere controls the right side. • In most people, the left hemisphere is important for language, math and reasoning • The right is more important for emotion, recognising faces and music.