Human Brain: Major Structures and their Functions

the brain is the command center for the entire body it makes us who we are it receives information from our senses and controls our thoughts and movement to better explore this incredibly complex organ scientists have divided it in two parts and regions the largest part is a cerebrum which is divided into two sides called hemispheres just like the earth the outer layer is known as the cortex which is Latin for bark like a tree's bark the surface is only 1/8 inch thick but it also contains millions of cells with fibers that send messages to other brain areas more than two-thirds of the surface of the cortex hides and hundreds of little folds that make the wiggly visible lines on the brain animals that are less intelligent have a smoother brain surface the cortex is divided into four regions the frontal lobe is for personality and emotions higher thinking skills like problem-solving and controlling movement it continues to develop until you're in your mid-20s the temporal lobe helps process your hearing and other senses and helps with language and reading the parietal lobe is involved with your senses attention and language the occipital lobe helps your eyes see including recognition of shapes and colors the thalamus in the center of the brain relays sensory and motor information to the cortex and helps with consciousness sleep and alertness twelve pairs of cranial nerves carry information from your senses to and from the brain and body lower in the brain we find the cerebellum which plays a key role in motor control coordination and spatial navigation so we can find our way out of a maze for example underneath is the brainstem which connects the brain to the spinal cord a nerve pathway that runs all the way down your back sending and receiving information from your senses the brainstem includes the pons which helps control our breathing and the medulla oblongata which regulates our heart and other body reflexes like vomiting coughing sneezing out swallowing the limbic system a region under the cortex processes our emotions and drives it contains the brain's reward circuit which releases the chemical dopamine making us feel pleasure the anticipation of pleasure motivates us to repeat important human behaviors like eating having fun with friends or falling in love but it also encourages us to repeat risky behaviors like taking drugs drugs signal the brain to release unusually strong amounts of dopamine this flood of dopamine causes the high that drug users seek it makes it difficult to enjoy more normal simple pleasures repeated activation of this reward pathway can lead to addiction the limbic system includes the amygdala which processes emotions and the hippocampus in the temporal lobe which is like a memory indexer that sends memories to certain parts of the brain for storage and retrieves them when you need them the brain controls many actions through rapid nerve impulses but there are some body functions that the brain modulates over many hours or days by secreting hormones via special glands like the hypothalamus which wakes you up in the morning and gives the adrenaline flowing like during a test or athletic event the pituitary gland often called the master gland which helps control growth body temperature pregnancy and childbirth and the tiny pineal gland which helps to control sleep and circadian rhythms these are just a few of the parts and functions of the beautiful amazing and complex human brain

Channel: medXclusive Learning

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Keywords: Medicine, medical, medical school, science, biology, mcat, usmle, nclex, health, animation, med

Id: EeE7Fpg061I

Length: 4min 51sec (291 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 22 2016