The human brain handles everything from keeping your heart beating to letting you read this sentence. It is organized in layers, from the primitive central core up to the sophisticated cerebral cortex, with specialized structures managing heartbeat, emotion, language, and much more. Getting to know these structures, and how the left and right hemispheres divide the work, is the foundation for understanding human behavior.
A classic entrance exam question asks you to match brain structures to their jobs, like the cerebellum with balance or the amygdala with emotion and aggression. Students often mix up where the senses are processed; remember that vision lives in the occipital lobe and hearing in the temporal lobe. Hemispheric lateralization comes up too, so pair the left hemisphere with sequential, verbal tasks and the right with global, spatial tasks.
Part of Basic Psychology, module “Biological Bases of Behavior”. Sign in (free) to read the full notes, flashcards and the lesson quiz.