2Biology4pts
Say a friend invites you to have pizza and play some cards, you agree and plan to head over. Obviously you’ve been using your brain. And you still are. You’re always using your brain. You know that, but you may not know specifically what parts you use for what. It’s true you use your whole brain for everyday living but there are certain parts such as the occipital lobe, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and broca’s area that are essential for everyday social interactions and they all perform in a different way. To see how they work lets go get some pizza.
First you get in your car, you follow street signs, you watch the road, you look for your friends house, you see his door and finally you meet your friend. All these things relied on your occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is located on the back of your brain near the base of your skull and is primarily responsible for sight. The street lights you saw, your friends facial features, the pizza and cards: everything you see with your eyes must be processed in the occipital lobe! Without it you would be blind. Without it you wouldn’t be able to find your friends house, or see that royal flush in your hand. So the next time you see anything at all be thankful you have your occipital lobe.
Now that you can see everything, certain memories might be evoked. Like how your friend got that scar on his chin, or the time you ate a whole pizza by your self. You can thank the hippocampus for those memories, and every other one you have. Your hippocampus is located in the limbic system deep inside your brain and stores all your memories. Certain smells or sounds or sights can all recall memories of the past whether good or bad. Without the hippocampus we would be lost in a sea of ambiguity. Everyone would be a stranger, you wouldn’t know where you lived, you wouldn’t know if the friend you’re eating pizza with is really your friend at all. Whether a memory is good or bad it is necessary to live a normal life, and thanks to the hippocampus we have those memories.
Since you can see the pizza, and you remember what it tastes like you may start feeling a little hungry. You also may have noticed that it’s warm inside the house and you want to take your jacket off. And while you’re thinking about that food you might also be getting thirsty. Well all these feelings can be traced back to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is also located in your limbic system right under the thalamus and controls a lot of your basic body maintenance. It tells you when your, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, and controls many of your autonomic body systems. It also has a small control over your emotions, so that happiness you feel while eating that pizza can also be contributed to the hypothalamus.
So now that you’ve seen your friend with your occipital lobe, Remembered who he is with your hippocampus, and eaten pizza because of the hunger felt through your hypothalamus, it might be time to strike up a conversation. Thankfully you can do this thanks to what is known as the Broca’s area. This small area located on the cerebral cortex of your frontal lobe controls motor functions allowing you to speak. Without your Broca’s area you would be able to understand what your friend says but would have trouble communicating back to him.
All these parts of your brain come together just so you can eat pizza and play cards with a friend, and these are just a few of the parts in your brain that you use. Your brain is so connected and dependant on itself that it’s hard to use one part without using many others. For example along with all these parts you would also be using your temporal lobe for sound recognition. Your motor cortex to move your body. You’d also use a special part called the Wernicke’s area to understand what your friend is saying, and so much more. So the next time you go out to a friends house for pizza just remember how hard your brain has to work, so you can relax.