Cerebral cortex

Essay 1
Vero
Psychology1010
W 2:30-5:20

The cerebral cortex is the outer most layer of the brain, and consists of a collection of nerve cells bodies made up from gray matter. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, and in order for communication to take place between each hemisphere the neurons talk to each other, and that’s called corpus callosum. A cool fact about a human cerebral cortex is that it’s larger than any animal. The cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes that also have the specific and different functions to each lobe, but they also have to all work together. The four lobes are called frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital.
The first lobe is called the frontal lobe, its located behind the forehead. This is the largest of the four, but takes the longest mature at the age around 25. The frontal lobe is mostly known for planning movements and also contains a motor cortex, in charge of controlling certain movements, for example moving one finger at a time. It has Executive functions, to name a few attention, judgment, memory, organization, and planning. It’s involved with decision making, problem solving, and planning. Another example when you’re watching the super bowl game and need something upstairs, so you yell their name to get their attention to bring you something downstairs, but if you were watching the game at a restaurant you wouldn’t shout to get your servers attention. The frontal lobe helps control impulses so you have better judgment.
The second lobe is called occipital, located in the very back of the brain. The visual cortex receives and begins processing information. The eyes send visual information to the thalamus, which acts like a relay station. A fact about an occipital lobe is people can become blind because of damage to the occipital lobe of the brain.
Third lobe is called parietal lobe, located on top of the head; also known for sensory cortex which is parallel to the motor cortex .The main function of this lobe is to do with touch sensations, speech, information processing, and spatial touch. An example of parietal is if you’re looking at your dog, your parietal lobe would give you information to which direction your eyes are pointing, the position of your head.
Fourth lobe is called temporal lobe, located on the lower side of each hemisphere, near your temples. On the left side of your brain its functions is to understand spoken language to most. Other functions can be vision, being aware of movement, emotional response, remembering people’s faces. The most important function in the temporal lobe is hearing. The ears hear based on frequencies of sounds, then process the information into speech and words.

Citations

Text book “Introducing Psychology 2nd Edition. By: Schacter Gilbert Wegner
PowerPoint Notes and class discussion by John Seaman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_cortex “Cerebral Cortex” http://www.slideshare.net/neurosciust/the-cerebral-cortex “The Cerebral Cortex” http://inaniloquence.hubpages.com/hub/The4LobesofTheBrain “The Four Lobes of the Brain” http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/a/aa032505a.htm “ Cerebral Cortex

Citations: Text book “Introducing Psychology 2nd Edition. By: Schacter Gilbert Wegner PowerPoint Notes and class discussion by John Seaman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_cortex “Cerebral Cortex” http://www.slideshare.net/neurosciust/the-cerebral-cortex “The Cerebral Cortex” http://inaniloquence.hubpages.com/hub/The4LobesofTheBrain “The Four Lobes of the Brain” http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/a/aa032505a.htm “ Cerebral Cortex