The document summarizes key aspects of brain structure and function in 3 paragraphs or less: The brainstem controls automatic functions like breathing and heart rate. The cerebellum aids in movement coordination and balance. The limbic system processes emotions and memories. The cerebral cortex is the brain's control center, with different lobes having distinct functions - frontal lobe for planning, parietal for senses, occipital for vision, and temporal for hearing. Within the cortex, specialized areas control motor skills, language processing, and other cognitive abilities. The brain is plastic and can reorganize over time based on experiences. Sensory systems like vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell detect environmental inputs which the brain interprets as perceptions

1. Brain Structure and Function

2. “If the human brain were so
simple that we could
understand it, we would be so
simple that we couldn’t”
-Emerson Pugh, The Biological Origin of Human
Values (1977)

3. Phineas Gage
• September 13th, 1848
• Phineas 25 years old
• Rutland & Burlington
Railroad, Cavendish, VT
• Paving the way for new RR tracks
• “Tamping Iron”
– 1.25in x 3ft

5. • Accident
– Quick Recovery
• Months later: “No longer Gage”
– Before: capable, efficient, best foreman, well-balanced
mind
– After: extravagant, anti-social, liar, grossly profane
• Stint with P.T Barnum
• Died 12 years later
Phineas Gage

6. Evolution of the Brain
Reptilian  Paleomammalian  Neomammalian

7. The Brain
• Brainstem
–responsible for
automatic survival
functions
• Medulla
–controls heartbeat
and breathing

8. BRAINSTEM  Heart
rate and breathing
CEREBELLUM
 Coordination
and balance
Parts of the Brain
amygdala
pituitary
hippocampus
THALAMUS
 Relays
messages

9. Reticular Formation
•Widespread connections
•Arousal of the brain as
a whole
•Reticular activating
system (RAS)
•Maintains
consciousness and
alertness
•Functions in sleep and
arousal from sleep

10. The Cerebellum
–helps coordinate
voluntary
movement and
balance

11. The Limbic System
• Hypothalamus, pituitary, amy
gdala, and hippocampus all
deal with basic
drives, emotions, and
memory
• Hippocampus  Memory
processing
• Amygdala  Aggression
(fight) and fear (flight)
• Hypothalamus 
Hunger, thirst, body
temperature, pleasure;
regulates pituitary gland

12. The Limbic System
 Hypothalamus
 neural structure lying
below (hypo) the
thalamus; directs several
maintenance activities
 eating
 drinking
 body temperature
 helps govern the
endocrine system via the
pituitary gland
 linked to emotion

13. The Limbic System

14. The Limbic System
• Amygdala
–two almond-
shaped neural
clusters that are
components of
the limbic system
and are linked to
emotion and fear

15. Charles Whitman
August 1st, 1966

16. The Brain
• Thalamus
– the brain’s sensory
switchboard, located
on top of the
brainstem
– it directs messages to
the sensory receiving
areas in the cortex
and transmits replies
to the cerebellum and
medulla

17. The Cerebral Cortex
• Cerebral Cortex
–the body’s
ultimate control
and information
processing
center

18. The lobes of the cerebral hemispheres

19. The lobes of the cerebral hemispheres
Planning, decision
making speech
Sensory
Auditory
Vision

20. The Cerebral Cortex
• Frontal Lobes
–involved in speaking and
muscle movements and in
making plans and judgments
–the “executive”
• Parietal Lobes
–include the sensory cortex

21. The Cerebral Cortex
• Occipital Lobes
–include the visual areas, which
receive visual information from the
opposite visual field
• Temporal Lobes
–include the auditory areas, each of
which receives auditory information
primarily from the opposite ear

22. The Cerebral Cortex
• Frontal (Forehead to top)  Motor Cortex
• Parietal (Top to rear)  Sensory Cortex
• Occipital (Back)  Visual Cortex
• Temporal (Above ears)  Auditory Cortex

23. Motor/Sensory Cortex
• Contralateral
• Homunculus
• Unequal
representation

25. Sensory Areas – Sensory Homunculus
Figure 13.10

26. The Cerebral Cortex
 Aphasia
 impairment of language, usually caused by left
hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area
(impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area
(impairing understanding) –see clips
 Broca’s Area
 an area of the left frontal lobe that directs the
muscle movements involved in speech
 Wernicke’s Area
 an area of the left temporal lobe involved in
language comprehension and expression

27. Language Areas
• Broca 
Expression
• Wernicke 
Comprehension
and reception
• Aphasias
LEFT HEMISPHERE

28. Paul Broca [1800s]
• Suggested localization

29. Techniques to examine functions
of the brain
1. Remove part of
the brain & see
what effect it has
on behavior
2. Examine humans
who have suffered
brain damage

30. 3. Stimulate the
brain
4. Record brain
activity

32. Brain Lateralization

33. Our Divided Brains
• Corpus collosum –
large bundle of
neural fibers
(myelinated
axons, or white
matter) connecting
the two
hemispheres

34. Hemispheric Specialization
LEFT
Symbolic thinking
(Language)
Detail
Literal meaning
RIGHT
Spatial perception
Overall picture
Context,
metaphor

35. Contra-lateral
division of labor
• Right hemisphere
controls left side of
body and visual field
• Left hemisphere
controls right side of
body and visual field

36. Split Brain Patients
• Epileptic patients had corpus callosum cut
to reduce seizures in the brain
• Lives largely unaffected, seizures reduced
• Affected abilities related to naming objects
in the left visual field

37. Brain Plasticity

38. Brain Plasticity
• The ability of the brain to
reorganize neural pathways
based on new experiences
• Persistent functional changes in
the brain represent new
knowledge
• Age dependent component
• Brain injuries

39. Environmental influences on
neuroplasticity
Impoverished environment
Enriched environment

40. Sensation and Perception

41. Sensation
• The process by which the central
nervous system receives input from
the environment via sensory neurons
• Bottom up processing

42. Perception
• The process by which the brain
interprets and organizes sensory
information
• Top-down processing

43. The psychophysics of sensation
• Absolute threshold  the minimum
stimulation needed to detect a stimulus with
50% accuracy
• Subliminal stimulation  below the
absolute threshold for conscious awareness
– May affect behavior without conscious
awareness
• Sensory adaptation/habituation 
diminished sensitivity to an unchanging
stimulus

44. The five major senses
• Vision – electromagnetic
– Occipital lobe
• Hearing – mechanical
– Temporal lobe
• Touch – mechanical
– Sensory cortex
• Taste – chemical
– Gustatory insular cortex
• Smell – chemical
– Olfactory bulb
– Orbitofrontal cortex
– Vomeronasal organ?

45. The sixth sense
• Vestibular  balance and motion
– Inner ear
• Proprioceptive  relative position of body
parts
– Parietal lobe
• Temperature  heat
– Thermoreceptors throughout the body, sensory cortex
• Nociception  pain
– Nociceptors throughout the body, sensory cortex
And the seventh…and eighth…and ninth…

46. Thresholds of the five major senses

47. The Retina
The retina at the
back of the eye
is actually part
of the brain!
Rods –
brightness
Cones – color