Brainstem & Cerebellum
This structure sits behind the brainstem and controls balance, axial motor control, and core muscle strength.
What is the cerebellum?
All incoming sensory information (except smell) passes through this nuclear mass before reaching the cerebral cortex.
What is the thalamus?
The basal ganglia consist of deep gray matter structures, including the globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, and this third main nucleus.
What is the putamen?
Motor planning, motor programming, and motor execution take place in this cerebral lobe.
What is the frontal lobe?
Moving from outer skull bone to inner brain tissue, the three layers of the meninges are the dura mater, arachnoid mater, and this deepest layer.
What is the pia mater?
Damage to the cerebellum causes this uncoordinated, unsteady gait pattern during walking.
What is gait ataxia?
This nuclear mass regulates the autonomic nervous system, controlling body temperature, blood pressure, and fight-or-flight responses.
What is the hypothalamus?
Degeneration of dopamine-producing cells within the basal ganglia loops causes this movement disorder.
What is Parkinson's disease?
Touch, pressure, pain, and joint position inputs are received and processed in this cerebral lobe.
What is the parietal lobe?
Cerebrospinal fluid flows around the outside of the brain within this specific space beneath the middle meningeal layer.
What is the subarachnoid space?
This type of tremor occurs when a patient intentionally reaches for a target, getting worse as their hand gets closer to the object.
What is an intentional tremor?
Strong emotions like fear, anger, or anxiety are processed in this brain system and can directly alter a patient's muscle tone.
What is the limbic system?
Unlike spasticity, this type of constant, resistance-to-stretch muscle tone is seen in patients with Parkinson's disease.
What is rigidity (or lead-pipe / cogwheel rigidity)?
Left and right cerebral hemispheres exchange information through this broad band of white matter fibers.
What is the corpus callosum?
Fluid that cushions the brain and spinal cord is produced and circulated inside four interconnected spaces called these.
What are the ventricles (or ventricular system)?
Information travels between the cerebellum and higher brain centers through three large white matter bundles called these.
What are the cerebellar peduncles (superior, middle, inferior)?
Sensory signals for sight and sound relay through specific geniculate bodies located inside this diencephalon structure.
What is the thalamus?
Loss of dopamine neurons in this specific midbrain nuclear mass disrupts the basal ganglia loop.
What is the substantia nigra?
Motor commands travel from the frontal lobe down to the spinal cord gray matter along this primary motor tract.
What is the corticospinal tract?
When ventricular enlargement causes excess fluid pressure in a patient, a surgeon often inserts this device to drain the fluid into the abdomen.
What is a shunt?
When a patient tries to touch a target but misjudges the distance and overshoots or undershoots it, they are demonstrating this.
What is dysmetria (or overshooting/undershooting)?
Severe fluid buildup inside the ventricles increases pressure on the brain, creating this clinical condition.
What is hydrocephalus?
The efferent (output) signals from the basal ganglia exit through this specific structure to travel back to the frontal lobe.
What is the globus pallidus?
Auditory input from the ears travels to this lobe to be processed into tones, pitch, and speech meaning.
What is the temporal lobe?
Head trauma patients may experience pressure changes inside their head when weather shifts due to sensitivity within this fluid environment.
What is cerebrospinal fluid (or ventricular/meningeal system)?