The Brain
The brain is split up into several different parts or structures in order to better understand how things are laid out and how they work. The simplest way to separate the different parts of the brain is into the forebrain and hindbrain, with the forebrain also being called the cerebrum, and the hindbrain being better known as the brain stem. The brainstem is best known to be in charge of involuntary and gross motor functions, such as breathing, muscle control, and digesting food. The cerebral cortex is in charge of more complex things such as thought and memory. Aside from this general way to split up the brain, it can be broken down further into five major structures, each with it’s own physiology and structures within it. These regions are the telencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon, metencephalon, and myelencephalon.
The telencephalon sits at the top of the brain and is divided into two hemispheres, often referred to as cerebral hemispheres (Pinel, 2011). It is the biggest of the five major structures, and is in charge of the brain’s most complex functions (2011). Along with housing the structures that are in charge of memory and thought, the telencephalon is also the part of the brain that controls voluntary movement, taking in outside sensory stimuli, and facilitates complex thought processes such as retaining new information, processing language, and problem solving (Pinel, pg. 66, 2011). Within the telencephalon is the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is what gives us the image that we see when we think of a brain. It gives it its wrinkled appearance, with the wrinkles increasing the surface area of the brain without increasing the volume (2011). The hippocampus is also a major part of the telencephalon, as it deals with special types of memory such as remembering “spatial location (Pinel, pg. 69, 2011). In a nutshell, the structures in