Is there a mnemomic or easy way to remember the parts of the brain/what they do?

[atomi]

How important is this?

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[BloodySurgeon]

I would add cerebellum and frontal lobe and then your good. The chances that this will come up is rare, but why not know it if it takes 10 seconds to look it up on wikipedia.

 

[RySerr21]

e.g., hypothalums, cerebrum, brain stem, etc. How important is this?

you would need to break up the brainstem into its three sections (midbrain, pons, medulla) since they all have very different functions. don't forget about the major lobes of the brain either. you dont need to know the nitty gritty details, just the general function of each.

for example, occipital lobe = vision, parietal = sensation, temporal = hearing/smell, frontal = motor movement and higher level reasoning. that will be more than enough to answer any question they'd ask you about it. you can do the same thing for the other parts of the brain. just make flashcards it shouldnt take that long to memorize.

one thing that always helped me remember cerebellum is that it controls equilibrium and balance......bellum...balance...bellum...ballance....bellum....balance. it rolls off the tongue well.

 

[Kaustikos]

Hypothalamus - endocrine (Just remember that and know the endocrine system)
Cerebellum - order (in terms of space/orientation kinda like the ears - also, if you remember Power Puff Girls, the mayors aid was Sara Bellum and she always made sure everything was fine while the mayor acted like a goofball)
Cerebral Cortex - if you're still asking this after studying, god help you

Medulla - breathing/heart rate - involuntaries
Pons - Relay between medulla and telencephalon (more on that below)as well as respiration (fun fact - you can actually cut certain segments of the brain stem off and as long as the medulla remains, respiration/heart rate still remains fully functional. This was how the pons/medulla's functions were solidified.)
Midbrain - relay
Thalamus - relay, sleep/wake, arousal
Diencephalon - thalamus/hypothalamus
Telencephalon - Cerebral Cortex

The MCAT doesn't really strive on killing you with the brain with functions of the brain (unless they're discretes), but focuses more on the physiology. I didn't have any mnemomic for these but just memorized them. sorry. It's not terribly difficult.

 

[atomi]

Hypothalamus - endocrine (Just remember that and know the endocrine system)
Cerebellum - order (in terms of space/orientation kinda like the ears - also, if you remember Power Puff Girls, the mayors aid was Sara Bellum and she always made sure everything was fine while the mayor acted like a goofball)
Cerebral Cortex - if you're still asking this after studying, god help you

Medulla - breathing/heart rate - involuntaries
Pons - Relay between medulla and telencephalon (more on that below)as well as respiration (fun fact - you can actually cut certain segments of the brain stem off and as long as the medulla remains, respiration/heart rate still remains fully functional. This was how the pons/medulla's functions were solidified.)
Midbrain - relay
Thalamus - relay, sleep/wake, arousal
Diencephalon - thalamus/hypothalamus
Telencephalon - Cerebral Cortex

The MCAT doesn't really strive on killing you with the brain with functions of the brain (unless they're discretes), but focuses more on the physiology. I didn't have any mnemomic for these but just memorized them. sorry. It's not terribly difficult.

Hah, I have no idea what the cerebral cortex is. I've been making 10-12s on BS pretty much just by interpreting the passages. I was always told not to bother memorizing too much.

edit: I just realized the cerebral cortex is the same thing as what i have been calling the cerebrum. Ok, I'm not that dumb!!

 

[Dhoot7]

So we don't really need to focus on the prosencephalon ddividingto form telencephalon and etc? The subdivisions of the embryonic brain are really getting me