The Brain
Cerebrum: Conscious thinking: input & output
Primary motor cortex: Initiates voluntary skeletal muscle activity
Premotor cortex: Plans & coordinates learned motor activities
Frontal eye field: Regulates skeletal muscles that perform movement for binocular vision
Broca's area: Regulates skeletal muscle movements involved with speech
Primary somatosensory cortex: Receives information from touch, pain, & temperature
Somatosensory association area: Interprets sensations from touch, pain, & temp
Primary visual cortex: Receives visual information
Visual association area: Enables us to process what we are seeing
Primary auditory cortex: Receives auditory information
Auditory association area: Interprets and stores sounds heard in the past
Primary olfactory cortex: Provides conscious awareness of odors
Primary gustatory cortex: Processes taste information
Prefrontal cortex: Involved in higher level intellectual function
Wernicke area: Multi-association allows us to understand spoken and written language
Gnostic area: Integrates all information being processed in adjacent lobes for understanding of current activity
Diencephalon: switchboard of the brain
Epithalamus: houses pineal gland, which secrets melatonin to regulate the circadian rhythm.
Thalamus: information filter, sends sensory information to the cerebrum
Hypothalamus: Master control if the ANS, endocrine system, body temperature, emotional response, food/water intake, and circadian rhythm.
Brainstem
Midbrain: Secretes dopamine, involuntary motor commands, carries voluntary motor commands to each cerebral hemisphere, relay station in processing visual and auditory sensations.
Pons: Connect brain to spinal cord, involved in pathway for sound localization, houses sensory and motor cranial nerve nuclei
Medulla oblongata: Regulates heart rate, vasomotor center, meduallary respiratory center
Cerebellum: Coordinates and fine tunes skeletal muscle movements
Spinal cord:
Cervical part: Superiormost part of the spinal cord, continuous with the medulla oblongata. Contains neurons whose axons contribute to the 8 pairs of cervical spinal nerves.
Thoracic part: Inferior to the cervical part. Contains neurons for the 12 pair of thoracic and spinal nerves
Lumbar part: Short segment of the spinal cord and contains neurons for the 5 pair of lumbar spinal nerves
Sacral part: Inferior to the lumbar part and contains neurons for the 5 pairs of sacral spinal nerves
Coccygeal part: Most inferior tip of the spinal cord, one pair of coccygeal spinal nerves arises from this part
The Eye:
Cornea: Where light enters the eye
Pupil: Center of the iris
Iris: Colored part of the eye, pupil in the center, controls pupil size
Ciliary body and muscle: Anchors the lens, changes shape of the lens
Anterior chamber of the anterior cavity: contains aqueous humor, which nourishes and maintains the shape of the front of the eye.
Ora serrata: Covers the retina and the ciliary body
Posterior chamber: vitreous body contains viscous fluid that is enclosed within the eye and maintains the shape and supports internal parts of the eye.
Sclera: The white outermost protective layer and maintains shape.
Choroid: Absorbs excess light
Retina: Contains rods (for black and white peripheral vision) & cones (produce sharp color vision in bright light)
Fovea centralis: Contains high proportion of cones
Optic nerve: Transmits visual information to the brain
The Ear:
Outer Ear:
Auricle: Cartilage outside the head, collects sound waves
External auditory canal: carries sound waves to the tympanic membrane.
Tympanic membrane: carries vibrations to the middle ear
Middle Ear:
Malleus: Vibrates the incus
Incus: causes the stapes to vibrate
Stapes: presses on the oval window
Oval window: opening to the inner ear, cause waves in the inner ear
Eustachian tube: connects to the nasopharynx and equalizes air pressure in the middle ear
Inner ear:
Semicircular canals: responsible for sense of equilibrium
Cochlea: contains organ of corti, which contains hair cells that when the vibrations from sound move the fluid in the cochlea across these cells initiate nerve impulse that are transferred to the auditory nerve
Auditory nerve: Transmits the sound nerve impulses to the brain