Question

Considering the silhouette of the brain, indicate each of the four major lobes of the left cerebral hemisphere and note the functions associated with each. Then label each of the two major speech centers in the brain and note their locations in the drawing of the brain. Finally, locate the locations of the motor and sensory cortex.

Answer 1

The brain’s cerebral cortex is the outermost layer that gives the brain its characteristic wrinkly appearance. The cerebral cortex is divided (length ways) into two cerebral hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum.

Each of the hemispheres has been divided into four lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital.

Frontal lobe:

The frontal lobe is generally where higher executive functions including emotional regulation, planning, reasoning and problem solving occur.

1. It contains the motor cortex, which is involved in planning and coordinating movement;

the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-level cognitive functioning; and

Broca’s area, which is essential for language production.

The frontal lobe contains most of the dopamine-delicate neurons in the cerebral cortex. The dopamine system is associated with reward, attention, short-term memory tasks, planning, and motivation. A gene variant that reduces dopamine activity in the prefrontal cortex is related to poorer performance and inefficient functioning of that brain region during working memory tasks, and to a slightly increased risk for schizophrenia.

Parietal lobe:

The parietal lobe is behind the frontal lobe, separated by the central sulcus.

Areas in the parietal lobe are responsible for integrating sensory information, including touch, temperature, pressure and pain.

Several areas of the parietal lobe are important in language processing.

Temporal lobe:

Separated from the frontal lobe by the lateral fissure, the temporal lobe also contains regions dedicated to processing sensory information, particularly important for hearing, recognising language, and forming memories.                                                

Auditory information: The temporal lobe contains the primary auditory cortex, which receives auditory information from the ears and secondary areas, and processes the information so we understand what we’re hearing (e.g. words, laughing, a baby crying).

Visual processing: Certain areas in the temporal lobe make sense of complex visual information including faces and scenes.

Memory: The medial (closer to the middle of the brain) temporal lobe contains the hippocampus, a region of the brain important for memory, learning and emotions.

Wernicke’s area, important for speech comprehension, is also located here.

Occipital lobe:

The occipital lobe is the major visual processing centre in the brain.

The primary visual cortex, also known as V1, receives visual information from the eyes. This information is relayed to several secondary visual processing areas, which interpret depth, distance, location and the identity of seen objects.

Two major speech centres in the brain: Wenicke's area and Broca's area (People who suffer damage to Broca’s area have great difficulty producing language of any form ) Damage to either Broca’s area or Wernicke’s area can result in language deficits.

Whereas individuals with damage to Broca’s area have difficulty producing language, those with damage to Wernicke’s area can produce sensible language, but they are unable to understand it.

Location of motor cortex ( located in the frontal lobe of the brain ) and sensory cortex ( The primary somatosensory cortex is found in the parietal lobe) :