by John Smith

Created on: August 13, 2010

Down to the last hair follicle. Voluntary and involuntary. From catching a baseball to reading a book to pumping blood and breathing, your brain is the center of control for all of your bodily functions. It controls your movement through a system of complex nerves. It stores memories and annoys you with that song you just can’t stop humming all day.  

When I hear the word “brain” I immediately picture a football-shaped mass of a spaghetti-like labyrinth, possibly sitting in a jar in some evil scientist’s laboratory, waiting to be put into the flat green head of a freakishly giant monster. The funny thing about the word is that is used both singularly and plural in the same context, depending on who is using it. You are just as likely to hear someone speaking of an accident and say “Yeah it was gross! His brains were hanging out!” as you are to hear “Yeah it was gross! His brain was hanging out!” They truth of the matter is that the brain is made of a number of different parts, all working together to operate our bodies.

These parts include the cerebral cortex, thalamus, hypothalamus, reticular formation, amygdale, pituitary gland, hippocampus, pons, medulla, cerebellum, and the spinal cord (Santrock, 2004). Each part is responsible for a number of different functions and activities. They work together in an uncanny way to enable us to do and think the things that we do every day. 

The main part of the brain, and the part most commonly recognized as a brain, is called the cerebral cortex, or cerebrum for short. This is the pink wrinkly structure that has been represented by a bowl of boiled noodles at many elementary school Halloween parties. The wrinkles are a magnificent efficiency feature, allowing the cerebrum more surface area in its confined one bedroom skull apartment. The cerebrum is associated with higher brain functions such as thought and action (serendip, 2009). The cerebrum is split by design into two halves, or hemispheres, along with the cerebellum which is located below and behind the cerebrum and is credited for functions such as coordinating movement and balance. These two hemispheres are physically mirror images of each other, but research has shown that they perform their respective functions in different ways. A bit of civil war in your head, if you will.

Through the vague details given to us in our high school biology class most people know that the right side of the brain is most

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