Brain is the most complex chemistry kit in human body. Due to this fact, many psychology researcher, particularly neurology and cognitive psychologists, started to analyse human brain so they could understand the brain more proper. This mechanism only require steady supply of glucose to function properly (click HERE to read about proper brain foods). In other words, the brain may only absorb glucose as food and nothing else. Human brain consist of 5 main regions; prefrontal, frontal, parietal, occipital and the temporal lobes. Other sub-components of the brain include: cortical, medial, central nuclei, lateral, basal, accessory basal nuclei, executive function etc., but will not be discussed in this post.

Please click on the diagrams to enlarge its size.

Anyway, here is one piece of information to remind everyone before writting this post. There is a research written very clearly that fatness gene will reduce the efficacy of the brain. A group of scientists suggests that people with the FTO gene (fat mass and obesity gene, or fat people) had 8% lesser volume in their frontal lobes and 12% lesser in the occipital lobes. Elder obese adults usually have smaller brains and so, will more likely to develop dementia. Why? Because our brain can only accept blood foods through the blood vessels from the body. If the fats in our body slow down the flow of the blood from flowing to our brain, the consequence is killing the neurons. So, people, try to stay away from being fat.


Caption: human brain


Caption: general view of the human brain regions

I am sure many of us are curious about these function of these brain lobes. What do these brain lobes do? How could we interact the brain and functioning of our body? In this post, I will briefly explain the function of these brain lobes with some diagrams in the below.


Caption: visual

The back section of the brain, the occipital lobe controls human vision. When human perceive information with their eye, the information will travel along the eye (perception) and reach the back of the brain. This is the brain region that deals with brain processing. Anyway, the information will be passed on to many other brain regions to be analysed into edges, forms, colours and positions. Overall, the occipital lobe only deals with visual processing.


Caption: auditory


Caption: left and right brain hemispheres

The auditory cortex of the brain deals with sound analyses. The auditory cortex is located somewhere in the temporal lobe. However, the temporal lobe does not deal only with sound; it also deals with visual perception and analyses. This is why the temporal lobe is an extremely important brain region dealing with information perception. Anyway, the auditory cortex analyses the frquency and location (i.e. which ear, distance etc.) of the sound. Since human brain is splitted into two, the left and right hemisphere; music is analysed mostly by the right hemisphere whilst speech mostly on the left.


Caption: touch

Touch, formelly known as sensory or tactile is one of the five human senses, controlled by the somatosensory cortex. Shown in the picture above, the somatosensory cortex laid on the brain surface around the parietal lobe, and has formed a complex map of human body. The somatosensory cortex also deals more with the most sensitive body parts (i.e. fingertips, toes, lips, genital areas) than lesser sensitive body areas.


Caption: sense


Caption: cerebral cortex


Caption: top-view of the olfactory bulb

Smell and taste important part of human senses, and are usually analysed in the lower region of the prefrontal lobes. This brain region also analyses the olfactory bulb. Olfactory is another term used to represent scent. The olfactory bulb is also the most forward region in the brain, dealing with scent receptors and nerves. On the other hand, the olfactory bulb connect directly with the emotion area, though are less analytical. If you look closely at the diagram above, the olfactory bulb is connected to the thalamus. The thalamus is situated in the midbrain. It deals with relaying sensation, special sense and motor (limb movement) signals to the cerebral cortex, along with the regulation of consciousness, sleep and alertness, and most importantly, it help direct our attention and behaviour.


Caption: speech and language

The two brain areas controlling speech analyses, on the left side of the brain, analyses basic sound frequencies. The two areas are controlled by the cerebral cortex, and are located next to the auditory cortex. The two brain modules, (1) Wernicke's area deals with language comprehension (i.e. the understanding of written and spoken language),and (2) Broca's area is responsible for speech articulation (production). The motor region is intentionally used to control and coordinate the physical process of limb movements (i.e. moving hands and legs), but is also important in the process of speaking. For instance, mouth and tongue movements.


Caption: planning and decision-making

The prefrontal and frontal lobe regions deal with planning and plotting of ideas, and decision-making. These two regions are highly developed more in human than in other animals. These complex brain areas formulate calculations and cognitions, particularly important for intelligent thought. This is why humans are recognised as the most intelligent living being. These components store information about past rewards, what they like and not. They also have a working memory, allowing human to keep and process serveral ideas in the mind at the same time (i.e. multitasking).


Caption: social interaction

The lower region of the front section, the prefrontal lobe controlled our ability to interact socially with other people. The prefrontal lobe deals with complex social emotions, controlling emotional traits such as empathy, guilt, trust and other behavioral control. If the stems in this region are damaged, then human will keep doing inappropriate things, such as criminal and psyhopathic.


Caption: memory

The three types of memory; short term, long term and the episodic memory are controlled by the frontal region of our brain by both frontal lobe and the prefrontal lobe. Specifically, the prefrontal lobe deals with immediate recall of informations. For such, we should thank our prefrontal lobe for allowing us to immediately answer simple questions like 100 + 100. The prefrontal lobe also controls the working memory of our brain. Working memory deals with the three major human memories, and is associated with the hippocampus. The hippocampus govern our long term memories, such as places we went, things we have done and so (click HERE to read more of the hippocampus). Numerous research suggest that the hippocampus is also associated with directions. If so, a person with strong long term memory should have a strong sense of direction. There are some research explained that the long term memories and factual information, gradually shifting around our brain and so, the memories should be analysed by 2 additional brain regions, that is the temporal lobes and frontal lobes. The cerebellum is also an important brain region that store memories of how to conduct different activities.


Caption: emotion

Emotion is probably the hardest component to understand in the human brain. Emotion is primitively connected to the region of the brain called the limbic system. The limbic system lies somewhere in the below of the cerebral cortex. The limbic system is connected to the amyglada, a brain component which controls every aspects of emotion in a person. It is also the brain component producing adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone produced by the body when you are frightened, angry or excited, which makes the heart beat faster and prepares the body to react to danger. The amyglada component was heavily debated, when some psychologist believed that this component is not necessary when dealing with human emotion. Anyway, the limbic system has connections with all senses. The limbic system has a very direct link to unconcious reactions such as guts and instincts.


Caption: body functions

Caption: spinal cord

The brainstem in our brain controls our body functions, such as heart beat rate, blood pressure, the release of hormones such as adrenaline, and other basic activities such as breathing, sleeping and walking. The brainstem is located somewhere on top of the spinal cord (look at the photo in the above).


Caption: problem-solving

The anterior cingulate cortex in our brain govern all forms of human behaviour. The anterior cingulate cortex is linked to the limbic system (emotion). This is why it will decide which behaviour is appropriate for us, and how we should react at different scenarios. The anterior cingulate cortex will also monitor our problemss, such as conflict, errors and pain.


Caption: limbs and movements

In psychology, the movement control term has been replaced by motor. Motor represents the movement of limbs. The control of body movement is a complex process. It recruits several brain regions. For instance, we will first plan to walk to "somewhere". The planning process takes place in the prefrontal and frontal lobe. Then, we start moving our leg to that destination. That process involves the motor cortex next to the frontal lobe. Sometimes, walking towards the girl we love involves a different brain components, a part from the three (prefrontal, frontal and motor cortex). The basal ganglia controls the motivaton to move and its coordination. However, the damage of this brain component will result in Parkinson's disease. However, when a person has the Parkinson's disease, most of the time, the cerebellum region of his brain is damaged too. The cerebellum stores routine patterns of movements. Movement also needs continuous feedback from our senses. In other words, body movements will involve many regions of the brain.