How the Brain Works: The Facts Visually Explained (How Things Work)

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In honor of Brain Awareness Week, try out this easy experiment from How Your Brain Works to gain a better understanding of the brain’s reaction time:

Cortex is Latin for “bark,” and describes the outer gray matter covering of the cerebrum. The cortex has a large surface area due to its folds, and comprises about half of the brain’s weight. Each region serves a different role. Gray matter is primarily responsible for processing and interpreting information, while white matter transmits that information to other parts of the nervous system. How does the brain work? MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide. Pons. The pons is the origin for four of the 12 cranial nerves, which enable a range of activities such as tear production, chewing, blinking, focusing vision, balance, hearing and facial expression. Named for the Latin word for “bridge,” the pons is the connection between the midbrain and the medulla. Cranial nerve 9: The glossopharyngeal nerve allows taste, ear and throat movement, and has many more functions.A curved seahorse-shaped organ on the underside of each temporal lobe, the hippocampus is part of a larger structure called the hippocampal formation. It supports memory, learning, navigation and perception of space. It receives information from the cerebral cortex and may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. Pineal Gland Are men's and women's brains really different? Why are teenagers impulsive and rebellious? And will it soon be possible to link our brains together via the Cloud? Some messages are kept within the brain, while others are relayed through the spine and across the body’s vast network of nerves to distant extremities. To do this, the central nervous system relies on billions of neurons (nerve cells). Main Parts of the Brain and Their Functions We are in the midst of Brain Awareness Week, dedicated to celebrating this most complex organ in the human body. And the workings of the brain are indeed mysterious: What are neural signals? What do they mean? How do our senses really sense? And how does our brain control our movements? The ventricles manufacture cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, a watery fluid that circulates in and around the ventricles and the spinal cord, and between the meninges. CSF surrounds and cushions the spinal cord and brain, washes out waste and impurities, and delivers nutrients.

If there is something more fascinating then the brain I don't know what that would be. I suppose some might say the cosmos or religion. But the brain is something we all live with, literally, no pun intended. In "my mind" nothing more complex or intriguing. From the way it controls and regulates our bodily functions to the mysterious complexities of the mind this book covers all facets in a very informative and graphical way that I found a most interesting read. No it does not go into great depth on any particular sub-topic, but it covers just about everything in a significant and understandable way. Small, almond-shaped structures, an amygdala is located under each half (hemisphere) of the brain. Included in the limbic system, the amygdalae regulate emotion and memory and are associated with the brain’s reward system, stress, and the “fight or flight” response when someone perceives a threat. Hippocampus The arachnoid mater is a thin, weblike layer of connective tissue that does not contain nerves or blood vessels. Below the arachnoid mater is the cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF. This fluid cushions the entire central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and continually circulates around these structures to remove impurities. Obviously I’d recommend this book to people interested in neuroscience that want to expand their knowledge and get a stronger base for understanding the topic, but also definitely anyone who is even remotely interested in learning about the brain.Two sets of blood vessels supply blood and oxygen to the brain: the vertebral arteries and the carotid arteries. Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design. Cranial nerve 3: The oculomotor nerve controls pupil response and other motions of the eye, and branches out from the area in the brainstem where the midbrain meets the pons. Neuroscience researchers Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo wrote How Your Brain Works for readers to explore those very questions, offering a practical guide—accessible and useful to readers from middle schoolers to college undergraduates to curious adults—for learning about the brain through hands-on experiments. Gray matter is primarily composed of neuron somas (the round central cell bodies), and white matter is mostly made of axons (the long stems that connects neurons together) wrapped in myelin (a protective coating). The different composition of neuron parts is why the two appear as separate shades on certain scans.

The vertebral arteries follow the spinal column into the skull, where they join together at the brainstem and form the basilar artery, which supplies blood to the rear portions of the brain. The smallest branches (capillaries) of the arteries in the brain supply the brain cells with oxygen and nutrients from the blood – but they do not let other substances pass as easily as similar capillaries in the rest of the body do. The medical term for this phenomenon is the “blood-brain barrier.” It can protect the delicate brain from toxic substances in the blood, for example. How the Brain Works: The Facts Visually Explained published in 2020 by DK Media was written by John McCrone. Although the book itself did not win any awards, McCrone is a thirteen-time Australia Publisher of the Year Award winner. I honestly rate this book five stars. Cranial nerve 5: The trigeminal nerve is the largest and most complex of the cranial nerves, with both sensory and motor function. It originates from the pons and conveys sensation from the scalp, teeth, jaw, sinuses, parts of the mouth and face to the brain, allows the function of chewing muscles, and much more.

What is the brain?

The pineal gland is located deep in the brain and attached by a stalk to the top of the third ventricle. The pineal gland responds to light and dark and secretes melatonin, which regulates circadian rhythms and the sleep-wake cycle. Ventricles and Cerebrospinal Fluid Deep in the brain are four open areas with passageways between them. They also open into the central spinal canal and the area beneath arachnoid layer of the meninges. Each brain hemisphere (parts of the cerebrum) has four sections, called lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. Each lobe controls specific functions. Cranial nerve 10: The vagus nerve allows sensation around the ear and the digestive system and controls motor activity in the heart, throat and digestive system. Are men’s and women’s brains really different? Why are teenagers impulsive and rebellious? And will it soon be possible to link our brains together via the Cloud?

Drawing on the latest neuroscience research, this visual guide makes the hidden workings of the human brain simple to understand. How the Brain Works begins with an introduction to the brain’s anatomy, showing you how to tell your motor cortex from your mirror neurons. Moving on to function, it explains how the brain works constantly and unnoticed to regulate heartbeat and breathing, and how it collects information to produce the experiences of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The chapters that follow cover memory and learning, consciousness and personality, and emotions and communication. The brainstem (middle of brain) connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. The brainstem includes the midbrain, the pons and the medulla. From the mechanics to the psychological each topic weaves its way into an overall picture of just how complex and amazing this mass of gray matter that sits on top of us is. Try as we might, and we do, we are trying to replicate the brain with our computer technology. In fact we seem to be hard at work trying to make our phones one day replace that organ. You see this everyday with folks driving around more occupied with it then the road. Yet we are still way, way away from duplicating this most superior biological machine. We will no doubt make great strides in the decades ahead but will we ever replicate it completely, doubtful. And we certainly should ask do we really want that. Temporal lobe. The sides of the brain, temporal lobes are involved in short-term memory, speech, musical rhythm and some degree of smell recognition.

The cerebrum (front of brain) comprises gray matter (the cerebral cortex) and white matter at its center. The largest part of the brain, the cerebrum initiates and coordinates movement and regulates temperature. Other areas of the cerebrum enable speech, judgment, thinking and reasoning, problem-solving, emotions and learning. Other functions relate to vision, hearing, touch and other senses. Cerebral Cortex Midbrain. The midbrain (or mesencephalon) is a very complex structure with a range of different neuron clusters (nuclei and colliculi), neural pathways and other structures. These features facilitate various functions, from hearing and movement to calculating responses and environmental changes. The midbrain also contains the substantia nigra, an area affected by Parkinson’s disease that is rich in dopamine neurons and part of the basal ganglia, which enables movement and coordination.