Brain

Cerebellum

Responsible for balance and coordination of muscles and the body. The cerebellum is one of the most identifiable parts of the brain due to its unique shape and location. It is extremely important for being able to perform everyday voluntary (done with purpose and intent) tasks such as walking and writing. It is also essential to being able to stay balanced and upright. Patients who have suffered from damaged cerebellums often struggle with keeping their balance and maintaining proper muscle coordination.

Hypothalamus

Responsible for behaviors such as hunger and thirst, as well as the maintenance of body temperature. The hypothalamus is mainly responsibly for motivational behavior. It is the reason we know when we are hungry or thirsty. The hypothalamus also helps our body maintain a constant temperature. This part of the brain also controls the pituitary gland, which is the master gland that controls all the other endocrine glands in the body. Thus, the hypothalamus plays a key role in connecting the endocrine system with the nervous system.

Right Hemisphere of the Brain

Responsible for control of the left side of the body, and is the more artistic and creative side of the brain.

Left Hemisphere of the Brain

Responsible for control of the right side of the body, and is the more academic and logical side of the brain.

Temporal Lobe

Responsible for processing auditory information from the ears (hearing). The Temporal Lobe mainly revolves around hearing and selective listening. It receives sensory information such as sounds and speech from the ears. It is also key to being able to comprehend, or understand meaningful speech. In fact, we would not be able to understand someone talking to us, if it wasn't for the temporal lobe. This lobe is special because it makes sense of the all the different sounds and pitches (different types of sound) being transmitted from the sensory receptors of the ears.

Hippocampus

Responsible for processing of long term memory and emotional responses. It not only assists with the storage of long term memories, but is also responsible for the memory of the location of objects or people. We would not even be able to remember where our house is without the work of the hippocampus. Alzheimer's disease, (a disease that effects elderly people and often results in loss of memory) has been proven to have affected and damaged this area of the brain.

Occipital Lobe

Responsible for processing visual information from the eyes. The occiptial lobe is important to being able to correctly understand what your eyes are seeing. These lobes have to be very fast to process the rapid information that our eyes are sending. Similar to how the temporal lobe makes sense of auditory information, the occipital lobe makes sense of visual information so that we are able to understand it. If our occipital lobe was impaired, or injured we would not be able to correctly process visual signals, thus visual confusion would result.

Thalamus

Responsible for relaying information from the sensory receptors to proper areas of the brain where it can be processed. The thalamus is similar to a doctor that diagnoses, or identifies, a patient's disease or sickness. It diagnoses different sensory information that is being transmitted to the brain including auditory (relating to hearing or sound), visual, tactile (relating to touch), and gustatory (relating to taste) signals. After that, it directs the sensory information to the different parts and lobes of the cortex. If this part of the brain is damaged, all sensory information would not be processed and sensory confusion would result.

Amygdala

Responsible for the response and memory of emotions, especially fear. When you think of the amygdala, you should think of one word. Fear. The amygdala is the reason we are afraid of things outside our control. It also controls the way we react to certain stimuli, or an event that causes an emotion, that we see as potentially threatening or dangerous.

Cerebral Cortex

The Cerebral Cortex is made up of tightly packed neurons and is the wrinkly, outermost layer that surrounds the brain. It is also responsible for higher thought processes including speech and decision making . The cortex is divided into four different lobes, the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital, which are each responsible for processing different types of sensory information.

Medulla Oblongota

Carries out and regulates life sustaining functions such as breathing, swallowing and heart rate. The medulla is easily the most important part of the brain. It's functions are involuntary, or done without thought. We would not be able to live without the medulla because of the myriad of crucial tasks it performs including regulating blood pressure and breathing. As a part of the brain stem, it also helps transfer neural messages from the brain to the spinal cord.

Frontal Lobe

Carries out higher mental processes such as thinking, decision making, and planning. The frontal lobe is also where our personality is formed and where we can carry out higher mental processes such as planning. In addition, the frontal lobe is necessary to being able to speak fluently (without fault) and meaningfully.

Corpus Callosum

Connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Pons

Connects upper and lower parts of the brain. The Pons serves as a message station between several areas of the brain. It helps relay messages from the cortex and the cerebellum. Without the pons, the brain would not be able to function because messages would not be able to be transmitted, or passed along. It also plays a key role in sleep and dreaming, where REM sleep, or the sleeping state where dreaming is most likely to occur, has been proven to originate here, in the pons.

Parietal Lobe

The parietal lobe carries out some very specific functions. As a part of the cortex, it has a lot of responsibilities and has to be able to process sensory information within seconds. The parietal lobe is where information such as taste, temperature and touch are integrated, or processed. Humans would not be able to to feel sensations of touch, if the parietal lobe was damaged.