Parts of the Brain
Neurological Disorders/Diseases
Brain Imaging/ Procedures
Neurotransmitters
Random
100
This part of the brain helps with attention, decision-making, and self-control. It is known as the brain's "command center".
What is the prefrontal cortex?
100
This progressive, irreversible brain disorder slowly destroys memory, thinking skills, and the ability to carry out daily tasks. It is the most common cause of dementia.
What is Alzheimer's disease?
100
This type of brain scanning uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed, cross-sectional pictures of the inside of the brain.
What is an MRI?
100
A chemical messenger in the brain known as the "feel-good" hormone that plays a major role in motivation, movement, learning, and reward.
What is dopamine?
100
In The Wizard of Oz, this straw-stuffed character joins Dorothy hoping the Wizard will give him a brain.
Who is the Scarecrow?
200
This specific part of the brain is responsible for emotional processing, especially fear and anxiety, and gets its name from its almond shape.
What is the amygdala?
200
A chronic neurological disorder of the brain characterized by a tendency to have recurring, unprovoked seizures caused by sudden abnormal surges of electrical activity.
What is epilepsy?
200
A discredited neurosurgical procedure that severs nerve pathways in the brain's prefrontal cortex to treat severe psychiatric and neurological conditions.
What is a lobotomy?
200
A neurotransmitter and hormone that plays an important role in the body's "fight-or-flight".
What is epinephrine?
200
It's medical name is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, but you probably know it by this two-word name from eating ice cream too fast.
What is brain freeze?
300
The visual processing hub of the brain, it is the smallest and rear-most of the lobes.
What is the occipital lobe?
300
A disorder caused by a mutation in the HTT gene that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain, affecting a person's motor control, cognitive functions, and mental health.
What is Huntington's disease?
300
This type of scan uses X-rays and computer processing to create a detailed cross-sectional slice of the brain, skull, and surrounding structures.
What is a CT scan?
300
This neurotransmitter is involved in mood management and is associated with happiness. It also helps with communication between nerves.
What is serotonin?
300
After this physicist died in 1955, the pathologist doing his autopsy removed his brain, kept it for decades, and sliced it into pieces for study.
Who is Albert Einstein?
400
A small structure deep inside the center of the brain that acts as the body's primary control center for maintaining homeostasis. It manages things like body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sleep cycles.
What is the hypothalamus?
400
A group of conditions that affect movement, balance, and posture, caused by damage to a baby's brain, often occurring before birth.
What is cerebral palsy?
400
A safe and painless medical test that measures and records the electrical activity of the brain.
What is an electroencephalogram (EEG)?
400
The first one ever discovered by scientists, this neurotransmitter plays a role in memory, learning, attention, arousal, and involuntary muscle movement.
Hint: Your body uses foods like egg yolks, legumes, and seeds to help produce this neurotransmitter.
What is acetylcholine?
400
Surgeons can operate on a patient's brain while they are awake because brain tissue itself lacks these.
What are nociceptors?
500
This stalk-like lower part of the brain connects the cerebrum and cerebellum to the spinal cord.
What is the brainstem?
500
A rare and progressive fatal neurodegenerative disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, eventually leading to the inability to initiate and control voluntary movements such as walking and talking.
What is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)?
500
This surgical procedure occurs when a neurosurgeon temporarily removes a section of the skull to access the brain.
What is a craniotomy?
500
Known for producing a calming effect, this neurotransmitter lessens a nerve cell's ability to receive, create, or send chemical messages to other cells.
What is GABA?
500
When the larva of this marine invertebrate finds a permanent spot to attach to, it absorbs most of its own brain, since it no longer needs to swim around. (They are known to spray water)
What is a sea squirt (tunicate)