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The Brain

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The Brain

Professor Mancuso

Psy/240

March 26, 2016

Our human brain is responsible for all our thoughts and movement that the body produces and is the largest and most complex organ in the human body. Which is composed of trillions of connections that all work together called synapse. The adult brain weighs about 3 pounds, which is a major growth being that the human brain weighs about 350 grams at birth. The brain is made up of nerve cells that interact with the rest of the body through the spinal cord and nervous system. The nerve cells transfer information back to the center of the brain where information is processed, generated and appropriately acted upon. Without the human brain we wouldn’t be able to move speak or understand different things. The brain can be divided into the forebrain, mid brain and the hindbrain. But there is five major structures of the brain, which are Myelencephalon, Metencephalon, Mesencephalon, Diencephalon and Telencephalon.

Myelencephalon also known as medulla, is the most posterior division of the brain. Myelencephalon is composed of tracts that carry signals between the rest of the brain and the body. It’s complex network of about 100 tiny nuclei which occupies the central core of the brain stem from the posterior boundary of the midbrain. The tiny nuclei are very important they are responsible for many things such as movement, maintenance of muscle tone, attention and even us sleeping. Accordingly, referring to this collection of nuclei as a system can be misleading. Generally, the myelencephalon does not play an important role in language production or comprehension. Metencephalon is something like Myelencephalon, it houses many ascending and also descending tracts and part of the reticular formation. The structures than create a bulge, which is call the pons, on the brain stem’s ventral surface. Pons are one major division when it comes to the metencephalon the other is the cerebellum. The cerebellum is the large, convoluted structure on the brain stem’s dorsal surface. Which is an important sensorimotor structure; cerebellar damage will eliminate the ability to control a person’s movement and to adapt to them to changing conditions.

When it comes to mesencephalon, it is similar to metencephalon, it has two divisions. The two of the mesencephalon are the tectum and the tegmentum. The tectum is basically the roof, it is the dorsal surface of the midbrain. When it comes to mammals, the tectum is composed of two pairs of bumps, the colliculi. The posterior pair, called the inferior colliculi have an auditory function. But the anterior pair call the superior colliculi, has a visual-motor function specially to direct the body’s orientation toward or away from particular visual stimuli. (Gandhi & Katnani 2011). The division of the mesencephalon ventral to the tectum is called tegmentum. In addition to reticular formation and tracts of passage, the tegmentum has three colorful structures which biopsychologist are interested in, which are periaqueductal gray, the substantia nigra and the red nucleus. Periaqueductal gray is a gray matter that is situated around the cerebral aqueduct, the duct which connect the third and fourth ventricles.

The diencephalon which is composed of two structures: the thalamus and the hypothalamus. Thalamus is the large, two-lobed structure that constitutes the top of the brain stem. One of the lobes sits on each side of the third ventricle and the two lobes are joined by the masa intermedia. This runs through the ventricle, it is visible on the surface of the thalamus and has white lamina layers that are composed of myelinated axons.

The last of these five structures are telencephalon, this is the largest division of the human brain, and it mediates the brains most complex functions. It initiates voluntary movement, interprets sensory input, and mediate complex cognitive processes such as learning and speaking, and problem solving.

References

(n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2016, from http://study.com/academy/course/index.html

Myelencephalon. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2016, from http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lngbrain/cglidden/myelen.html

Ninth Edition Biopsychology

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