The Brain Week 2 Psy 240
Biopsychology

The human brain is ultimately responsible for all thought and movement that the body produces and is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body composed of trillions of connections that work together called synapses.
The brain weighs approximately three pounds and is made up of nerve cells which interact with the rest of the body through the spinal cord and nervous system. It contains about 75 percent water along with 100 billion neurons. Neuroscientists estimate that there are 100 trillion connections among the neurons, and nearly an infinite number of paths that neural signals can travel through parts of the brain called the morass. These nerve cells transfer information back to the center of the brain where information is processed, generated and appropriately reacted upon. The human brain gives us the ability to move, generate information, to speak and understand language, to interact with the environment, to interact with inanimate objects and to communicate with others.

The brain can be divided into three basic units: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain. However, there are also five major structures of the brain. The Myelencephalon, Metencephalon, Mesencephalon, Deincephalon and Telencephalon. These five major structures of the brain shed some light on the complexity of how it is structured and how the human brain works.

The Myelencephalon, also called medulla, is the division of the brain located in the hindbrain that is largely composed of tracts that carry signals between the rest of the brain and body. It is a rectangulary shaped complex network of approximately 100 tiny nuclei that occupy the central core of the brain stem. These tiny nuclei are responsible for a variety of functions such as, the maintenance of muscle tone, movement, attention, and sleeping.