2.02: The Brain

• Introduction
• Learn
• Try It
• Task

Introduction

Maria, a senior in high school, has a grandmother with Alzheimer’s. She sees her mother working hard to balance the responsibility of taking care of her own family with the responsibility she feels for taking care of her grandmother. As a result of this “real life” experience, Maria wonders how she can help rid the world of this terrible disease in the future and decides to become a research psychologist.

Interest and research in the brain is at an all-time high. The search for cure for some common diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis has accelerated the efforts of many scientists. There are a lot of pretty strange sounding names to the parts of the brain and you may feel that it is all “Greek” to you. Well, you are correct. Many of the names for the parts of the brain have come from Latin and Greek words. So let's begin to learn about some of the many fascinating parts of the brain and what they do.

The easiest way to learn about the brain is to look at it as three divisions; the hindbrain, the midbrain and the forebrain. Please keep in mind that multiple areas of the brain are involved in the activities that we will be studying. To keep it simple, we will focus on the most specific functions of the different parts. You are now ready to learn about the amazing brain....enjoy.