How the brain works.
Your brain contains billions of nerve cells arranged in patterns that coordinate thought, emotion, behavior, movement and sensation. A complicated system of nerves connects your brain to the rest of your body, so communication can occur in seconds. While all the parts of your brain work together, each part is responsible for a specific function, controlling everything from your heart rate to your mood.
The cerebrum is the largest part of your brain. It's what you visualize when you think of brains in general. This is the out of layer that is worm like and has deep folds and wrinkles in the brain increase the surface area of the gray matter, so more information can be processed.
Your brain's hemispheres are divided into four lobes.
- The frontal lobes control thinking, planning, organizing, problem solving, short-term memory and movement.
- The parietal lobes interpret sensory information, such as taste, temperature and touch.
- The occipital lobes process images from your eyes and link that information with images stored in memory.
- The temporal lobes process information from your senses of smell, taste and sound. They also play a role in memory storage.
The cerebellum is a wrinkled ball of tissue below and behind the rest of your brain. It works to combine information from the eyes, ears and muscles to help movement.
The brainstem links the brain to the spinal cord. It controls many functions vital to life, such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. This area is also important for sleep.
