Cerebrum Function: What is and How is Tested

Many people do not understand about cerebrum function, but without this function that is proper a person can have serious life issues. One very important question people ask is: What are the functions of the cerebrum? Read on the following information.

The Cerebrum

Cerebrum, also known as telencephalon along with diencephalon is what organizes the forebrain. It is like the center of an organization that controls the functions of every department. The cerebrum function as the coordinator of the body responsible for directing the senses like hearing, vision, balance, smell, and taste. As the one controlling all the actions in vertebrates, the cerebrum contains billions of neurons connected to other neurons signalling the body to create actions.

The cerebrum is composed of two parts, which are called the right and the left hemispheres and are joined by the corpus callosum. Each hemisphere in the brain cerebrum is then divided into 4 lobes, which are responsible in controlling some of the functions in your body. The anatomy of the cerebrum can be complicated to understand, but such anatomy is needed as the said part of the brain is responsible for a wide array of functions.

Just like the anatomy of the brain cerebrum, understanding the brain cerebrum function can be hard. But the brain cerebrum is doing nine functions at a given time. They include determining intelligence, which is undertaken by the frontal lobe of the cerebrum, and sensation that id done by the parietal lobe.

Another part of the cerebrum is the temporal lobe where the auditory processing and olfaction happen as well as the understanding and learning of some word meaning. The occipital lobe is also a part of the brain cerebrum and is responsible for maintaining the vision of an individual. Other functions of the cerebrum include controlling one’s motor skills and the maintenance of the sensory functions in the whole body.

Cerebrum Function

The cerebrum functions as the administrator for the decisions made by the body. The functions starts from the primary motor cortex as well as other area of the frontal lobe motor wherein actions are being planned. Aside from actions or movement, sensory processing is another cerebrum function. The cerebral cortex’s main sensory areas receive and process the information for auditory, visual, glustatory, olfactory and somatosensory. The relationship between the cortical areas, these regions of the brain makes the sensory information through the environment.

The cerebrum’s anterior portion in most vertebrates is called olfactory bulb. In humans however, this bulb is smaller and located below the frontal lobe. If this bulb gets damaged the sense of smell will be affected. Another function that the cerebrum processed is the language and communication. The language and the speech process of vertebrates especially for humans are associated within the frontal lobe and temporal-parietal lobe specifically the Broca’s and Wernicke’s area. Damage to Broca’s and Wernicke’s area may result to expressive aphasia and receptive aphasia respectively.

Another important function of cerebrum concerns about memory and learning. The medial temporal lobe is the region associated to this function along with hippocampus. Damage or removal of hippocampus will eventually lead to amnesia which also prevents a person to form or have new memories.

Every part of the cerebrum in the brain diagram plays an important function. While people are still confused about the brain functions, they significantly made every possible brain diagram to illustrate how the center of the nervous system affects all body functions.  All of the body functions are associated with the cerebrum which is composed of the three sub-regions including cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and the limbic system. According to all brain diagrams the cerebrum lies on the top or in front of the brainstem which is the largest among the five main divisions of human’s brain.

How is Cerebrum Function Tested?

As you may already be aware, cerebrum function covers the level of a person’s judgment, perception, thought, imagination, and decision capacity. However, this does not mean that a person is limited in this area for the rest of their lives if they are found to be lacking in any one of them. The first step in improving cerebrum function is to test for the current level of cerebrum function. There are a lot of ways that they can be done, but the testing has to be performed by a medical professional.
Cerebrum Function Test

Because of the things that the cerebrum is in charge of, it may seem that testing for cerebrum function should be done in a psychologist’s office. However, the best testing for cerebrum function has to deal with more than just how a person responds vocally to a group of questions and must also include a measurement of their brain waves.

There are a lot of tools that medical professionals use to measure brainwaves. What happens when measuring cerebrum function is that a person is hooked up to a machine that can measure their brain waves and then they are asked a wide variety of questions. With cerebrum function testing these questions will be related to imagination, judgment, perceptions, and the like. The questions used to measure cerebrum function will be loaded to cause a response in this area of the brain. When a person goes to use their brain is response to these questions their brainwaves will show up on a screen where they are depicted in strength by colors or intensity of light. If the functionality is extremely strong in a particular area then the screen will show that related color of light intensity on the screen.

There is also a paper measurement that gets printed out. If gives a numerical measurement of cerebrum function and appears much like the stream of squiggly lines that get printed out during an EKG. Doctors and scientists use all of this data to describe the level of cerebrum function in an individual. It is from this point that they can determine rather or not the cerebrum function of a patient is low or high or somewhere in between.

Those with extremely high cerebrum function as well as those whose cerebrum function is very low may be subject to further testing to discover the cause to the issue. Doctors and scientists alike are both concerned about low and very high levels of cerebrum function, as both can prove to be indicators of an additional health issue.

However, not every person whose cerebrum function is high is such because of a problem there are some people who just happen to run with a higher cerebrum function and there are those who have a lower cerebrum function without cause. The brain, like any muscle in the body strengthens with exercise and weakens at the lack thereof. Those with low levels of cerebrum function may find that thy can increase their cerebrum function with a little regular mental exercise.

What Does Poor Cerebrum Function Indicate?

When a parent is told that their child has low cerebrum functioning it can be the most horrible moment in their lives. There are a lot of conditions under which a person can have cerebrum functioning issues and many of them are an indicator that there is going to be a whole lot of trouble in their lives. This is because all of the body is driven by the brain and poor cerebrum functioning can mean improper function in in other areas of the body. Here are a few conditions in which the cerebrum does not function properly.
Cerebrum Function

It is unfortunately all too common for a person to be born with birth defects that affect there cerebrum functioning. There are the students that have to take special classes and have server learning difficulties. There are many people that do not have the best cerebrum function that they could but can still live an ordinary life. It all depends on just how bad the cerebrum function is as well as how diligent the people in their lives are to help them improve the situation.

There are many disease that also cause poor cerebrum functioning and leads to a lot of other negative effects. Children with autism have problems with their cerebrum functioning. Some of them are very low-functioning and some of them are high-functioning. The origin of autism is in the brain and is greatly related to cerebrum functioning.

There is also cerebral palsy which is a life threatening condition and is both a result of and affects directly the cerebrum function. Those with cerebral palsy can be subject to seizures which cause further brain damage, lowering the level of cerebrum function. Cerebral palsy is a very serious condition from which far too many people suffer. Most people with cerebral palsy are completely unable to live a normal live and surfer from a shorted life span.

Accidents can also cause problems with cerebrum function. There are a lot of people who suffered horrible accidents either at work or at home and it resulted in a significant loss of cerebrum function. There are some people whose damage to their cerebrum function was so severe that they could not function at all any longer, but passed away.

There are also many disease that are not originated in a problem with cerebrum function, but cause problems with cerebrum function. Cancer is one of the most well-known offenders. Brain cancer can cause serious damage to the body and eradicate cerebrum function. Those who are unable to gain control of the cancer can eventually lose their lives from lack of cerebrum function.

Having good cerebrum function is something to be appreciated every day because there are so many people who suffer from a lack of proper cerebrum function. If you are a person with good cerebrum function, you should give thanks every day and work to protect and improve the level of cerebrum function that you now enjoy. It is possible to train to improve your cerebrum function with a healthy diet and mental exercises.