Lobes of the Brain
Location: Very front of the brain
Purpose: Thinking, planning, decision-making, and personality
Frontal Lobe
Location: Very front of the frontal lobe
Purpose: Involved in judgement, impulse control, and complex decision making
Prefrontal Cortex
Location: Base of brainstem
Purpose: Controls heartbeat, breathing, and other automatic survival functions
Medulla
Location: Deep in temporal lobe
Purpose: Forms new memories and supports learning
Hippocampus
Location: Sides of brain and near the ears
Purpose: handles hearing, memory, and language comprehension
Temporal Lobe
Location: Back edge of frontal lobe
Purpose: directs voluntary muscle movements
Motor Cortex
Location: Below the thalamus
Purpose: Regulate hunger, thirst, body temperature, and links to hormones
Hypothalamus
Location: Back of the brain; below the occipital lobe
Purpose: Controls balance, posture, and smooth movements
"little brain"
Cerebellum
Location: Top-back of the brain
Purpose: Processes touch, temperature, pain, and spatial awareness
Parietal Lobe
Location: Front edge of parietal lobe
Purpose: Processes touch, pressure, temperature, and body position
Somatosensory Cortex
Location: Deep in the center of brain
Purpose: Acts as a relay station for sensory information to the cortex
Thalamus
Location: Large band of fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres
Purpose: Allows the two hemispheres to communicate
Corpus Callosum
Location: Spread throughout the cortex
Purpose: integrate information from different senses and higher level thinking
Association Areas
Location: Left frontal lobe
Purpose: Controls speech production and language expression
Broca's Area
Location: Runs through brainstem
Purpose: Regulates alertness, attention, and sleep-wake cycles
Reticular Activating System
Location: In temporal lobe, next to hippocampus
Purpose: Processes fear, anger, and emotional responses
Amygdala
Location: Very back of brain
Purpose: Responsible for vision and visual processing
Occipital Lobe
Location: Left temporal Lobe
Purpose: Allows understanding and processing of language
Wernicke's Area
Location: Just beneath the hypothalamus
Purpose: "master gland" that releases hormones controlling growth and other glands
Pituitary Gland
Location: The outer layer of the brain
Purpose: Responsible for higher level thinking, awareness, and processing information
Cerebral Cortex