The "Nervous Paradigm"

The "Nervous Paradigm" 

Part-3

 "The Foundation Anatomy Of Brain"

Exploring Through The Cerebral Cortex

Till now we have discussed the basic anatomy of the brain including the feature of corticalization. The major cerebral cortex and primary lobes have been discussed in older posts. This particular post will be revolving around the foundation anatomy of cerebral cortex. The advanced anatomical feature will get their place on future posts. 

  Getting on the topic of concern, we already know that very supreme and advanced cerebral cortex is one of the main reasons for the humans to be so smart compared to other life forms. As complex as the functioning of this layer is its anatomy.

 

The basic functions of cerebral cortex are-

• Memory

• Attention

• Language

• Perception

• Thought

• Awareness

• Consciousness

In most mammals cerebral cortex is folded to increase the surface area for neural activity. The folds on the upper layer of the cortex are called "Gyrus" and the groves formed are called "Sulcus".The interesting fact about human cerebral cortex is that, it is mostly buried in these sulcus. The human cerebral cortex is made up of wide spread grey matter and underlying layer of white matter. The most advance form of cerebral cortex that evolved over time is the mammalian neocortex. The cells of this cortex covers the largest part in the human brain. Evidently this cortex has six layers in the human brain.

The Layers of cerebral cortex are-

• Molecular layer- Consists of scattered neurons that are responsible for attention and learning

• External granule layer- Consists of pyramidal neurons and stellate cells.

• External pyramidal Layer- Consists of pyramidal and non pyramidal neurons

• Internal Granular Layer

• Internal Pyramidal Layer

• Multi Form Layer

  

The "Nervous Paradigm"

The "Nervous Paradigm" 

Part-2

 "The Foundation Anatomy Of Brain"

In this part of the series I will be discussing the cortical divisions and the different functioning parts of the human brain. That is a clear fact that the brain has a lot to deal with, or perhaps it is responsible for every micro to macro activity taking place in a human body. Therefore, nature has derived many parts and sections in the human brain to co-ordinate various processes. The three main parts of the brain for are -

• Fore brain

• Hind brain

• Mid Brain      

These are complex functioning paradigms of white and grey matter connected by fluid ventricles and generic brain structures such as Medulla, Hypothalamus, Thalamus etc. The six layers of cerebral cortex is one example of brain differentiation . We can look towards these parts as the organ system of our government that share power between them. So does these parts, they have different rights over the body and responsibilities too. Some great and advanced parts are Hippocampus which is responsible for short term, long term memories and amygdala for emotions etc.  

         The human brain has also many cortex's. this is called corticalization. The cerebral cortex is divided into the four lobes as we have already discussed in earlier post. these are- Frontal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Parietal Lobe and the occipatal Lobe. These are exactly similar towards bothe sides of the cerebral cortex. Some functions of these lobes are-

• Frontal Lobe- Reward, Attention, Planning, Short- term memory and motivation.
• Temporal Lobe- Visual Memories, Emotional Associations and Language.
• Parietal Lobe- Awareness and Language.
• Occipital Lobe- Visual tasks such as visual memory, colour differentiation and motion perception.

The cortical folds of the cortex also display different functions which I will Discuss later.

The "Nervous Paradigm"

The "Nervous Paradigm" 

Part-1

 "The Foundation Anatomy Of Brain"

This post from the upcoming series of posts is entirely dedicated to the analyzation of foundational or basic anatomy of the brain. I believe that every human belonging to any field of work should know the basic working of the brain. After all, that is the bundle of tissue that is responsible for the transformation of such a feeble physique ie. Human  to the top of the ecosystem.

   The human brain is the most advanced nervous paradigm that exists on the earth. It is so special because of its enlarged cerebral cortex. This cortex is a thick layer of nervous tissue found in human brain. This layer is so large that it alone covers the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain. This region is responsible for the basic neural processes such as thinking, planing, reasoning etc. The cerebral cortex is divided into 4 lobes that are-

•  Frontal Lobe

• Temporal Lobe

• Parietal Lobe

• Occipital Lobe 

The area of the cerebral cortex is designed in such a manner that the surface area of neural tissue can be increased. This results in the intensive folding patterns that we see in the brain. 

Some interesting facts about brain are-

• The weight of the Brain in humans vary from 1.3 to 1.5 kg

• The volume of the Male brain is larger than that of female but this has no effect on intelligence.

• The brain comprises of neurons, neuroglia and blood vessels.

• The brain has approx 100 billion neurons.

• The highest concentration of neurons which is about 80% of total exists in cerebellum.