Hi All,
I have really been wondering which areas of the brain and spine affect what parts of the body. So far this is the only thing I could find. Does anyone have anything better? I'm sorry, it's pretty long.
Lesion locations and Symptoms
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CEREBRUM - cognitive area; incldes:
Parietal Lobe - receives and evaluates sensory information. It processes information about
touch, taste, blood pH, pain, pressure and temperature. Inability to discriminate between sensory stimuli. Damage can cause inability to locate and recognize parts of the body (Neglect), severe Injury: Inability to recognize self, disorientation of environment space, inability to write.
Occipital Lobe - receives and integrates visual input. Can cause loss of ability to recognize object seen in opposite field of vision, "flash of light", "stars"
Temporal Lobe - receives and evaluates auditory and olfactory (smell) input. It's also associated with abstract thought, judgement and memory. Can cause hearing deficits, aggitation, irritability, childish behavior, receptive/sensory aphasia.
Somesthetic Cortex - Receives sensory input from varius parts of the body. If the primary sensory areas aren't intact, may not be aware of stimilus or not be able to tell where it's coming from.
Somesthetic Association area - takes visual input and compares it to what you already know. Damage can make it hard to recognize familar objects or people. It also puts 'emotional value' on objects, which can account for some phobias or attractions. You tend to pay more attention to something that's familiar and you have a strong 'association' with.
Primary Motor Area - controls voluntary movement especially fine movements in the hands. It sends the messages to stimulate muscles to contract or relax.
FRONTAL LOBE - helps coordinate movement (balance and muscle coordination). Damage may result in ataxia which is a problem of muscle coordination. This can interfere with a person's ability to walk, talk, eat, and to perform other self care tasks. Can cause impairment of recent memory, inattentiveness, inability to concentrate, behavior disorders, difficulty in learning new information. Lack of inhibition (inappropriate social and/or sexual behavior). Emotional lability. "Flat" affect. Contralateral plegia, paresis. Expressive/motor aphasia.
Includes:
Premotor Area - determines which muscles must contract, in what order and to what degree, and sends the messages to the Primary Motor area. It also is involved in motivation and forethought, and helps control emotional behavior and mood. It lets people carry out complex skills and learned tasks, and affects manual dexterity. Damage can cause hesitency in performing actions that you have learned to do.
Prefrontal area - controls aggression and motivation. It's the area destroyed when a frontal lobotomy is performed, which controls aggression, but also affects personality and motivation in other areas.
B
roca's Area (motor speech area) - initiates the movements needed to speak. Hesitant or distorted speech is usually from damage in this area. A word is formulated here as it will be spoken, then it sends the information to the premotor area to decide which muscles have to be used to actually speak it.
Wernicke's Area (sensory speech area) - responsible for understanding and formulating coherent speech. Problems naming objects, comprehending visual language (reading) and repeating spoken sentences can be from damage in this area. Poor word finding is caused by damage isolating this area from parietal or temporal association areas. Being able to speak fluently, but unintelligibly, or poor repetition but good comprehension, is usually caused by damage between this area and Broca's area.
BASAL GANGLIA - inhibits unwanted muscular activity and affects planning and co-ordinting movements and posture. Damage to the area can cause exaggerated or uncontrolled movements, chorea, tremors at rest and with initiation of movement, abnormal increase in muscle tone, difficulty initiating movement.
LIMBIC SYSTEM - influences emotions, responses to the emotions, motivation, mood and sensations of pain and pleasure. Can cause loss of sense of smell and loss of recent memory. Different parts of this system are:
Olfactory Cortex - smell can stimulate hunger in the hypothalamus, and the smell of pheromones bring about
sexual attraction. Damage in this area can cause excessive/decreased appetite, increased/decreased sexual activity and increase/loss of fear/anger responses.
Hyppocamus - help transform information from short term to long term memory; damage can cause loss of memory.
Amygdala - mediates both inborn and acquired emotional responses. It seems to be involved in mediating both conscious and unconscious emotional feeling.
Hypothalamus - helps regulate body functions, such as temperature, water and fat metabolism, sleep, sexual activity and emotional control.
CEREBELLUM - Affects coordination and voluntary movement. Can cause tremors, nystagmus, ataxia and lack of coordination/balance. Includes:
Fluccolonodular Lobe - helps with balance
Anterior - helps with gross motor coordination
Posterior - helps with fine motor coordination
All 3 compare signals received from different areas to keep them coordinated and give smooth movements. If retraining is needed, it helps with learning new functions and getting the right muscles to respond if the actions are repeated enough times.
BRAIN STEM - Neurological functions located in the brainstem include those necessary for survival (breathing, digestion, heart rate, blood pressure) and for arousal (being awake and alert
). It is the pathway for all fiber tracts passing up and down from peripheral nerves and spinal cord to the highest parts of the brain. This includes:
Medulla Oblongata - primarily a relay station for the crossing of motor tracts between the spinal cord and the brain. It also contains the respiratory, vasomotor and cardiac centers, as well as many mechanisms for controlling reflex activities such as coughing, gagging, swallowing and vomiting
Midbrain - nerve pathway of the cerebral hemispheres and contains auditory and visual reflex centers
Pons - links different parts of the brain and serves as a relay station from the medulla to the higher cortical structures of the brain. It contains the respiratory center.
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SPINAL COLUMNC1: blood supply to the head, pituitary gland, scalp, bones of the face, inner and middle ear, sympathetic nervous system, eyes, ears
C2: eyes, optic nerves, auditory nerves, sinuses, mastoid bones, tongue, forehead, heart
C3: cheeks, outer ear, face, bones, teeth, trifacial nerve, lungs
C4: nose, lips, mouth, Eustachian tube, mucus membranes, lungs
C5: vocal cords, neck glands, pharynx
C6: neck muscles, shoulders, tonsils
C7: thyroid gland, bursa in the shoulders, elbows, ulnar nerve
T1: arms from the elbows down, including hands, arms, wrists and fingers; esophagus and trachea, heart
T2: heart, including its valves and covering coronary arteries; lungs bronchial tubes
T3: lungs, bronchial tubes, pleura, chest, breast, heart
T4: gallbladder, common duct, heart, lungs, bronchial tubes
T5: liver, solar plexus, circulation (general), heart, esophagus, stomach
T6: stomach, esophagus, peritoneum, liver, duodenum
T7: kidneys, appendix, testes, ovaries, uterus, adrenal cortex, spleen, pancreas, large intestine
T8: spleen, stomach, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, adrenal cortex, small intestine, pyloric valve
T9: adrenal cortex, pancreas, spleen, gallbladder, ovaries, uterus, small intestine
T10: kidneys, appendix, testes, ovaries, uterus, adrenal cortex, spleen, pancreas, large intestine
T11: kidneys, ureters, large intestine, urinary bladder, adrenal medulla, adrenal cortex, uterus, ovaries, ileocecal valve
T12: small intestine, lymph circulation, large intestine, urinary bladder, uterus, kdneys, ileocecal valve
L1: large intesine, inguinal rings, uterus
L2: appendix, abdomen, upper leg, urinary bladder
L3: sex organs, uterus, bladder, knee, prostate, large intestine
L4: prostate gland, muscles of the lower back, sciatic nerve
L5: lower legs, ankles, feet, prostate
Sacrum: hip bones, buttocks, rectum, sex organs, genitalia, urinary bladder, ureter, prostate
Sacral Plexus: Forms the sciatic as well as other nerves that go to muscles, joints and other structures of the legs, knees, ankles, feet and toes
Coccyx: rectum, anus<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
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