3.4 The Brain and Spinal Cord

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Explain the functions of the spinal cord
  • Identify the hemispheres and lobes of the brain
  • Describe the types of techniques available to clinicians and researchers to image or scan the brain

The brain is a remarkably complex organ comprised of billions of interconnected neurons and glia. It is a bilateral, or two-sided, structure that can be separated into distinct lobes. Each lobe is associated with certain types of functions, but, ultimately, all of the areas of the brain interact with one another to provide the foundation for our thoughts and behaviors. In this section, we discuss the overall organization of the brain and the functions associated with different brain areas, beginning with what can be seen as an extension of the brain, the spinal cord.

This lesson has no exercises.

The content of this course has been taken from the free Psychology textbook by Openstax