A Brain Divided?

At first glance, the brain is a mass created by ridges and valleys, and to a nascent neuroscientist differentiation may be difficult to see. Upon closer inspection, however, you can see the brain is divided into two hemispheres. The valley (sulci) that divides the brain into halves is called the Longitudinal Fissure.

The brain is further divided into four lobes. Each lobe generally plays a role in specific behavior and function (But we will soon find out that brain localization is too simplistic and instead the brain communicates in circuits).

1. Frontal lobe: Located in the front (anterior) area of the brain, just behind the forehead. This area is tasked with planning, cognitive tasks, executive functioning, speech production, and premotor planning.

2. Parietal lobe: Located between frontal and occipital lobes. This brain area is responsible for spatial location of objects, and primary sensory (touch) perception.

3. Temporal lobe: Located on the sides (lateral) of the brain just behind the top parts of your ear. This brain area processes sound perception, object recognition, face recognition, and speech comprehension.

4. Occipital lobe: Located in the back (posterior) area of the brain. This is the smallest lobe but is tasked with humans' most important sense, visual perception. This lobe processes color, shapes, and motion.

While these lobes generally process specific information it is critical to know that information is communicated across brain areas, lobes, and even hemispheres simultaneously at incredible speed. This allows our experience of the world to be fluid and integrated. Could you imagine if our sensory information was processed individually? Our experiences would be segmented into different sensory bytes! What effect would that have on working memory? It's difficult to imagine because our only experience is with a fluid, integrated system.