Cerebellum - The portion of the brain (located at the back) which helps coordinate human movement (balance and muscle coordination). Damage may result in ataxia which is a problem of muscle coordination. This can interfere with a person's ability to walk, talk, eat, and to perform other self care tasks.
Diagram of brain.....diagram-of-brain-frontal-lobe.
Brain Information
AMYGDALA: Lying deep in the center of the limbic emotional brain, this powerful structure, the size and shape of an almond, is constantly alert to the needs of basic survival including sex, emotional reactions such as anger and fear. Consequently it inspires aversive cues, such as sweaty palms, and has recently been associated with a range of mental conditions including depression to even autism. It is larger in male brains, often enlarged in the brains of sociopaths and it shrinks in the elderly.
BRAIN STEM: The part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord. The brain stem controls functions basic to the survival of all animals, such as heart rate, breathing, digesting foods, and sleeping. It is the lowest, most primitive area of the human brain.
CEREBELLUM: Two peach-size mounds of folded tissue located at the top of the brain stem, the cerebellum is the guru of skilled, coordinated movement (e.g., returning a tennis serve or throwing a slider down and in) and is involved in some learning pathways.
CEREBRUM: This is the largest brain structure in humans and accounts for about two-thirds of the brain’s mass. It is divided into two sides — the left and right hemispheres—that are separated by a deep groove down the center from the back of the brain to the forehead. These two halves are connected by long neuron branches called the corpus callosum which is relatively larger in women’s brains than in men’s. The cerebrum is positioned over and around most other brain structures, and its four lobes are specialized by function but are richly connected. The outer 3 millimeters of “gray matter” is the cerebral cortex which consists of closely packed neurons that control most of our body functions, including the mysterious state of consciousness, the senses, the body’s motor skills, reasoning and language.
The Frontal Lobe is the most recently-evolved part of the brain and the last to develop in young adulthood. It’s dorso-lateral prefrontal circuit is the brain’s top executive. It organizes responses to complex problems, plans steps to an objective, searches memory for relevant experience, adapts strategies to accommodate new data, guides behavior with verbal skills and houses working memory. Its orbitofrontal circuit manages emotional impulses in socially appropriate ways for productive behaviors including empathy, altruism, interpretation of facial expressions. Stroke in this area typically releases foul language and fatuous behavior patterns.
The Temporal Lobe controls memory storage area, emotion, hearing, and, on the left side, language.
The Parietal Lobe receives and processes sensory information from the body including calculating location and speed of objects.
The Occipital Lobe processes visual data and routes it to other parts of the brain for identification and storage.
HIPPOCAMPUS: located deep within the brain, it processes new memories for long-term storage. If you didn't have it, you couldn't live in the present, you'd be stuck in the past of old memories. It is among the first functions to falter in Alzheimer's.
HYPOTHALAMUS: Located at the base of the brain where signals from the brain and the body’s hormonal system interact, the hypothalamus maintains the body’s status quo. It monitors numerous bodily functions such as blood pressure and body temperature, as well as controlling body weight and appetite.
THALAMUS: Located at the top of the brain stem, the thalamus acts as a two-way relay station, sorting, processing, and directing signals from the spinal cord and mid-brain structures up to the cerebrum, and, conversely, from the cerebrum down the spinal cord to the nervous system.
In the general population, 95 percent of people are right-handed, which means that the left hemisphere is the dominant hemisphere. (For you left-handers, the right hemisphere is dominant.) With right-handed people, the ability to understand and express language is in this left temporal lobe. If I were to take a metal probe, and charge it with just a bit of electricity, and put it on the "primary" area of my left temporal lobe, I might say "hey, I hear a tone." If I move this probe to a more complex area of the temporal lobe, I might hear a word being said. If I move the electrical probe to an even more complex area, I might hear the voice of somebody I recognize; "I hear Uncle Bob's voice." We have simple areas of the temporal lobe that deal with basic sounds and other areas of the temporal lobe that look at more complex hearing information.
Diagram of Brain
The right temporal lobe also deals with hearing. However, its job is to process musical information or help in the identification of noises. If this area is damaged, we might not be able to appreciate music or be able to sing. Because we tend to think and express in terms of language, the left temporal lobe is more critical for day-to-day functioning.
