Because of the way our brains are organised and our manual dexterity
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What are the 3 main parts of the brain?
Cerebrum, cerebellum and medulla oblongata
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What does the cerebellum control?
The unconscious, fine control of voluntary muscle movements and balance
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What does the medulla control?
The unconscious co-ordination of basic functions ie breathing, heart rate, digestions, reflex actions (sneezing, coughing and vomiting etc)
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What is plasticity?
The flexibility of the brain.
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What is the largest part of the brain?
The cerebrum, it is split into 2 cerebral hemispheres by a deep cleft
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What is the corpus callosum?
A large bundle of nerve fibres which connects the two cerebral hemispheres and allows information to pass quickly between them
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What is grey matter and where is it located?
Nerve cell bodies and is the outside of the cerebrum
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What does convoluted mean?
Folded
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What are the benefits of the cortex of the brain being convoluted?
It increases the surface area, allowing room for more cell bodies.
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What are the 3 discrete types of functional areas in the brain?
Sensory, association and motor
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What do sensory areas do?
They receive information from the body's receptors such as touch receptors in the skin and thermoreceptors in the hypothalamus
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What do association areas do?
They analyse and interpret impulses and take decisions as necessary
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What do motor areas do?
They receive information from the association ares and carry out the actions by sending motor impulses to the appropriate effectors
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What do motor areas consist of?
Motor neurones which send out electrical impulses which cause voluntary movements of skeletal muscle. The size of the area which corresponds to a body part depends on how many motor endings are present in that body part
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What is the motor homunculus?
An imaginary human which shows body parts drawn in proportion to their mobility and fine motor control
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What does EEG stand for?
Electroencephalogram
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What does an EEG do?
It measures electrical activity in the brain and shows brain wave patterns
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What do brain scans show?
Areas on the brain exhibiting high metabolic activity
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What is a CAT (Computer Axial Tomography) scan?
X rays which a computer converts into a series of pictures which build up a layered image of the brain.
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What is an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagining) scan?
A large magnet which causes certain molecules to vibrate, this builds an image using soft tissue density
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What is a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan?
A small amount of injected radioactive material shows metabolic activity and the structure of the brain
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What is it called when a person's corpus callosum has been cut?
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