Brain Map

An interactive infographic by Open Colleges

Cerebral Cortex

1.      What do the frontal lobes do? The frontal lobe is the "central command center" of the brain and controls an individuals personality, problem solving, memory, language, and impulse control. This part of the brain deals with executing and individuals behavior. 

2.      What is the relationship between selective attention and learning? The intelligence of an individual depends on how selective one is when remembering information. This is called selective attention, and it makes an individuals working memory capacity greater as it organizes important, unimportant, and little used information.

3.      What is the last part of your brain to develop and what can you do to prevent it from deteriorating?  The last part of the brain to develop is the frontal lobe, and is the first to deteriorate with age. However, there are two main ways an individual can do to prevent deterioration, including not "zoning out" where an individual needs to be engaged in his or her environment and returning focus to the five senses. Another exercise would be to transforming information, rather than memorizing it, brain function is about more than having a "good memory". Instead, it is about being able to take the information and create bigger ideas.  

4.      What does the neo cortex do? The neo cortex has control over an individuals senses, spatial awareness, and motor skills. 

5.      What is the role of the pre frontal cortex? The main function of the pre frontal cortex is organizing thoughts and actions to match cohesively with internal goals. 

6.      What do we know about the pre frontal cortex’s relationship with multitasking? Despite what most people believe, multi-tasking does not exist. Instead, an individuals brain jumps from one task to another quickly, often leading to inferior quality of the tasks being performed. 

7.      Which part of the brain is associated with speech and language development?  Give an interesting fact about this region. The Broca's area is associated with speech and language development. In studying this area of the brain, it has been showed that tongue twisters often improve the functioning of the Broca's area. 

8.      Which part of your brain is responsible for thinking the following: “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” The somatosensory cortex is the part of the brain that responds to touch, as well as senses pain and pleasure. This part of the brain also interprets temperature. 

9.      What does your visual cortex do for you?  The visual cortex is a part of the brain that helps differentiate between colors and distinguishing complex items, such as faces. Without this lobe, every individual would appear the same. 

10.  State three interesting or significant facts about your occipital lobe. Within the occipital lobe, there are different regions that focus on various jobs, such as sensing motion, differentiating colors, and spatial processing. If this lobe is damaged, it could result in partial or total blindness, difficulty differentiating colors, and hallucinations. In addition, this part of the brain participates in an individuals imagination and allows one to process short and long time memories.  

11.  What would happen if your temporal lobes were damaged? The temporal lobe helps keep the visual memories in the brain, comprehending language, processing emotions and what they mean, new memories, and newly learned information. Without this portion of the brain, an individual loses all potential of long term memory. 

12.  What is your “fast brain” and what does it do? The "fast brain", also called the eye fields, control eye movements and helps the brain quickly register information. This area of the brain can pick up information in milliseconds, which is faster than any other part of an individual's brain. 

Neuron

13.  State 3 things that you could do that would influence your synapses, and have a positive affect on your life and health. Maintaining a healthy diet and exercise can have a great impact on an individuals brain health and function. Studies have found that omega fatty acids, such as salmon, can have a positive effect on an individuals synapses. In addition, studies indicate that socializing can also have an effect on the function of the brain.  

14.  What is the relationship between multi-sensory or multi-modal learning and your dendrites? Studies have shown that an individual needs "big picture" thinking in order to fully understand a subject, and then break that subject down into relevant parts. The learning should be structured around the real problems in order to put the learner into the context of what is being learned. 

15.  How does “big picture thinking” and mnemonics affect dendrites and/or learning? As an individual learns things, the number of dendrites in his or her brain grows. On the other hand, the unused synapses die and the ones that are commonly used are strengthened. This means, that practicing a certain task a lot, strengthens the pathways used. 

16.  Describe a neurotransmitter that you feel is very important.  Justify your reasoning. An important neurotransmitter that is important would be dopamine, released from the brain when  an experience is enjoyable and travels from neuron to neuron in tiny electrical currents. This neurotransmitter is important because it is a "reward" for your brain for learning new information or trying new experiences. Without dopamine, an individual would not be motivated to try new things or learning, dopamine provides an incentive for one's brain to retain new information. 

Limbic System

17.  What does the corpus callosum do? The corpus callosum is a band of nerve fibers that allows for the communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. The corpus callosum is where the oral language skills and the ability to comprehend language is found. 

18.  What is the relationship between music and the corpus callosum? Studies have shown that studying music can help an individual strengthen the "conversation" between both sides of the brain, however, for this effect to last, the individual must practice often. 

19.  Why is the thalamus important? The thalamus is important due to the fact that it controls the motor control, sensory information, and states of consciousness. It is also important because it retrieves memories and processes information.  

Relate and Review

Summarize what you learned from this tutorial.  Relate what you learned to your everyday life and how you can make it better.  Use at least 5 of the bolded words from the questions.  5-sentence minimum. You may use the back of this if needed.

In this tutorial, it mainly focused on the important structures of the brain, its functions, and its effects on the individual. The frontal lobe is the "central command center" of the brain and controls an individuals personality, problem solving, memory, language, and impulse control. This part of the brain deals with executing and individuals behavior. The three cortex's: the neo cortex, pre frontal cortex, and the visual cortex all have varying functions. First, the neo cortex has control over an individuals senses, spatial awareness, and motor skills; the pre frontal cortex is organizing thoughts and actions to match cohesively with internal goals; and the visual cortex is a part of the brain that helps differentiate between colors and distinguishing complex items, such as faces. Without this cortex, every individual would appear the same. Within the occipital lobe, there are different regions that focus on various jobs, such as sensing motion, differentiating colors, and spatial processing. If this lobe is damaged, it could result in partial or total blindness, difficulty differentiating colors, and hallucinations. In addition, this part of the brain participates in an individuals imagination and allows one to process short and long time memories.  The temporal lobe helps keep the visual memories in the brain, comprehending language, processing emotions and what they mean, new memories, and newly learned information. Without this portion of the brain, an individual loses all potential of long term memory. Taking the relationship between dendrites and the most effective way of learning, studies have shown that an individual needs "big picture" thinking in order to fully understand a subject, and then break that subject down into relevant parts. The learning should be structured around the real problems in order to put the learner into the context of what is being learned. An important neurotransmitter that is important would be dopamine, released from the brain when  an experience is enjoyable and travels from neuron to neuron in tiny electrical currents. This neurotransmitter is important because it is a "reward" for your brain for learning new information or trying new experiences. Without dopamine, an individual would not be motivated to try new things or learning, dopamine provides an incentive for one's brain to retain new information. The corpus callosum is a band of nerve fibers that allows for the communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. The corpus callosum is where the oral language skills and the ability to comprehend language is found. The thalamus is important due to the fact that it controls the motor control, sensory information, and states of consciousness. It is also important because it retrieves memories and processes information.  

In order to improve an individuals everyday life, maintaining a healthy diet and exercise can have a great impact on an individuals brain health and function. Studies have found that omega fatty acids, such as salmon, can have a positive effect on an individuals synapses. In addition, studies indicate that socializing can also have an effect on the function of the brain.