• The main and largest part of the brain in humans
• Controls all voluntary motor actions in the body.
• Last center to receive sensory input and carry out integration before commanding voluntary motor responses.
• Portion of the brain responsible for higher thought processes.
• Communicates with and coordinates the activities of other parts of the brain.
• Cerebral cortex is gray matter containing cell bodies and unmyelinated short fibers.
• Four lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. They are split into the right & left hemisphere
• Connects at corpus collosum

• Different areas perform different function located in various lobes.
• Association areas are places where integration occurs and where memories are stored.

• Area in the frontal lobe.
• Responsible of voluntary control of skeletal muscles. Sends axons down to motor neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord

• in the parietal lobe
• sensory information from the skin and skeletal muscles arrive here

• in the occipital lobe
• associate new visual information and stores visual memories

• in the temporal lobe
• associate new auditory information and stores auditory memories

• receive information from association areas and perform higher-level functions
• prefrontal areas receive information and use it for:
  • reasoning
  • planning actions
  • critical thinking
  • formulation of appropriate behaviors

• Wernicke's area
  • Located in the temporal lobe
  • Helps us to understand spoken and written word.
  • Sends information for understanding written and spoken word to Broca's area
• Broca's Area
  • located in the left fronta lobe
  • adds grammatical refinements, directs speech motor neurons

• Myelinated axons are arranged in tracts connecting various parts of the brain
• These tracts cross over in the medulla so that the right side of the brain controls the lefts side of the body & vice versa
• Left half of brain "verbal", right half "visual

• Made up of gray matter between the cerebrum and thalamus.
• Integrates voluntary muscle commands to ensure that proper muscle groups are activated or inhibited.
• produces dopamine
• Defective in Parkinson's and Huntington disease.

• Consists of two masses of gray matter.
• Receiving end for all sensory input except smell
• Integrates signals and sends to appropriate parts of cerebrum.
• Participates in higher mental functions such as memory and emotions

• Control center for maintaining homeostasis
• Regulates hunger, sleep, thirst, body temperature, water balance, and blood pressure,
• Controls pituitary gland.
• Connection between nervous and endocrine systems.

• Coordinates skeletal muscles to produce smooth, graceful motions.
• Lies under the back lobe of the cerebrum
• Surface is gray matter, interior white matter
• Receives sensory input from inner ear (body position), eyes, proprioreceptors.
• Receives motor input from the cerebral cortex. After integrating this information, the cerebellum sends motor signals by way of the brain stem to the skeletal muscles.
• Stimulates muscles to maintain posture and balance.
• Assists in the learning of new motor skills (i.e. learning the piano)

• In brain stem.
• Contains bundles of axons that travel between cerebellum and rest of CNS.
• Aids medulla in controlling breathing rate, reflex head movements.

• Reflex centers for vision, hearing, and feeling.
• Connects lower brain stem and cerebrum

• Part of the brain stem
• Contains reflex centers for involuntary actions (i.e. controlling hearbeat, breathing, vasoconstriction vomiting, coughing, sneezing, hiccoughing, and swallowing.)

• Network of nuclei (masses gray matter) and fibers that run the length of brainstem.
• Arouses cerebrum via thalamus, causing a person to be alert.
• The RAS receives sensory signals and sends them to higher centers.
• Activated by sudden stimuli (i.e. sudden sounds, bright lights, strong smells)
• Can filter out irrelevant signals.
• Reduction of stimuli allows drowsiness.
• General anesthetics suppress RAS.
• Damage to RAS may cause irreversible coma.

• Electrical activity in the brain can be picked up by electrodes attached to the scalp.
• Can be used as a diagnostic tool for cerebral activity
• Irregularities associated with epilepsy, brain tumors
• Lack of electrical activity - "brain death"

• Many caused by tension in head and neck muscles.
• Swelling of membranes in sinuses from infections and allergies.
• Hangovers - cerebral blood vessels dilate

• Affect 1 in 10 people and can be very severe
• No cause known
• Treatments involve inhibitors of relevant nerve pathway or reduction of inflammation in brain.
• Severe headaches can also be the result of infections of the meninges (meningitis) or the brain itself (encephalitis)

• Potion of the brain concerned with emotions and memory
• Neural pathways lying just below the cerebral cortex, connecting frontal & temporal lobes, thalamus, hypothalamus, nd basal ganglia.
• Sensations of pain, pleasure, rage, affection, sex drive (libido), fear, and sorrow. 

Hippocampus

• part of the cerebral cortex where memories form
• Significant structure in the Limbic System
• Makes prefrontal areas aware of past experiencs

• Significant structure in the limbic system
• Adds emotional overtones (i.e. fear)
• Allows past knowledge to modify behavior

• May involve increasing the number of synapses and the act of forgetting decreasing
• Memory is the ability to hold thoughts in mind or recall events from the past
• Learning occurs when we retain and utilize past memories

• Short term
  • Mostly occurs in prefrontal lobe
• Long term
  • Involve ACh stimulating sensory areas where memories are stored
  • Stored in various sensory association areas 
  • Hippocampus & amyglada involved
• Semantic memories: words, number, etc.
• Episodic memories: persons, events
• Skill memory: actions that originally need to be thought about before becoming automatic (i.e. riding a bike)

• neuropeptide synthesized in the pituitary gland and suppresses pain

• A disease caused by the death of brain cells.
• Characterized by gradual loss of memory.

• Disease caused by the death of brain cells that produce dopamine.
• Characterized by a loss of motor control resulting in slowness of movement, tremor, and rigidity.

• Most black Na⁺ channels in the neurons, preventing propagation of nerve impulses
• Some inhibit synaptic transmission

• Affect gamma-aminobutyric acid (a nurotransmitter) receptors.

• Disrupts Krebs cycle, acetyl CoA accumulates causing fatty deposits in liver which later turn to scar tissue.