Lobe Functions In The Brain

What Are The 6 Lobes Of The Brain

The cerebrum is divided by a longitudinal fissure into 2 hemispheres, each containing 6 discrete lobes:

We explained how we can find an almost infinite number of organic structures within each hemisphere that are responsible for carrying out various tasks and functions that affect our actions. In this article you could find an overview of some of the most important sections of our thinking machine: the 5 lobes of the brain.

If you have any questions or comments let us know!

What Are The Areas Of The Cerebral Cortex

Some researchers look at the brain in another way and classify the areas of the cerebral cortex by their three main types of functions: sensory, motor and association areas.

Sensory areas: These areas of your cerebral cortex receive sensory information from your senses and your environment. Functions include:

• Making sense of visual information and object recognition. These functions are processed by an area of your occipital lobe called the visual cortex.
• Assessing touch, temperature, position, vibration, pressure and pain information from your body. These functions are processed by an area of your parietal lobe called the somatosensory cortex.
• Processing hearing information. This function is processed by an area of your temporal lobe called the auditory cortex.
• Processing taste and flavor. These functions are processed by an area of your frontal lobe called the gustatory cortex.

Motor areas: These areas of your cerebral cortex are involved in voluntary muscle movement. These functions are processed mainly by your frontal lobe. Functions include:

• Coordination of muscle movement.
• Planning of complex movements.
• Learning through imitation and empathy.

Association areas: These areas are spread throughout all four lobes and connect and add complexity to functions. Functions include:

What Happens If The Occipital Lobe Is Damaged

The most obvious effect of damage to the occipital lobe is blindness, but occipital lobe damage can have other surprising effects:

• Epilepsy: Some seizures occur in the occipital lobe, and occipital lobe damage increases vulnerability to seizures.
• Difficulties with movement: Even if you are still able to move, changes in depth perception and vision can lead to inappropriate movements and difficulty navigating the visual field.
• Difficulties perceiving colors, shape, dimension, and size.
• Difficulty recognizing familiar objects or faces.

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Lobes Of The Brain And What They Control

Each brain hemisphere has four sections, called lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. Each lobe controls specific functions.

• Frontal lobe. The largest lobe of the brain, located in the front of the head, the frontal lobe is involved in personality characteristics, decision-making and movement. Recognition of smell usually involves parts of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe contains Brocas area, which is associated with speech ability.
• Parietal lobe. The middle part of the brain, the parietal lobe helps a person identify objects and understand spatial relationships . The parietal lobe is also involved in interpreting pain and touch in the body. The parietal lobe houses Wernickes area, which helps the brain understand spoken language.
• Occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is the back part of the brain that is involved with vision.
• Temporal lobe. The sides of the brain, temporal lobes are involved in short-term memory, speech, musical rhythm and some degree of smell recognition.

Bumps And Grooves Of The Brain

In humans, the lobes of the brain are divided by a number of bumps and grooves. These are known as gyri and sulci . The folding of the brain, and the resulting gyri and sulci, increases its surface area and enables more cerebral cortex matter to fit inside the skull.

Image: DJ / CC BY-SA 2.0 Albert Kok / Public Domain

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Whats The Difference Between The Cerebral Cortex And The Cerebrum

Your cerebral cortex is the outer layer that lies on top of your cerebrum. Your cerebrum is the largest area of your brain. Your cerebrum divides your brain into two halves called hemispheres. The hemispheres are attached by a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum allows your two hemispheres to communicate with each other.

What Are The Symptoms Of A Damaged Cerebral Cortex

Symptoms depend on the area of the cerebral cortex thats damaged.

Injury to the frontal lobe

Symptoms of damage or injury to your frontal lobe include:

Injury to the temporal lobe

Symptoms of damage to your temporal lobe include:

• Hearing difficulties.
• Difficulty recognizing faces and objects.
• Language impairments , difficulties understanding language.

Additional causes of damage to the temporal lobe include epileptic seizures, developmental dyslexia and Alzheimers disease.

Injury to the occipital lobe

Symptoms of damage to your occipital lobe include:

• Difficulty perceiving more than one object at the same time.
• Trouble recognizing objects by sight.
• Color blindness.
• Total blindness.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Your cerebral cortex is the outer covering of the surface of your brain. It consists of between 14 billion and 16 billion nerve cells. Your cortex is involved in higher processes in the human brain, including memory, thinking, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, emotions, consciousness and functions related to your senses.

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What Can Happen If Your Frontal Lobe Is Damaged

A famous case of frontal lobe damage is that of Phineas Gage. In 1848, Gage was injured in an explosion that caused a railroad spike to pierce his frontal lobe. The resulting injury caused drastic changes in Gages personality and behavior.

