Lec 6: Overview of Human Brain

• Brain->
• Cerebral cortex*: mood&concept memory
• Diacephalon: involved-> emotions, coordinating complicated, more sophisticated movements
• Midbrain
• Pons: brain stem
• Medulla
• Cerebellum

*occipital lobe, parietal lobe, central sulcus, frontal lobe, tempral lobe
gap run through brain
motor, somatic sensory, visual, put electrodes figure out what happens to brain (used:stroke victims), what part of brain destroyed



Input to SOMATOSENSORY cortex--> into brain axons
from muscle reach sp.cord->medulla-thalamus(diacephalon)->reach somatonsensory cortex

Humunculus: toc which part of it receives info from what body part
Mainly FACE!-> more brain imput->more sophisticated movement (HANDS)=>sense

MOTOR cortex- Humunculus: huge amt of brain->HANDS sophisticated movement&FACE

Output from motor cortex: Desceding pathway: coordinated movement rather than reflex
from brain m.c.AP generated travels down axon -->medulla->spinal cord->periphery

Control of voluntary movement
motor/somatic sensory
Brodmanns area:
coordination of movements/ processing visual info: visual cortex: signal from eye in response to eye/motivation, emotion, movement, make decisions/talk speech, make sound/Werniches area: language center: processing of sound decoding, understanding language

Importance of midbrain: linked to control movement
Thalamus, caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra

Cerebellum (millions neurons, billions synapses) &synaptic integration (summation: each synapse causes AP to control v.complex processes)

Neurotransmitters in brain:
FAST: ligand-gated
Glutamate->excitatory opens ligand-gated Na+ channel local depolarising potential
GABA ->inhibitory opens ligand-gated Cl- channel local hyperpolarizing potential

SLOW: activate G-protein coupled receptors

• 5HT (serotonin):turkey, ecstasy, sleep, beer, alcohol, Prozac nerve terminal inhibitor of reuptake
• ACh : memory (?)/ ANS
• Dopamine : If destroyed 90% symptoms PARKINSONS: stratum activated by natural: eating, exercise, sex
• Noradrenaline/Norepinephrine