 The Brain, Anatomy and Function The brain is made up of several specialized areas that work together. Let's review those areas of the brain. The frontal lobe. This area of the brain controls executive functions and affects emotion, personality, judgment, intellect, morality, language, planning, consciousness, abstract thought, voluntary movement, attention span, short-term memory, perseverance, and impulse control. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Recent memory deficits, inattentiveness, poor concentration, behavioral disorders, inappropriate social and or sexual behaviors, labile, flat effect, depression, expressive aphasia, and psychotic disorders. The frontal lobe also contains the motor cortex. The motor cortex is an area of the frontal lobe involved in the control of voluntary movements of body parts. The parietal lobe is the major association area and affects sensory functions, motor functions, pain, temperature, somatosensory, pressure, position, tactile recognition, perceptual functions, taste, abstract reasoning, body image, spatial relations, proprioception, right-left discrimination, and the ability to read and create maps. The somatosensory cortex receives and processes sensory signals from the body. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Motor sequencing, time and speed, abilities to read, draw, and write, receptive aphasia, neglect, spatial relations, ideational apraxia, constructional apraxia, dressing apraxia, form perception, right-left discrimination, working memory for math computation, and Raqqa's speech area. The occipital lobe affects vision. The optic tract integrates visual stimuli with other cortical areas. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Problems receiving visual input, visual interpretation, and discrimination. The temporal lobe is the major memory processor and affects hearing, receptive language, the sense of smell, understanding speech, emotional memory, and awareness and discrimination of sound. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Hearing problems, agitation, irritability, receptive aphasia, difficulty with form perception, and deficits in attention span. The cerebellum coordinates movement and muscles. Controls balance, muscle tension, equilibrium, posture, and the ability to identify muscle overuse. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Ataxia, dysphagia, and problems with ambulation, balance and proprioception, eye-hand coordination, and self-care. The diencephalon, the thalamus, is the cerebral cortex relay center. It affects emotive expression, integrates sensory input with the emotional responses, regulates and maintains consciousness, and is the collection of pathways. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Altered consciousness and perceptual losses. The hypothalamus is the automatic nervous system integration center. It affects visceral reflexes, regulates thirst, temperature, sleep, appetite cycles, fat metabolism, and sexual responses. It monitors hormones, blood pressure, fight or flight response, and emotions. It is a part of the limbic system. The pituitary gland, or master gland, is situated at the base of the hypothalamus. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Hormone imbalances, inability to control body temperature, and a decreased ability to adapt to change. The epithalamus, pineal gland. Called the third eye, it is sensitive to variations in environmental light. Located behind the thalamus, it connects with the thalamus, hypothalamus, basal nuclei, and medial temporal lobe. It produces melatonin, controls body rhythms, may affect onset of puberty, stimulates the immune system, and is an active endocrine gland. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. It calcifies with age, melatonin production decreases with age, and suppressed immune response. Pineal dysfunction may be related to seasonal affective disorder and depression. Pineal gland dysfunction may be linked with cancer, sexual dysfunction, hypertension, epilepsy, and pageant disease. The limbic system is the oldest part of the cortex, and includes parts of temporal, frontal, and parietal lobes, plus subcortical associations. It is responsible for emotions, attitudes, motivation, drive, social bonding, it influences sexual activity, influences biological rhythms, and integrates recent memory. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. A loss of smell, loss of emotional control, problems with sleep and appetite cycles, depression, problems with social bonding, and memory problems. A part of the limbic system is the olfactory system. It is an old and primitive system where smell is directly processed. Olfactory pathways are anatomically close to the limbic system. Problems in this area of the brain show a loss of smell. Amygdala, located within the basal ganglia, it includes parts of temporal, frontal, and parietal lobes. It is the heart of the limbic system and regulates heartbeat, visceral activity, emotional response, and mood. It is a fear processor and initiates fight or flight response. It controls the autonomic nervous system, integrates cognitive and sensory input to decipher potential impact of an event. Visual, auditory, and somatosensory areas provide input to the amygdala. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Agitation and loss of emotional control. A part of the limbic system is the hippocampus. The hippocampus is critical in organizing long-term memory and is necessary for storing new memories as they occur. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Loss of the ability to develop new declarative memory. Alzheimer's disease, ischemia, and epilepsy can affect the hippocampus. The brainstem. The midbrain is the cerebral hemisphere nerve pathway. It affects body posture, equilibrium, the autonomic nervous system, blood pressure, body temperature, emotional influences, consciousness, and it helps regulate appetite and hormones. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Variable loss of consciousness, abnormal extensor tone, hyperventilation, and cranial nerve deficits in three oculomotor and four trochlear. Pons is the central bridge between descending tracts from the midbrain to the lower centers and ascending tracts from the medulla and the spinal cord. It affects respiration, chewing, taste, arousal, wakefulness, and alertness. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Semicoma, abnormal extensor tone, withdrawal, apnoosis, and hyperventilation. The medulla is the life-sustaining control center, controlling the heart, respiratory, and vasomotor functions. It affects the ability to cough, gag, swallow, vomit, and digest. Problems in this area of the brain show the following deficits. Cometose, abnormal breathing, a taxic, an absent gag reflex, and absent cough. You have completed this activity, the brain, anatomy, and function.