As weve learned, the frontal lobe is responsible for many different types of functions. Because of this, damage to the frontal lobe can cause a variety of different symptoms depending on the area thats affected.

Some potential symptoms of frontal lobe damage can include:

• loss of movement, either partial or complete , on the opposite side of the body
• difficulty performing tasks that require a sequence of movements
• trouble with speech or language
• poor planning or organization

Treatment for damage to the frontal lobe depends on whats caused the damage to occur. If you have frontal lobe damage, your treatment plan may include a team of several types of healthcare professionals.

Some examples of potential treatments for frontal lobe damage include:

In some cases, the cause of the frontal lobe damage may be permanent. One example of this is neurodegenerative diseases. In these cases, treatment may also involve medications.

Right Brain Left Brain

The cerebrum is divided into two halves: the right and left hemispheres . The left hemisphere controls the right half of the body,and the right hemisphere controls the left half of the body.

The two hemispheres are connected by a thick band of neural fibers known as the corpus callosum,consisting of about 200 million axons. The corpus callosum allows the two hemispheres to communicatewith each other and allows for information being processed on one side of the brain to be shared with theother side.

Figure 2. The cerebrum is divided into left and right hemispheres. The two sides are connected by the nerve fibers corpus callosum.

Hemispheric lateralization is the idea that each hemisphere is responsible for different functions. Each of these functions are localized to either the right or left side.

The left hemisphere is associated with language functions, such as formulating grammar and vocabulary, and containing different language centres .

The right hemisphere is associated with more visuospatial functions such as visualization, depth perception, and spatial navigation. These left and right functions are the case in the majority of people, especially those who are right-handed.

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How Does Damage To The Parietal Lobe Affect Functioning

Because of the parietal lobe’s role in sensory integration, spatial reasoning, and language skills, damage to the parietal lobe can have a broad range of consequences. The specific prognosis depends in large part on the location of the injury, the severity of the injury, and whether the injury can be treated. For instance, a lesion pressing on the parietal lobe will have a better prognosis with improved functioning if the lesion can be removed.

Quality medical care is incredibly important, particularly when that care includes comprehensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Appropriate treatment can help your brain learn to work around the injuries, and may even aid other brain regions to compensate for those injuries. Your age, nutritional status, overall health at the time of the injury, and commitment to a healthy lifestyle are also important. A healthy person who continues exercising and trying novel strategies is much more likely to recover than someone with ongoing cardiovascular problems who is unwilling to try new strategies or embrace lifestyle remedies.

Three specific syndromes are especially common in people with parietal lobe damage:

• Parietal Lobes. Neuro Skills. Accessed May 11, 2020. Learn More.
• About Brain Injury: A Guide to Brain Anatomy. Brain Injury Minnesota. Accessed May 11, 2020. Learn More.

What Is The Gray Matter And White Matter

Gray and white matter are two different regions of the central nervous system. In the brain, gray matter refers to the darker, outer portion, while white matter describes the lighter, inner section underneath. In the spinal cord, this order is reversed: The white matter is on the outside, and the gray matter sits within.

Gray matter is primarily composed of neuron somas , and white matter is mostly made of axons wrapped in myelin . The different composition of neuron parts is why the two appear as separate shades on certain scans.

Each region serves a different role. Gray matter is primarily responsible for processing and interpreting information, while white matter transmits that information to other parts of the nervous system.

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Brain Lobes And Their Functions

The brain is divided into four sections, known as lobes . The frontal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, and temporal lobe have different locations and functions that support the responses and actions of the human body. Let’s start by identifying where each lobe is positioned in the brain.

Position of the Lobes

The frontal lobe is the emotional control center of the brain responsible for forming our personality and influencing out decisions. The frontal lobe is located at the front of the central sulcus where it receives information signals from other lobes of the brain.

The parietal lobe processes sensory information for cognitive purposes and helps coordinate spatial relations so we can make sense of the world around us. The parietal lobe resides in the middle section of the brain behind the central sulcus, above the occipital lobe.

The temporal lobe is located on the bottom of the brain below the lateral fissure. This lobe is also the location of the primary auditory cortex, which is important for interpreting the sounds and the language we hear.

The occipital lobe is located at the back portion of the brain behind the parietal and temporal lobes. The occipital lobe is primarily responsible for processing auditory information.

Functions of the Lobes

The frontal lobe has many functions most of which center on regulating social behavior. Here are some of the important functions of the frontal lobe:

• Visual-spatial processing
• Movement and color recognition

Where Is The Occipital Lobe Located

Understanding the occipital lobe requires a basic understanding of brain anatomy. The cerebral cortex of the braina part of the brain shared by all vertebratesis the newest part of the brain, evolutionarily speaking. All mammalian brains have four distinct lobes, but the brain itselfas well as the lobes it containsis divided into right and left hemispheres. This means that each lobe can actually be divided into two parts. The occipital lobe includes a right and left lobe that interact with one another, each controlling a range of visual functions.

