Your Many Brains - A look at the different parts of your brain
You can think of your brain as a house that has been renovated over time.
While you would think that your brain has an intelligent design, it can be thought as a house that has been renovated over time to adapt to our changing needs. Thus, the first parts of our brain were focused on keeping us alive. The next parts were concerned with senses and movement. Following that, emotions and feelings were added on.
By understanding the different parts of our brain, we can better understand how our brain works and understand research into ways to improve ourselves. It helps us to understand why we get angry, why we get stressed, how meditation works etc. I hope you enjoy this look into our brains.
Your brain has three major divisions:
The hindbrain
The midbrain
The forebrain
The Hindbrain – The ‘Brain Stem’
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The hindbrain is the most basic part of our brain and largely coordinates functions fundamental for our very survival.
It coordinates
Sleep and wakefulness,
Breathing rhythm,
Heart rate
Coughing, vomiting and sneezing reflexes. and
The Midbrain
The midbrain is vital for movement and sensory processing (hearing and vision).
In humans it is small compared to the forebrain but it is the predominant part of the brain of birds and reptiles.[iii][iv]
It is also responsible for producing important neurotransmitters such as dopamine, GABA and is responsible for pain suppression.[v]
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The Forebrain
The is what makes mammals, such as us, different from other animals and is the biggest part of our brain.[vi]
It is divided into two hemispheres (left and right) which process and control movement in the opposite of the body.
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Cerebral Cortex – ‘The Thinking Brain’
The outer part of the forebrain is called the cerebral cortex and is does largely what we term ‘thinking’. It is responsible for
Abstract thought,
Higher intellectual functions, as well as
Integrating our senses, and
Controlling our voluntary movements.
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The Limbic System ‘The Emotional Brain’
This is the part of our brain that is the emotional part. It is made up of the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus and the amygdala.
Thalamus
The thalamus acts as relay for sensory information. It receives this information and sends it to our thinking brain.
Hypothalamus
The hypothalamus is hugely important as it is the control centre for
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Hunger,
Thirst,
Body temperature,
Blood pressure,
Sleep, and
Producing the ‘love hormone’ (oxytocin).[vii][viii][ix]
Hippocampus
Not a school for hippos, the hippocampus is largely responsible for spatial orientation, memories and is key to learning. It is also the one place that makes new brain cells (neurons).[x]
Amygdala
This is the fear and pleasure centre of the brain.
It is responsible for attaching emotional content to your memories. When we think back to an event and immediately feel fear or joy, this is due to the encoding that our amygdala does. As such, it is key to learning fear.[xi]
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Basal Ganglia
This is the part of the brain largely involved in habit formation and processing rewards.
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Conclusion
That was just a quick overview of the brain.
As you can see the three parts have very different roles and the forebrain also has many functions.
Why is this important? Because it can help us understand our behaviour. We can understand that phobias ca be generated by the amygdala encoding fear into our memories or that the thinking brain and the emotional brain and different.
We will continue to explore these implications over the next weeks.
[i] Kalat, J. W. (2015). Biological psychology. Nelson Education.
[ii] https://www.britannica.com/science/hindbrain
[iii] Kalat, J. W. (2015).
[iv] https://www.britannica.com/science/midbrain
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Kalat, J. W. (2015).
[vii] https://www.britannica.com/science/forebrain
[viii] https://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/brain#anatomy-and-function
[ix] Kalat, J. W. (2015).
[x] https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain/brain-anatomy/limbic-system
[xi] https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain/brain-anatomy/limbic-system
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It is made up of over 100 billion...yes BILLION nerve cells that send and receive signals throughout the body.[i]
We have the central nervous system (CNS) which is essentially your brain and spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) that connects your brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.[ii]
The PNS made up of two systems.
There are the nerves that controls we have control over. Like moving our heads, arms legs etc. This system is called the voluntary (somatic) nervous system.[iii]
The second type is the involuntary (vegetative or automatic/autonomous) nervous system (ANS). As you can imagine, this system is responsive for the things that we can’t control. There are things you can’t control, you ask?! These are the things that tend to keep us alive but we fortunately do not have to control. Like the beating of our heart, the digestion of food etc.[iv]
The ANS is also made up our accelerator (sympathetic nervous system) and brake (parasympathetic nervous system) which about earlier. The accelerator was originally responsible for reacting to threats such as lions. These threats were often temporary and the reaction to fight or flight was only needed for short amounts of time. However, the nervous system treats today’s modern threats of stress the same way leaving us with our accelerator left jammed on. This can cause many health issues such as sleep problems, memory issues, anxiety and depression. Exercise, yoga and meditation have all been found to reduce stress by releasing the accelerator and applying the brakes. [v][vi]
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Next week we will start to look in more depth and the different parts of the brain.
[i] https://www.healthline.com/health/fun-facts-about-the-nervous-system#1
[ii] Kalat, J. W. (2015). Biological psychology. Nelson Education.
[iii] https://www.healthline.com/health/fun-facts-about-the-nervous-system#1
[iv] https://www.healthline.com/health/fun-facts-about-the-nervous-system#1
[v] Ross, A., & Thomas, S. (2010). The health benefits of yoga and exercise: a review of comparison studies. The journal of alternative and complementary medicine, 16(1), 3-12.
[vi] Hackney, A. C. (2006). Stress and the neuroendocrine system: the role of exercise as a stressor and modifier of stress. Expert review of endocrinology & metabolism, 1(6), 783-792.