About "The Brain"

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Lobes Of The Brain

When Neurology separated into different categories, Neuroanatomy became one of the most significant and most commonly used type of Neurology by physicians worldwide. During the creation of Neuroanatomy, he lobes of the brain were only a classification of different regions of the brain, but each lobe of the brain has shown to also be related and either partially or completely responsible for different brain functions. The "Telencephalon", the largest region of the human brain, is divided into many lobes. If not specified, the expression "lobes of the brain" refers to the location of the "Telencepahlon", within the brain.


Brain Activity Comparison

The first set of 12 scans of the human brain is the brain of a person with Tourette's Syndrome. The second set of 12 scans of the human brain is the brain of a person without Tourette's Syndrome. The blue coloring is the amount of control you have over your body's actions involving your nervous system The yellow coloring is the lack of control you have over your body's actions involving your nervous system. The scans speak for themselves. The average human being can control most of their body's actions with the exception of complete control over involuntary actions. However, a person with Tourette's Syndrome can control their body's voluntary actions, but some voluntary actions are confused within the wiring of your brain as involuntary actions and like the person without Tourette's, the Tourette's sufferer lacks control over their involuntary actions. Therefore, if a voluntary action such as jumping or clearing your throat becomes involuntary, it happens without you having to tell your brain to execute the action


The Nervous Sytem: Regions in the Brain

The nervous system is a specialized network made up of cells called neurons. Neurons are interconnected to each other in arrangements, and have the ability of conducting and using electrochemical signals, a mix of stimuli both within the nervous tissue as well as towards most of the other tissues. The nervous system can be observed both with 'gross anatomy', (which describes the parts that are large enough to be seen with the plain eye,) and 'microanatomy', (which describes the system at a cellular level.) At gross anatomy, the nervous system can be grouped in distinct organs, these being actually stations which the neural pathways cross through. Thus, with a didactical purpose, these organs, according to their ubication, can be divided in two parts: the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_system)


The Source of Tourette's

The thalamus is known to have multiple functions. Deduced from the design of the isothalamus, it is generally believed to act as a translator for which various "prethalamic" inputs are processed into a form readable by the cerebral cortex. The thalamus is believed to both process and relay sensory information selectively to various parts of the cerebral cortex, as one thalamic point may reach one or several regions in the cortex. The thalamus also plays an important role in regulating states of sleep and wakefulness. Thalamic nuclei have strong reciprocal connections with the cerebral cortex, forming thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits that are believed to be involved with consciousness. The thalamus plays a major role in regulating arousal, the level of awareness and activity. Damage to the thalamus can lead to permanent coma. Many different functions are linked to the system to which thalamic parts belong. This is at first the case for sensory systems (which excepts the olfactory function) auditory, somatic, visceral, gustatory and visual systems where localised lesions provoke particular sensory deficits. A major role of the thalamus is devoted to "motor" systems. This has been and continues to be a subject of interest for investigators. VIm, the relay of cerebellar afferences, is the target of stereotactians particularly for the improvement of tremor. The role of the thalamus in the more anterior pallidal and nigral territories in the basal ganglia system disturbances is recognized but still poorly known. The contribution of the thalamus to vestibular or to tectal functions is almost ignored. The thalamus has been thought of as a "relay" that simply forwards signals to the cerebral cortex. Newer research suggests that thalamic function is more complicated. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalamus)


Location of Significant Parts of the Brain
The brain is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. In mammals, the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, equilibrioception (balance), sense of taste, and olfaction (smell). While all vertebrates have a brain, most invertebrates have either a centralized brain or collections of individual ganglia. Some animals such as cnidarians and echinoderms do not have a centralized brain, instead have a decentralized nervous system, while animals such as sponges lack both a brain and nervous system entirely. Brains can be extremely complex. For example, the human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons, each linked to as many as 10,000 other neurons. The brain is the central information-processing organ of the body. It innervates the head through cranial nerves, and it communicates with the spinal cord, which innervates the body through spinal nerves. Nervous fibers transmitting signals from the brain are called efferent fibers. The fibers transmitting signals to the brain are called afferent fibers (or sensory fibers). Nerves can be afferent, efferent or mixed (i.e., containing both types of fibers). The brain is the site of reason and intelligence, which include such components as cognition, perception, attention, memory and emotion. The brain is also responsible for control of posture and movements. It makes possible cognitive, motor and other forms of learning. The brain can perform a variety of functions automatically, without the need for conscious awareness, such as coordination of sensory systems (eg. sensory gating and multisensory integration), walking, and homeostatic body functions such as blood pressure, fluid balance, and body temperature. The Cerebellum controls balance and movement. Without it, movements would not be coordinated. Many functions are controlled by coordinated activity of the brain and spinal cord. Moreover, some behaviours such as simple reflexes and basic locomotion, can be executed under spinal cord control alone. The brain undergoes transitions from wakefulness to sleep (and subtypes of these states). These state transitions are crucially important for proper brain functioning. (For example, it is believed that sleep is important for knowledge consolidation, as the neurons appear to organize the day's stimuli during deep sleep by randomly firing off the most recently used neuron pathways; additionally, without sleep, normal subjects are observed to develop symptoms resembling mental illness, even auditory hallucinations). Every brain state is associated with characteristic brain waves. Neurons are electrically active brain cells that process information, whereas Glial cells perform supporting function. In addition to being electrically active, neurons constantly synthesize neurotransmitters. Neurons modify their properties (guided by gene expression) under the influence of their input signals. This plasticity underlies learning and adaptation. It is notable that some unused neuron pathways (constructions which have become physically isolated from other cells) may continue to exist long after the memory is absent from consciousness, possibly developing the subconscious. The study of the brain is known as neuroscience, a field of biology aimed at understanding the functions of the brain at every level, from the molecular up to the psychological. There is also a branch of psychology that deals with the anatomy and physiology of the brain, known as biological psychology. This field of study focuses on each individual part of the brain and how it affects behavior. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain)

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