The Human Brain


Over the past week, I watched ‘inside the human body’ and read the New Scientist article on the human brain, leading me to do more research into this fascinating organ that we (as humans) know little about.


The brain starts growing within the first three weeks of gestation, when a thickened strip called the neural plate folds and closes to form the neural tube. The neural tube, then flexes as it grows forming a crescent shaped cerebral hemisphere and the cerebellum. So what makes the human brain so special? Well from what I learned by watching ‘inside the human body’ by Michael Mosley, the development of the brain depends on the environment of the embryo. This is why birds have small brains, because inside an egg the embryo only has access to a limited number of nutrients thereby limiting brain growth, however, human embryos have access to many more nutrients needed for brain development thanks to the mother.

My next question was of course, why? Why does the human brain need to grow and develop to such high standards? This is explained by the cerebral cortex, a layer of neural tissue, which is divided into 4 major lobes, the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital, with each having a specific job to undertake;
·      Frontal Lobe: Herein is the primary motor cortex, controlling voluntary movements of the body, and dopamine sensitive neurons associated with attention, short-term memory, planning and motivation.
·      Parietal Love: This lobe integrates information from different areas allowing it to coordinate and navigate parts of the body. Several parts of the lobe are also important in language processing.
·      Temporal Lobe: The temporal lobe is involved in hearing, whereby it receives and processes the signals from the cochlea. It is also involved with language processing and the memory, by holding the long-term memory storage center, the hippocampus.
·      Occipital Lobe: This is the main visual processing center of the brain and is involved in visual processing, color discrimination and motion perception.



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