Brain Structure and Function

General Function: simple relexes

• Specific Function: Controls simple stretch and tendon relexes
• Controls primitive processes such as walking, urination, and sex organ function

General Function: involuntary functions

• Specific Function: Controls autonomic processese such as blood pressure, blood flow, heart rate, respiratory rate, swallowing, vomiting
• Controls reflex reactions such as coughing or sneezing
• relays sensory information to the cerebellum and thalamus

General Function: Relay station and balance

• Specific Function: controls antigravity posture and balance
• Connects the spinal cord and medulla with upper regions of the brain
• Relays information to the cerebellum and thalamus

General Function: movement coordination

• Specific Function: Integrating center
• Coordination of complex movement, balance and posture, muscle tone, spatial equilibrium

General Function: Eye movement

• Specific Function: Integration of visual and auditory information
• Visual and auditory relexes
• Wakefulness and consciousness
• Coordinates information on posture and muscle tone

General Function: integrating center and relay station

• Specific Function: Relay center for somatic (conscious) sensation
• Relays information between the spinal cord and the cerebral cortex

General Function: Homeostasis and behavior

• Specific Function: Controls homeostatic functions (such as temperature regulation, fluid balance, appetite) through both neural and hormonal regulation
• Controls primitive emotions such as anger, rage, and sex drive
• Controls the pituitary gland

General Function: Movement

• Specific Function: Regulate body movement and muscle tone
• Coordination of learned movement patterns
• General pattern of rhythm movements (such as controlling the cycle of arm and leg movements when walking)
• Subconscious adjustments of conscious movements

General Function: emotion, memory, and learning

• Specific Function: Controls emotional states
• Links conscious and unconscious portions of the brain
• Helps with memory storage and retrieval

General Function: Perception, skeletal muscle movement, integration center

• Specific Function: Divided into four lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital) with specialized subfunctions
• Conscious through processes and planning, awareness and sensation
• Intellectual function (intelligence, learning, reading, communication)
• Abstract thought and reasoning
• Memory storage and retrieval
• Initiation and coordination of voluntary movement
• Complex motor patterns

General Function: Connection

Specific Function: connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres