The BrainLimbic System and Brainstem

By: Danielle Quevedo

Limbic System

Thalamus

Hypothalamus

Amygdala

Hippocampus

Basal Ganglia

The Limbic System has five parts; the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the basal ganglia. The limbic

system is important for your emotions, memories, and for

letting your body know what it needs, like hunger and thirst.

ThalamusThe thalamus helps your brain to understand what the information coming from your senses is telling you. Parts of your body have a specific sense, like your eyes see, and your fingers touch. All of this information is going to your brain through all of your senses, and the thalamus helps it to understand everything. After the thalamus makes sense of everything, it decides where in the brain to send the information.

Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus lets your body know what it needs, like being hungry when you need food, or thirsty when you need water. It also controls your blood pressure and body temperature. The hypothalamus also controls your pituitary gland, and your pituitary gland controls all the other glands.

Amygdala

The amygdala controls our basic emotions, like fear, anger, jealousy, and pleasure. The amygdala also helps you learn to associate things and memories with emotions. The amygdala decides which memories to store, and where to store them. Because of your amygdala, you remember a time that you were scared more clearly than you would any normal day.

Hippocampus

The hippocampus helps the brain to learn and to store new memories. The hippocampus is important in connecting senses, like smell and sound, to memories. It forms long- term and short- term memories. The hippocampus also can retrieve these memories when necessary.

Basal Ganglia

The basal ganglia helps the body to plan a movement, and to do it. This part of the limbic system helps you to move voluntarily, or because you want to. If there is anything wrong with your basal ganglia, it usually results in Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s Disease is when you have difficulty carrying out movement, you are rigid, and you have tremors, or unwanted movement.

Brainstem

Medulla Oblongata

Pons

Reticular Activating

System

Cerebellum

The brainstem has four parts; the Medulla Oblongata, the Pons, the Reticular Activating System, and the Cerebellum. The brainstem

has many different functions like breathing, swallowing, and vomiting. It is found at the bottom of the brain and is connected to our spine.

Medulla Oblongata

Breathing

Heart rate

Digestion

Swallowing

The medulla oblongata has many different jobs in the brain. It controls your breathing, heart rate, digestion, and swallowing. It is one of the more important parts of the brain.

Communication

Sleep

BreathingPons

The pons helps with communication between the two halves of the brain, sleep, and

breathing. The pons connects the medulla oblongata with the rest of the brain.

The Reticular Activating System

Sleep

Alertness

Focus

The reticular activating system helps you with sleep and waking up, keeping you awake, and with focus. The most important thing that the

reticular activating system does is wake you up, and keep you awake. If there was something

wrong with your reticular activating system, you would never wake up, or be in a coma.

Cere

bellu

mMotor Functions

Balance

Muscles

Coordination

Memory

The cerebellum has many different jobs

in the brain. It helps control your motor

functions, your balance, develop

your muscles, your coordination, and

your memory. Motor functions is when you do things like

wiggling your fingers or your toes.

Coordination is when all of your body parts work

together.