Looking in a Sheep's Mind

The anterior part of the brain is comprised mainly of the frontal lobe which mainly deals with higher function and decision making while the posterior part of the brain is mainly the occipital lobe which deals with eyesight and processing. The cerebrum is the area of the brain that surrounds it which is the section that humans have the most of because it is what makes us able to think and be different than animals. The cerebellum is one of the older parts of the brain that controls motor function and other basic bodily functions. Lastly the brain stem is the oldest part of the brain that controls essential bodily functions like respiration, circulation and those types of functions.

Myelin is the fatty tissue that surrounds the axon of the neuron and its purpose is to increase the speed at which the electrical signal pass down the myelinated fiber.



Starting from left to right in the diagram we first have the medulla oblongata. This
is responsible for our unconscious body function like circulation, digestion, and other essential system that we do not consciously control. Next the pons is the center for many different nerves and acts as a sort of bridge between the medulla and the midbrain. The midbrain is associated with basic functions like speech, movement, sleeping, and body temperature regulation. The thalamus is a major cross road in the brain that sends many signals to the appropriate part of the cerebrum. By itself it deals with sensory input and sleep. The hypothalamus is small but essential to the endocrine system as it is connected to the pituitary gland. The corpus callosum is the bridge that connects the two hemispheres to the brain to allow for contralateral control. The optic nerve is a continuation from the eyeballs that bring the visual input to the occipital lobe to be organized and analyzed.


Here you can see the white matter and the gray matter, the gray is darker and the white is lighter because it has myelinated fibers while gray matter does not.

Relate and Review
In this lab we got to look at a non color coded brain so we could test our ability to identify structures in a real brain. It was not as difficult as I had thought it was going to be because the brain is very unique and actually does have relatively clear parts and markers to give hints as to the location of the structure. When we first got the brain it was very interesting to see how it separated so easily after peeling the meninges off, seeing how the brain truly is two hemispheres. Compared to the eye dissection they were equally entertaining and both surprisingly easy to look through even if the eye was slightly harder to slice through than the amazingly soft tissue of white and gray matter. Different parts of the brain overlap in function which goes to help explain plasticity and plasticity is a great word for it because the brain feels like a very soft plastic material. Of course that is not why it is called plasticity but I feel like it is a perfect term.