Organ Name: Brain (neuro-, cerebell-, cerebr-, encephal-, rubr-)

What System: The Nervous System

Where it’s located: The upper part of the skull, or the cranium.

Main Function: The brain is one of the most complex organs in the body. It is made up of the cerebrum (the largest part of the brain) which is composed of the left and right hemispheres, just under that is the cerebellum, followed then by the brainstem which includes the midbrain, pons, and medulla. The cerebral hemispheres have fissures that divide the brain distinctly into 4 lobes: frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and occipital lobe. The Frontal Lobe is responsible for personality, intelligence, behavior, emotions, judgment, body movement, speech, writing, and concentration. The Parietal Lobe is responsible for interpreting language, the sense of touch, pain, and temperature, spatial/visual perception, interprets signals from vision, hearing, sensory, memory, and motor functions. The Occipital Lobe interprets vision, mainly color, light, and movement. The Temporal Lobe is responsible for memory, hearing, sequencing, organization, and understanding language. The cerebellum is responsible for coordination of muscle movements, posture, and balance. The brainstem acts as a relay between the the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the spinal cord. It performs many of the automatic functions of the human body including breathing, heart rate, body temperatures, sleep cycles, digestion, sneezing, coughing, vomiting, and swallowing.

Protective Bodies: The brain is protected by the skull, by a covering of thin membranes called meninges, and is further cushioned by cerebrospinal fluid produced by the ventricles in the brain.

Germ Layer: The brain is derived from the ectoderm layer, which is the germ layer that gives rise to the entire nervous system.

Major Arteries, Veins, or Nerves: the Anterior Cerebral Artery, Middle Cerebral Artery, Posterior Cerebral Artery, and the Lenticulostriate Arteries, the great cerebral vein, transverse sinuses, straight sinus, internal jugular vein, inferior sagittal sinus, oculomotor nerve, trochlear nerve, optic nerve, the olfactory nerve, the trigeminal nerve, vagus nerve, the facial nerves, trigeminal nerve, the accessory nerve, and the vestibulocochlear nerve.

Diseases:
Parkinson’s Disease: A motor system disorder where around 80% of dopamine producing cells are dead, degenerated, or damaged in some way. This eventually causes nerve cells to fire rapidly and wildly, leaving the patient unable to control their movements. Symptoms can include tremors, stiffness in limbs or trunk, increasingly slow movement, or impaired balance/coordination. Early on, patients may be only a little shaky or irritable, but when full-blown, Parkinson’s is crippling and disabling. Parkinson’s can be treated with different medications or surgeries, but as with any of these treatment options, there are inherent risks.

Glioblastoma Multiforme: The most common/malignant of nervous systemic tumors that can tend to cause neurologic deficits, usually in motor weakness. Headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting, and cognitive impairment occur as a result of additional pressure inside the cranium (intracranial pressure). Causes, though still relatively unknown, can be related to genetics or head injury/ Debated causes include cell phone use or increased electromagnetic field exposure, nut studies currently are still inconclusive. There is no curative treatment, and no treatment without high risk factors including death.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Also known as ALS, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It is fatal but not contagious, and can affect anyone. With ALS, the motor neurons that control voluntary motor movement essentially atrophy, leading to loss of ability to speak, eat, move, and eventually breathe. The order in which this loss of function occur differ on an individual basis.
There are two types of ALS: Sporadic and Familial. Sporadic is the most common form of the disease, whereas Familial is simply inherited and only accounts for a few cases, especially in the United States. Riluzole is the only medication to be approved by the FDA that can slow the disease’s progression, and medications can be prescribed to provide relief from the symptoms of ALS.