The Limbic System

The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system for most living things. There are only a few animals that do not have a brain like starfish or jellyfish. The brain is located in the head. It receives messages from other organs. The brain is the most complex organ. In a human, the cerebral cortex has more than a billion neurons. Each of these neurons are connected by synapses. These synapses are connected to several thousand other neurons. Neurons communicate with one another by sending messages through long fibers called axons. These axons send messages by sending pulses out. The function of the brain is to have control over the other organs of the body. Some basic types of responsiveness such as reflexes can be mediated …show more content…
This part is associated with emotions, learning and memory. Under the cerebral cortex there are many other important parts, which makes up the limbic system. An important part of the brain in the limbic system is called the hippocampus. It is a large part that is embedded in the temporal lobe on both hemispheres. The hippocampus is vital for making new memories of events and information. Another part of the limbic system is the hypothalamus. It is located below the thalamus. Disregarding its small size, the hypothalamus contains more than 40 neural pathways. The hypothalamus is responsible for increasing and decreasing heart rate and blood pressure. It regulates things such as eating and drinking. The hypothalamus is a big influence on the pituitary gland. It has considerable control over secretion of endocrine. The pituitary gland is right below the hypothalamus. The last part of the limbic system is the amygdala. The amygdala is a mass of neuron cell bodies and is located at the bottom of the temporal lobe. This part is involved in emotional responses such as anger and fear. The amygdala is associated with many types of emotions and is involved in learning and forming new …show more content…
Each side specializes in something different than the other side. Many researchers have studied split brain patients to see which part of the brain was more dominant than the other. Research has shown that in most people the left hemisphere is superior in language, speech, reading and writing. The right hemisphere is involved in nonverbal emotional expression. This part of the brain is also involved in visual-spatial tasks. The right hemisphere is also the part that helps to decipher visual cues such as manipulating blocks to match a particular design or completing a puzzle. The right hemisphere is the part that helps to recognize faces and emotional facial cues. It is also good at reading maps and drawing. The right side also shows a significant amount for musical appreciation. Musical ability involves both the right and the left hemispheres. The hemispheres are used for similar yet different things. The general functions of the brain are broken down into five parts: vision, hearing, memory, language, and spatial ability. The left side is dominant in words and letters in the vision area, language sounds in the hearing area, and verbal memory in the memory area, and speech, grammar rules, reading, writing and arithmetic in the language area. The right side is dominant in geometric patterns, faces, and emotional expressions in the vision area, non-language sounds and music in the hearing