The brain

    Let’s deal with brain anatomy first. We asked Paul Grundy, a consultant neurosurgeon and brainstrust’s patron, for his take on how the brain is structured and what the consequences would be if damage happened. It is the most complex organ in the body, and the organ that we know the least about. This page is to help you have a better understanding of how the brain is structured.

     The brain only weighs 3 lb (1.3 kg), but it is the most complex organ in our body. It contains millions of nerve cells that control everything we do.

    • It controls our senses of touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing.
    • It controls our body temperature.
    • It sends out messages to each body part to move – for example, it tells our leg to kick a football.

    It is a massive storage device, it takes on so much information and captures all of our memories.

    Cerebrum

    This is the largest part of the brain, and it is split into two hemispheres.

    Did you know

    that the left side of the cerebrum controls the right side of your body and the right controls the left? Confusing, right?

    This is what we know about the functions of different parts of the brain. However, it’s important to understand that each lobe of the brain does not function alone. There are very complex relationships between the lobes of the brain and between the right and left hemispheres. But this gives you a further indication of what might be affected by the position of a brain tumour:

    Frontal Lobe:
    • personality, behaviour, emotions
    • judgement, planning, problem-solving
    • motivation, initiation
    • speaking and writing
    • body movement
    • intelligence, concentration, self-awareness.
    Parietal Lobe:
    • interpretation of language, words
    • sense of touch, pain, temperature (sensory strip)
    • interpretation of signals from vision, hearing, motor, sensory and memory
    • spatial and visual perception.
    Occipital Lobe:
    • vision
    Cerebellum:
    • movement
    • balance.
    Medulla oblongata:
    • transmits signals between spinal cord and brain
    • heartbeat
    • breathing.
    Mid brain and pons:
    • hearing
    • regulate body temperature
    • process visual information
    • process hearing information
    • sleep
    • breathing
    • posture
    • bladder control
    • eye movement
    • facial expressions.
    Temporal lobe:
    • memory
    • hearing
    • translation of speech/vision.

    Frontal lobe:

    • personality, behaviour, emotions
    • judgement, planning, problem-solving
    • motivation, initiation
    • speaking and writing
    • body movement
    • intelligence, concentration, self-awareness.

    Parietal lobe:

    • interpretation of language, words
    • sense of touch, pain, temperature (sensory strip)
    • interpretation of signals from vision, hearing, motor, sensory and memory
    • spatial and visual perception.

    Occipital lobe:

    • vision.

    Temporal lobe:

    • memory
    • hearing
    • translation of speech/vision.

    Cerebellum

    • movement
    • balance.

    Brainstem (made up of the pons, mid brain and medulla oblongata)

    • sending messages from cerebrum and cerebellum to spinal cord
    • eye and face movement
    • breathing
    • heart rate.

    Did this information make you feel more resourced, more confident or more in control?