brain

(noun)

The control center of the central nervous system, located in the skull.

Related Terms

  • nervous tissue
  • myelin

Examples of brain in the following topics:

  • Blood Flow in the Brain

    • Cerebral circulation refers to the movement of blood through the network of blood vessels supplying the brain.
    • CBF is tightly regulated to meet the brain's metabolic demands.
    • Too much blood can raise intracranial pressure (ICP), which can compress and damage delicate brain tissue.
    • In brain tissue, a biochemical cascade known as the ischemic cascade is triggered when the tissue becomes ischemic, potentially resulting in damage to and death of brain cells.
    • Schematic representation of the circle of Willis, arteries of the brain and brain stem.
  • Development of the Human Brain

    • The human brain is one of the most complex systems on earth.
    • The developing brain goes through many stages.
    • The midbrain makes up part of the brain stem.
    • It is the large and complicated forebrain that distinguishes the human brain from other vertebrate brains.
    • The layers of the embryonic brain.
  • Brain Tumors

    • A brain tumor is a pathological abnormal growth of cells in the brain.
    • An example of a highly treatable brain tumor subtype is medulloblastoma.
    • Other examples of brain tumor subtypes include oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas.
    • A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm—a tumor (defined as an abnormal growth of cells)—within the brain or the central spinal canal.
    • Symptoms of solid neoplasms of the brain (primary brain tumors and secondary tumors alike) can be divided into three main categories:
  • Studying the Brain

    • Studying damaged brains is one of the most useful ways to increase our understanding of the links between the brain and behavior.
    • Lesions are important to the study of brain and behavior because if a psychologist sees a person with a partially damaged brain and then sees changes in that person’s behavior, those behavioral changes can often be attributed to the brain damage.
    • For example, damage to a part of the brain called Broca’s area causes patients to lose the ability to speak; knowing this, we can infer that that part of the brain is in some way related to language production.
    • Though brain damage is deeply unfortunate, it can help researchers to understand more about the function of different parts of the brain.
    • Trace the history of brain science in the field of psychology
  • Human Language and the Brain

    • Several areas of the brain must function together in order for a person to develop, use, and understand language.
    • Without the brain, there would be no language.
    • The human brain has a few areas that are specific to language processing and production.
    • The areas of the brain necessary for language.
    • Spoken word, cognition, and written word all are processed in different parts of the brain in different orders.
  • Addendum

    • The farmer needs to sell a huge amount of agricultural products to buy school materials (predominantly right brain)
    • Saturation; Mr Dabo collects all the information as to why these villagers do not want to enroll their children (predominantly left brain)
    • Verification; Mr Dabo presents his idea to the local government (predominantly left brain)
  • Brain Imaging Techniques

    • Neuroimaging, or brain scanning, includes the use of various techniques to directly or indirectly image the structure, function, or pharmacology of the brain.
    • Four of the most common types of brain scans are EEG, PET, MRI, and fMRI.
    • Through this process, an MRI creates an image of the brain structure.
    • FMRIs make it possible to show when things happen, how brain areas change with experience, and which brain areas work together.
    • MRI brain scan (in the axial plane—that is, slicing from front-to-back and side-to-side through the head) showing a brain tumor at the bottom right.
  • The Central Nervous System (CNS)

    • The CNS is comprised of the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord.
    • The cerebrum, or the top portion for the brain, is the seat of higher-level thought.
    • The brain stem is connected to the underside of the brain.
    • The spinal cord connects the brain and brain stem to all of the major nerves in the body.
    • The three major components of the central nervous system: 1) the brain, 2) brain stem, and 3) spinal cord.
  • Hemispheric Lateralization

    • The human brain is composed of a right and a left hemisphere, and each hemisphere participates in different aspects of brain function.
    • The structural and chemical variance of a particular brain function, between the two hemispheres of one brain or between the same hemisphere of two different brains, is still being studied.
    • Short of having undergone a hemispherectomy (removal of a cerebral hemisphere), no one is a "left-brain only" or "right-brain only" person.
    • Brain function lateralization is evident in the phenomena of right- or left-handedness, but a person's preferred hand is not a clear indication of the location of brain function.
    • The human brain is divided into two hemispheres–left and right.
  • Cerebral Cortex

    • The cerebral cortex is the outermost layered structure of the brain and controls higher brain functions such as information processing.
    • The cerebral cortex is considered the ultimate control and information-processing center in the brain.
    • At times it has been theorized that brain size correlated positively with intelligence; it has also been suggested that surface area of cortex (basically, "wrinkliness" of the brain) rather than brain size that correlates most directly with intelligence.
    • A diagram of the brain identifying the different lobes by color.
    • As depicted in this diagram of brain structures, sulci are the "valleys" and gyri are the "peaks" in the folds of the brain.
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