The 5 Major Brain Areas
The human brain is very complex and responsible for all behavior, and we are continually learning new information about how it operates. Behavioral and cognitive functions can be organized into five distinct domains to include:
Memory
Memory and new learning is a necessary and important function of the human brain. Our ability to live independently and to function normally is a direct result of a normal memory system. Our life story is built by encoding and retaining our daily experiences. Our personal identity is framed by our memory and ability to learn from these memories.
Memory and new learning begins with the Hippocampus, a critical structure in the middle temporal lobes of both hemispheres of the brain. This is the structure that enables learning and transition of new learning into a permanent storage site in the Cortex. The Hippocampus has the ability to generate new brain cells with stimulating environments, can be damaged with chronic stress, and is hit early by Alzheimer's disease. Damage to the Hippocampus results in memory deficits.
Attention & Concentration
Attention is the most basic and necessary function of the brain. The brain can attend to information from five sensory pathways. While a deeper level of processing is not necessary for attention to occur, it is also true that a deeper level of information processing cannot occur without normal attention. The brain stem and frontal lobe are thought to be important for basic attentional processing. The entire Cortex is likely involved to a degree with basic attention.
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Language Skills
Perhaps the most fundamental and critical behavior of your brain is language. The ability to communicate is necessary to our species and survival. Language is predominantly a left-hemisphere and verbal function. However, language also entails prosody or pitch and tone without words, letters, or numbers. Language involves spontaneity, content, tempo, volume, and comprehension. Language is symbolic, spoken, written, perceived and comprehended.
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Visual & Spatial
Your brain has the ability to appreciate and interpret space in multi-dimensions. You understand where you are in your environmental space and you know how your environment is positioned around you. This skill is necessary for behaviors such as driving, orientation in the world, depth perception, and directional ability. It is believed that the non-dominant parietal lobe is one important region of the brain for visual spatial skill.
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Executive Functions (Problem Solving, Logic & Reasoning)
Executive functions refer to those behaviors that are primarily related to the frontal lobes. The largest and youngest region of our Cortex, the frontal lobes help us with a wide variety of complex behaviors including logic, organization, scheduling, impulse control and more.
