Medulla Carries out and regulates life

sustaining functions such as breathing, swallowing and heart rate

The medulla is easily the most important part of the brain.

It's functions are involuntary.

We would not be able to live without the medulla because of the myriad of crucial tasks it performs including regulating blood pressure and breathing.

As a part of the brain stem, it also helps transfer neural messages from the brain to the spinal cord.

What would happen if there was damage to the Medulla? Most damage to this part proves to be fatal

Why?

If the patient survives, one might find that they are in a vegetative state

Reticular formation The reticular formation extends

through the central core of the medulla oblongata, pons, and stops in the midbrain

It is an intricate system composed of loosely clustered neurons in what is otherwise white matter

Arousal

Attention

Sleep

Regulates awareness

Damage to the Reticular Formation Damage to the reticular formation is serious, and can

lead to coma or death.

In less severe cases, a damaged reticular formation can cause fatigue, changes in sexual arousal and disrupted sleep patterns.

Severe damage can cause you to fall into a coma by inhibiting your body's ability to wake up, and even more severe damage is fatal.

Thalamus Part of the forebrain, below the corpus

callosum Responsible for relaying information

from the sensory receptors to proper areas of the brain where it can be processed

The thalamus is similar to a doctor that diagnoses, or identifies, a patient's disease or sickness.

It diagnoses different sensory information that is being transmitted to the brain including auditory (relating to hearing or sound), visual, tactile (relating to touch), and gustatory (relating to taste) signals

After that, it directs the sensory information to the different parts and lobes of the cortex

Damage to the Thalamus If this part of the brain is damaged, all sensory information

would not be processed and sensory confusion would result.

True of False? Which of the following statements (sentences) could occur if there was damage to the thalamus?

1) Visual sensory information could be wrongly sent to the auditory processing center.

2) That person would not be walk properly 3)That person would not be able to write 4) Sensory confusion could result 5) Sensory information would not be correctly processed.

Thalamic Syndrome

Neurological disorder that causes your body to become extremely sensitive to pain because your thalamus is damaged

Strokes can damage your thalamus

A stroke happens when blood flow to a part of the brain stops. A stroke is sometimes called a "brain attack." If blood flow is stopped for longer than a few seconds, the brain cannot get blood and oxygen. Brain cells can die, causing permanent damage.

Hippocampus Part of the Limbic system, in

each temporal lobe

Responsible for processing of long term memory and emotional responses

It not only assists with the storage of long term memories, but is also responsible for the memory of the location of objects or people. We would not even be able to remember where our house is without the work of the hippocampus.

Damage to the Hippocampus Alzheimer's disease, has been proven to have affected

and damaged this area of the brain

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