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

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Cranial nerve 9: The glossopharyngeal nerve allows taste, ear and throat movement, and has many more functions.

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. Have you ever asked yourself why you can't remember anything from before the age of three, why people experience deja vu, or how a bundle of cells in our heads can produce the remarkable phenomenon that is human consciousness? Drawing on the latest neuroscience research, this visual guide makes the hidden workings of the human brain simple to understand. 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.

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. 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. The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regulates our body. Together, the brain and spinal cord that extends from it make up the central nervous system, or CNS. What is the brain made of?

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. MIT Press began publishing journals in 1970 with the first volumes of Linguistic Inquiry and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Today we publish over 30 titles in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and science and technology. 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. MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide. Each brain hemisphere (parts of the cerebrum) has four sections, called lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. Each lobe controls specific functions.Have your friend sit at a table with their dominant hand exposed over the edge, and have them make a pinching hold with their fingers. Grab a hold of the ruler by pinching it on the short side near the 30 cm mark and hold it upright such that the 0 cm end is just between your friend’s fingers. 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. 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 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.

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.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. 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 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. How Your Brain Works allows anyone to participate in the discovery of neuroscience. Gage and Marzullo help readers to learn: 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