The vision areas and the hearing areas of the brain have a boundary area where they interact. This is the area of the brain that does reading. We take the visual images and convert them into sounds. So if you injure this area (or it doesn't develop when you are very young), you get something called dyslexia. People who have dyslexia have problems that may include seeing letters backwards or have problems understanding what written words mean.
Information from our eyes goes to areas at the very back of the brain. We've all seen cartoons where the rabbit gets hit on the head and the rabbit sees stars. This can actually happen in human beings (trust me, not a good thing to do at home!). If you take a hard enough blow to the back of the head, this brain area bangs against back of your skull. This stimulates it and you can see stars and flashing lights. Remember those two hemispheres? Each hemisphere processes half the visual information. Visual information that we see on the left gets processed by the right hemisphere. Information on the right gets processed by the left hemisphere. Remember, wires that bring in information to the brain are "crossed"--visual information from the left goes to the right brain.
If something lands on my left hand, this information will be transmitted to the right side of my brain. It goes to the area of the brain next to the area that deals with movement. The tactile area of the brain deals with physical sensation. Movement and feeling are closely related, so it makes sense that they are next to each other in the brain. Because movement and tactile areas are located close to each other, it is not uncommon for people with a brain injuries to lose both movement and feeling in parts of their body. Remember--tactile information from the left side of the body goes to the right brain, just like movement and vision. diagram of brain. Diagram of brain: hearing-and-language
Average dimensions of the adult brain: Width = 140 mm/5.5 in, Length = 167 mm/6.5 in, Height = 93 mm/3.6 in.
How much does human brain weigh? At birth our brains weigh and average of 350-400g (about 4/5 lbs), as adults the brain averages 1300-1400g (about 3 lbs).
If Stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m(2.5sq.ft), the area of a night table.
Total surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft.
Composition
The composition of the brain = 77-78% water, 10-12% lipids, 8% protein, 1% carbs, 2% soluble organics, 1% inorganic salt.
The breakdown of intracranial contents by volume (1,700 ml, 100%): brain = 1,400 ml (80%); blood = 150 ml (10%); cerebrospinal fluid = 150 ml (10%).
The cerebellum contains half of all the neurons in the brain but comprises only 10% of the brain.
The cerebral cortex is about 85% of the brain.
Percentage of total cerebral cortex volume = frontal lobe 41%, temporal lobe 22%, parietal lobe 19%, occipital lobe 18%.
There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain, the same number of stars in our galaxy.
The left hemisphere of the brain has 186 million more neurons than the right hemisphere.
750-1000ml of blood flow through the brain every minute or about 3 full soda cans.
In that minute the brain will consume 46cm3 (1/5 cups) of oxygen from that blood.
Of that oxygen consumed, 6% will be used by the brain's white matter and 94% by the grey matter.
Times
The brain can stay alive for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen. After that cells begin die.
The slowest speed at which information travels between neurons is 416 km/h or 260 mph, thats as "slow" as todays supercar's top speed (the Bugatti EB 16.4 Veyron clocked at 253 mph).
10 seconds is the amount of time until unconsciousness after the loss of blood supply to the brain.
Time until reflex loss after loss of blood supply to the brain, 40-110 seconds.
During early pregnancy the rate of neuron growth is 250,000 neurons a minute.
Other Fun Facts About The Human Brain
Results from cognitive tests show 30% of 80-year-olds perform as well as young adults.
Your brain is about 2% of your total body weight but uses 20% of your body's energy.
The energy used by the brain is enough to light a 25 watt bulb.
More electrical impulses are generated in one day by a single human brain than by all the telephones in the world.
How much does human brain think? 70,000 is the number of thoughts that it is estimated the human brain produces on an average day.
After age 30, the brain shrinks a quarter of a percent (0.25%) in mass each year.
Albert Einsteins brain weighed 1,230 grams (2.71 lbs), significantly less then the human average of 1,300g to 1,400g (3 lbs).
Each year Americans consume 50 billion aspirin tablets or 15.5 million tons.
89.06 is the percentage of people who report normally writing with their right hand, 10.6% with their left and 0.34% with either hand.
Brainstem - The lower extension of the brain where it connects to the spinal cord. Neurological functions located in the brainstem include those necessary for survival (breathing, digestion, heart rate, blood pressure) and for arousal (being awake and alert).
Most of the cranial nerves come from the brainstem. The brainstem is the pathway for all fiber tracts passing up and down from peripheral nerves and spinal cord to the highest parts of the brain.
