Frontal Lobe

Functions: problem solving, initiation, judgement,

inhibition of behavior, planning/anticipation, selfmonitoring, motor planning, personality/emotions,
awareness of abilities/limitations, organization,
attention/concentration, mental flexibility, speaking
(expressive language)

Temporal Lobe
Functions: memory, hearing, understanding language
(receptive language), organization and sequencing,
musical awareness

Brain Stem
Functions: breathing, heart rate, swallowing, reflexes to
hearing and seeing, effects levels of alertness, controls
the autonomic nervous system (sweating, blood
pressure, digestion, temperature), ability to sleep, sense
of balance (vestibular function)

Parietal Lobe
Functions: sense of touch, visual perception,
differentiation (shape, size, colour), spatial perception,
academic skills

Occipital Lobe
Functions: vision, reading (perception and recognition of
printed words)

Cerebellum
Functions: coordination of voluntary movements,
balance and equilibrium, some memory for reflex motor
acts

Striatum
Function: planning and modulation of movement
pathways; also involved in a variety of other cognitive
processes involving executive functions, such as
working memory

ADHD
Effects on the Brain: Doctors found using an fMRI
(functional magnetic resonance imaging) that in
individuals with ADHD the frontal cortex (frontal lobe)
appears thinner and matures slower than individuals
without ADHD. The motor cortex also was found to
mature much faster than the other parts of the brain,
giving reason for the constant movement involved in
ADHD. Those with ADHD have a lower brain volume
and lesser grey matter than those without. These certain
traits are found especially in the regions of the brain
responsible for attention and emotion.

Depression
Effects on the Brain: Individuals diagnosed with
depression are found that the hippocampus was smaller
than those without depression. High levels of depression
are also associated with increased levels of cortisol, a
steroid hormone, which is evident in causing the
damage on the hippocampus. The shrunken
hippocampus can be used to determine, by its size, how
long a patient has been depressed and is shown to
cause more episodes of high depression days in the
future.

PTSD

Effects on the Brain: PTSD, a memory based mental

disorder, heavily affects the hippocampus, damaging it
with the stress of flashbacks, shrinking it. PTSD patients
also show heightened amygdala functions and
decreased medial prefrontal/anterior cingulate function.

OCD
Effect on the Brain: individuals with OCD show underactivation of brain areas responsible for stopping
habitual behavior; striatum and cingulate gyrus are seen
to be overactive in OCD patients

Schizophrenia
Effect on Brain: the hormones dopamine and glutamate
are out of balance in schizophrenia patients; the
ventricles in the brain are also enlarged

Alzheimer's
Effects on the Brain: leads to death of cells and tissue
loss throughout the brain; the entire brain shrivels up
damaging areas involved in cognitive actions and
thoughts; the hippocampus severely shrinks damaging
and inhibiting the creation of new memories

Hippocampus
Function: part of the limbic system, located in the medial
temporal lobe near the center; involved in long-term
memory, includes all past knowledge and experiences,
in particular, plays a major role in declarative memory,
the type of memory involving things that can be
purposely recalled

Amygdala
Function: located within the temporal lobe; associated
with hippocampus, cingulate gyrus, and hypothalamus;
assists in responses to fear and pleasure

Cingulate Gyrus
Function: located in the limbic system, assisting emotion
and behavior

Hypothalamus
Function: responsible for the production of many
essential hormones; the hormones produced govern
temperature regulation, thirst, hunger, sleep, sex drive,
mood, and release of other bodily hormones