EPPP Parts & Functions of Brain
Terms
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- Functions of the medulla; result of damage
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Flow of information between brain and spinal cord
Coordinates swallow, cough, sneeze
Regulates breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure
Damage is often fatal - Functions of the cerebellum; result of damage
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Balance, posture, sensorimotor learning, attention shifting
Small cerebellum linked to autism
Damage can produce ataxia (slurred speech, tremor, loss of balance) - Function of pons
- Connects the halves of the cerebellum and helps integrate movements in right and left side of body.
- Reticular formation functions
- Respiration, cough, vomit, posture, locomotion, REM sleep
- Reticular Activating System functions
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Part of reticular formation
Consciousness, arousal, wakefulness
Screens sensory input especially during sleep and arouses executive parts of brain when warranted
Damage disrupts sleep and can produce permanent coma. - Thalamus functions
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Relay station transmitting all sensory information except smell to appropriate areas of the cortex; also motor activity, language, memory
Korsakoff Syndrome results from damage and involves both amnesias and confabulation - Hypothalamus functions
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Hunger, thirst, sex, sleep, body temperature, movement, emotional reactions
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (circadian rhythm or biorhythm)is here and damage to it can cause SAD
Damage can cause intense laughter or rage - Basal ganglia functions
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planning, organizing, coordinating voluntary movement; regulating amplitude and direction of motor actions; sensorimotor learning; physical expressions of emotion such as smiling
Damage can result in Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Tourette's, mania, depression, OCD, psychosis - Limbic system
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Contains amygdala and hippocampus
Primarily mediates emotions - Amygdala
- attaches emotions to memories, recall of emotionally-charged experiences; directs motivational and emotional activities; receives olfactory signals
- Hippocampus
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Processes spatial, visual, and verbal infromation and consolidates declarative memories (converts short-term to long-term).
Damage resultes in both amnesias - Frontal Lobe
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Motor, Premotor, Prefrontal areas
Control of voluntary movements, Broca's area (speech production), emotion, memory, self-awareness, executive functions. - Parietal Lobe
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Contains somatosensory cortex
Pressure, temperature, pain, proprioception, gustation
Damage disturbes spatial orientation, apraxia (skilled motor movement problem), somatosensory agnosia (tactile agnosia, asomatognosia, and anosognosia)
Lesion to right parietal lob: contralateral neglect
Lesion to left parietal lobe: ideational apraxia (can't carry out sequence of actions) ideomotor apraxia (can't obey simple motor command), and Gerstmann syndrome (finger agnosia, right-left confusion, agraphia, acalculia) - Temporal Lobe
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Contains auditory cortex, Wernicke's area
Auditory sensation/perception; long-term declaratice memories
Damage causes auditory agnosia, auditory hallucinations, Wernicke's (receptive) aphasia; both amnesias. - Occipital Lobe
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Contains visual cortex
Damage results in visual agnosia, visual hallucinations, cortical blindness
Left side damage: simultanagnosia (can't see >1 thing at a time)
Lesion at junction of occipital, temporal, and parietal lobes produces prosopagnosia (can't recognize familiar faces)