Structures of the Hindbrain (Brainstem) (See Figure 3)

• Medulla
• Controls many "automatic" physiological processes
• Heart rate, Respiration, Digestion, Blood pressure
• Controls reflexive responses
• Sneezing, Coughing, Vomiting
• Pons
• connects the lower and higher regions of the brain
• Also involved in sleeping, waking, and dreaming
• Cerebellum
• Controls bodily balance and coordination. Skilled body movements
• Reticular Activating System
• Plays a role in attention, arousal, & wakefulness.
• Acts as a filter, allowing us to attend to some stimuli while ignoring other stimuli.

The Limbic System (midbrain or subcortex)

• Thalamus
• Processes sensory information
• Serves as a relay station to higher cortical areas.
• This part of the brain is critical in Sensation and Perception - all sensory information (except some of smell) goes here before going to the cortex!
• Hypothalamus
• Regulates eating, drinking, sexual behavior.
• Site of one of the pleasure or reward centers in the brain.
• Controls pituitary gland
• Amygdala
• Involved in emotional responding (particularly to aversive stimuli), aggression.
• Hippocampus
• Involved in forming new long term memories.

Functions of the Four Lobes (See Figure 4)

• All of the lobes contain ASSOCIATION cortex
• It is a myth that we only use 10% of our brain
• Frontal Lobes
• Movement, thinking, motivation, impulse control, future planning, emotional response, smell and taste
• motor cortex
• Broca’s area - language production
• Temporal Lobes
• Hearing, memory, auditory cortex
• Wernicke's area - understanding language
• Also processes visual information, and some smell information
• Occipital Lobes
• Contains visual cortex.
• Processes visual information
• Parietal Lobes
• Touch sensations, spatial orientation, somatosensory cortex
• Also processes visual information

Lateralization

• Corpus Callosum
• Band of fibers that connects the two hemispheres.
• Allows the two hemispheres to communicate with one another.
• Contralateral Arrangement (means opposite side)
• Crossover pattern of control.
• Left hemisphere gets information from and controls right side of body.
• Right hemisphere get information from and controls left side of body.
• MAY have some information that is Ipsilateral (no crossover, stays on same side of brain)
• Two hemispheres have somewhat differing functions.
• Right hemisphere:
• Nonverbal, spatial, holistic & emotional functions.
• Left hemisphere:
• Verbal, mathematical, analytical functions, logical thinking.
• But hemispheres don’t work independently.
• Both generally work together to perform most tasks.
• One side may be faster.

Split-Brain Research

• In Split Brain patients:
• Roger Sperry’s work with severe epileptics.
• Visual half-field experiment:
• Present object to right visual field.
• Patient identifies object by name e.g., spoon
• Present object to left visual field
• Patient can’t name object (no language) but can pick out spoon from group of hidden objects using the left hand.