Brain Regions & Structures
This structure at the base of the brainstem controls essential automatic functions, including breathing and heart rate.
What is the medulla?
The medulla regulates vital autonomic functions, including respiration and cardiovascular activity.
This type of brain injury occurs when an external force, such as a blow to the head, disrupts normal brain functioning.
What is a traumatic brain injury (TBI)?
A TBI can affect memory, attention, emotions, and behavior. Its effects depend on the location and severity of the injury.
This term refers to our awareness of ourselves and our environment, including our thoughts, feelings, and sensory experiences.
What is consciousness?
Consciousness includes awareness of internal mental processes and external surroundings. Sleep and wakefulness represent different states of consciousness.
These retinal photoreceptors are responsible for color vision and detecting fine details, especially in bright light.
What are cones?
Cones are concentrated in the fovea and support color vision and visual acuity. Rods are more sensitive in dim light but do not provide color vision.
These sensory receptor cells in the taste buds detect chemicals dissolved in saliva and help us identify sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
What are gustatory receptor cells?
Taste is a chemical sense. Gustatory receptor cells respond to tastants and communicate information through sensory nerves.
A gymnast maintains balance while performing a complicated routine. This structure at the back of the brain helps coordinate her movements and posture.
What is the cerebellum?
The cerebellum supports balance, coordination, motor learning, and the timing of movements.
Following a stroke, a patient speaks fluently but uses meaningless words and has difficulty understanding spoken language. Damage to this language-related brain region is most likely responsible.
What is Wernicke's area?
Damage to Wernicke's area, typically in the language-dominant temporal region, can produce fluent aphasia with impaired comprehension.
This approximately 24-hour biological cycle regulates daily patterns of sleep, wakefulness, body temperature, and hormone release.
What is a circadian rhythm?
Circadian rhythms are internal biological cycles that are synchronized with environmental cues, particularly light.
This physical property of a sound wave determines its perceived pitch, with higher values producing higher-pitched sounds.
What is frequency?
Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz). Amplitude is more closely associated with perceived loudness.
Even with your eyes closed, you can touch your nose with your finger because this sense provides information about the position and movement of your body parts.
What is proprioception (kinesthesia)?
Proprioceptors in muscles, tendons, and joints provide information about limb position and movement without requiring visual feedback.
After narrowly avoiding a car accident, a driver experiences intense fear. This almond-shaped brain structure plays a major role in processing threatening and emotionally significant stimuli.
What is the amygdala?
The amygdala is involved in processing emotional significance, especially fear-related learning and threat detection.
After undergoing surgery to remove parts of this lobe, H.M. (Henry Molaison) could no longer form any new explicit long-term memories, although he retained some ability to learn motor skills.
What is the medial temporal lobe?
H.M.'s case demonstrated the importance of medial temporal structures, including the hippocampus, in forming new explicit memories.
Located in the hypothalamus, this small cluster of neurons acts as the body's master biological clock, helping regulate the sleep-wake cycle.
What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)?
The SCN receives information about environmental light from the retina and coordinates circadian rhythms throughout the body.
This structure in the eye converts light into neural signals through specialized photoreceptors and begins the process of visual information processing.
What is the retina?
The retina contains rods and cones that perform phototransduction. Visual information is processed through retinal circuits before traveling along the optic nerve.
After bumping your elbow, rubbing the injured area helps reduce discomfort. This theory explains how nonpainful sensory input can inhibit the transmission of pain signals.
What is gate-control theory?
Gate-control theory proposes that neural mechanisms in the spinal cord regulate pain signals. Touch input and descending signals from the brain can influence pain perception.
Following damage to this brain structure, a patient can remember childhood events but struggles to form new explicit long-term memories.
What is the hippocampus?
The hippocampus is essential for forming and consolidating new explicit memories, including memories of events and facts.
A split-brain patient sees a picture of a key in the left visual field. Although the patient cannot verbally identify it, they can select the key using this hand.
What is the left hand?
Information from the left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere, which controls the left hand. In typical split-brain cases, that information cannot readily reach left-hemisphere language areas.
As darkness approaches, the pineal gland increases production of this hormone, which signals nighttime and helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle.
What is melatonin?
Melatonin helps signal biological nighttime. Its secretion is regulated indirectly by the SCN and is generally suppressed by light.
When sound vibrations move fluid inside the cochlea, these specialized sensory receptors bend and convert mechanical movement into electrical signals.
What are hair cells?
Hair cells convert mechanical vibrations into electrical signals, leading to neurotransmitter release onto auditory nerve fibers.
Unlike most other sensory pathways, smell information reaches parts of the olfactory cortex without first passing through this major sensory relay structure.
What is the thalamus?
Olfactory information initially bypasses the thalamic relay used by most other senses. Smell is closely connected with brain regions involved in emotion and memory.
A patient suffers a stroke and can understand spoken language but speaks slowly and with great difficulty. Damage to this region of the frontal lobe in the language-dominant hemisphere is most likely responsible.
What is Broca's area?
Broca's area is associated with speech production. Damage can produce nonfluent aphasia, characterized by effortful speech with relatively preserved comprehension.
Following a stroke, a patient repeatedly practices moving a weakened arm. Over time, surviving neural networks reorganize and help restore some movement. This improvement demonstrates this ability of the brain.
What is neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity allows surviving neural circuits to strengthen and reorganize after injury. Rehabilitation can encourage recovery, although the extent varies.
After flying from Utah to London, a traveler feels sleepy during the day and wide awake late at night because the internal biological clock is temporarily out of sync with local time. This condition is known as this.
What is jet lag?
Jet lag results from a mismatch between the internal circadian clock and the destination's light-dark schedule. Adjustment typically takes several days.
After staring at a red image for 30 seconds, a student looks at a white wall and sees a greenish afterimage. This theory best explains the phenomenon.
What is opponent-process theory?
Opponent-process theory describes opposing color channels, such as red-green and blue-yellow. Adaptation within these channels helps explain negative afterimages.
While watching a video, a student hears the same spoken syllable differently depending on the speaker's lip movements. This audiovisual illusion demonstrates how vision can alter speech perception.
What is the McGurk effect?
The McGurk effect demonstrates multisensory integration: visual information about mouth movements can change how the brain perceives speech sounds.