BIO-405 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Cranial Nerve Nucleus, Programmed Cell Death, Corpus Callosum
Document Summary
Cns-brain: hindbrain-basic life processes (doesn"t require thought) Medulla-visceral functions (e. g. breathing, heart rate, etc. : reflex level processing mostly, houses the nuclei of crania nerves. Pons-more visceral stuff: houses cranial nerve nuclei. Cerebellum-coordination of movement: modifies and monitors motor output, involuntary activities, maintenance of equilibrium, refinement of motor actions(efficiency, size matters& thus relates to needs, midbrain-receives sensory info. Tectum-the roof of the midbrain: receives sensory information. Note: visual receptors moved to forebrain in mammals: tegmentum. Initiates motor output: prominent in fish, forebrain-the site of higher thought processes -overview. Associative functions, integration, memory, etc: diencephalon-thalamus & hypothalamus. Cerebral cortex & corpus callosum- processing of higher thought patterns and all the cool stuff. Brain morphology & intelligence: after birth, the birth continues to develop more neurons and connections between neurons, apoptosis reduces connections (synaptic pruning) Reduction in the number of overproduced or weak neuronal connections: pattern determined by experiences of newborn.
