Brain and Behaviour

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BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR

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Behaviour is controlled by brain.

Brain: The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body.
It is made up of more than 100 billion nerves that communicate in trillions of connections called synapses.

Lobes:
Frontal lobe: The frontal lobes are important for voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions. Executive functions refer to a collection of cognitive skills including the capacity to plan, organise, initiate, self-monitor and control one's responses in order to achieve a goal.

Parietal lobe: It sits near the upper back portion of the skull, close to the parietal bone.
In the brain, the parietal lobe is located behind the frontal lobe. The parietal lobe relies heavily on many other areas of the body to receive information. For example, the skin and nerves in the skin play a large part in detecting sensory information and delivering it to the parietal lobe.

Temporal lobe: The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex. It is the lower lobe of the cortex, sitting close to ear level within the skull. The temporal lobe is largely responsible for creating and preserving both conscious and long-term memory.

Occipital lobe: The occipital lobe is the smallest of the four lobes of the cerebral hemisphere. It is present posterior to the parietal and temporal lobes.
The occipital lobe is primarily responsible for visual processing. 


Brain localization: Brain localization refers to the association of psychological functions with particular structures in the brain. Three techniques
provide the bulk of localization data: single-cell recording studies,lesion studies, and functional imaging studies.

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BRAIN LOCALIZATION

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Localisation of function is the idea that certain functions (e.g. language, memory, etc.) have certain locations or areas within the brain.

Motor Area
The motor area is located in the frontal lobe and is responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body.







Somatosensory Area
The somatosensory area is located in the parietal lobe and receives incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature, etc. Different parts of the somatosensory area receive messages from different locations of the body. Robertson (1995) found that this area of the brain is highly adaptable, with Braille readers having larger areas in the somatosensory area for their fingertips compared to normal sighted participants.

Visual Area
At the back of the brain, in the occipital lobe is the visual area, which receives and processes visual information. Information from the right-hand side visual field is processed in the left hemisphere, and information from the left-hand side visual field is processed in the right hemisphere. The visual area contains different parts that process different types of information including colour, shape or movement.  

Auditory Area
The auditory area is located in the temporal lobe and is responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information. Information from the left ear goes primarily to the right hemisphere and information from the right ear goes primarily to the left hemisphere.  The auditory area contains different parts, and the primary auditory area is involved in processing simple features of sound, including volume, tempo and pitch.

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BRAIN LATERALIZATION

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What is Brain Lateralization?

Information that enters the left hemisphere travel across the corpus callosum going to the right side of the brain and vice versa. The two hemispheres of the brain (right and left hemisphere) function interdependently. lateralization refers only to the function of one structure divided between two hemispheres.

Language: Broca's area and Wernicke's area, associated with the production of speech and comprehension of speech, respectively, are located in the left cerebral hemisphere for about 95% of right-handers but about 70% of left-handers.

Hemispheric dominance: It is the theory about left-brain versus right-brain dominance is the theory that one side of the brain dominates your thinking. ... Right-brain dominant people are supposedly more curious, spontaneous and emotional while left-brained people are smart, logical and organised.
If you're mostly analytical and methodical in your thinking, you're said to be left-brained. If you tend to be more creative or artistic, you're thought to be right-brained.