Like other lobes of the brain, the occipital lobe does not have clear internal boundaries separating it from the rest of the brain. Instead, neuroscientists use the skull’s bones as their guide, so the occipital lobe rests underneath the occipital bone.

The occipital lobe is the rearmost lobe of the brain, located in the forebrain. It rests upon the tentorium cerebelli, a thick membrane of tissue the separates the cerebrum from the evolutionarily older cerebellum.

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Functions Of The Frontal Lobe

The frontal lobe plays a key role in future planning, including self-management and decision-making.

People with frontal lobe damage may find it difficult to gather information, remember previous experiences, and make decisions based on this input.

Some of the many other functions the frontal lobe plays in daily functions include:

1848 .

Gage survived after a railroad spike impaled a portion of his frontal lobe at the age of 25 years. Though Gage survived, he lost his eye and much of his personality.

Gages personality dramatically changed, and the once mild-mannered worker struggled to stick to even simple plans. He became rude in speech and demeanor and had little impulse control.

However, little was known for sure about Gages personality before his accident, and many stories about him may be exaggerated or false.

Since then, neuroimaging and research focusing on people with frontal lobe damage have provided extensive information about how the frontal lobe works.

Some reasons why damage can occur

To treat symptoms resulting from damage to the frontal lobe, a doctor will treat the underlying cause as well as the symptoms.

A doctor may:

A person may need ongoing care, and doctors may continually reevaluate the treatment strategy. The team may include speech and occupational therapists, doctors, psychotherapists, neurologists, imaging specialists, and other professionals.

Treatment for frontal lobe damage is often varied.

Structure Of The Spinal Cord

Externally, the spinal cord is protected by 26 bones called vertebrae, which are sandwiched between cartilage disks to cushion the cord from any jarring caused by bodily movement. Just like the brain itself, the spinal cord is also protected by three layers of meninges .

Inside, the spinal cord consists of grey matter and white matter. If you look at a cross-section, the grey matter takes on the shape of a butterfly, with four ‘wings’ called horns. The horns in the front contain motor neurons, which carry information from the brain and spinal cord to the bodys muscles, stimulating their movement. The horns in the back contain sensory neurons which carry sensory information about, for example, touch, pressure or pain from the body back to the spinal cord and the brain.

The spinal cord grey matter is enveloped in a column of white matter, which contains axons that allow different parts of the spinal cord to communicate smoothly. These axons travel in both directions – some carry signals from the body to the brain, while others deliver signals from the brain to neurons located elsewhere in the body.

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How Does The Brain Work

The brain sends and receives chemical and electrical signals throughout the body. Different signals control different processes, and your brain interprets each. Some make you feel tired, for example, while others make you feel pain.

Some messages are kept within the brain, while others are relayed through the spine and across the bodys vast network of nerves to distant extremities. To do this, the central nervous system relies on billions of neurons .

Functions Of The Brain

The human brain is magnificent and complex. The brain is made up of many parts, each with a specific and important function. It controls our ability to balance, walk, talk, and eat. It coordinates and regulates our breathing, blood circulation, and heart rate. It is responsible for our ability to speak, to process and remember information, make decisions, and feel emotions. Every brain is unique, ever-changing, and extremely sensitive to its environment.

The brain is divided into functional sections, called lobes:

Each lobe has an important and specific function, detailed below.

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Brain Map Frontal Lobes

The frontal lobes are located directly behind the forehead. The frontal lobes are the largest lobes in the human brain and they are also the most common region of injury in traumatic brain injury. The frontal lobes are important for voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions. Executive functions refer to a collection of cognitive skills including the capacity to plan, organise, initiate, self-monitor and control ones responses in order to achieve a goal. The frontal lobes are considered our behaviour and emotional control centre and home to our personality. There is no other part of the brain where lesions can cause such a wide variety of symptoms.

Damage to the frontal lobes can result in:

• Loss of simple movement of various body parts
• Inability to plan a sequence of complex movements needed to complete multi-stepped tasks, such as making coffee
• Loss of spontaneity in interacting with others
• Inability to express language
• Loss of flexibility in thinking and persistence of a single idea or behaviour
• Inability to focus on a task and to filter out distractions
• Mood fluctuations
• Difficulty inhibiting or controlling a response or impulse
• Reduced motivation, initiation and persistence on activities
• Reduced awareness/insight into difficulties