Brain Function Worksheet

Instructions: Complete this worksheet and upload it to the assignment.

 Think of an activity you do on a regular basis (playing guitar, jogging, etc.)
 Next to ALL brain structures below, write down what its role is in doing that activity.
Example: My selected activity is jumping rope. Medulla: increases my heart, breathing, and blood pressure to their
maximum as I jump rope. Pons: contorts my facial expression when I miss the rope and almost trip. Cerebellum:
maintains my balance even when I miss the rope and allows me to coordinate my arms and legs to swing the rope
and jump when the rope swings down. Students should include information for EVERY structure listed below.

Enter the activity you will be describing here: Driving My Car

Brain Stem Structures

1. Medulla: Steady heartrate, breathing, and blood pressure as driving does not exert much
physical stress
2. Pons: I would have heightened arousal as I would need to be very aware while driving. My facial
expressions would also contort based on what is happening around me. If a car comes close to
me my face might drop or tense in fear. If I’m listening to a song I like I will probably be smiling
and relaxed in the face
3. Cerebellum: This would help with coordinating my arms, hands, and feet while driving. Moving
the steering wheel and pedals would only be possible by these movements
4. Midbrain: The midbrain would help with moving my eyeballs along the road. Making sure I am
assessing everything going on around me. It would then relay this information to the thalamus
to further process what is happening.
5. Reticular Formation: Would assists with awareness and keeping me awake by sensory stimuli, so
I do not fall asleep at the wheel
Subcortical Structures
1. Thalamus: Would help with relaying visual and auditory information to the cerebral cortex. The
thalamus would also aid with consciousness and avoid drowsiness
2. Basal Ganglia: This would help with selecting what actions to take and when. Like when I see a
red light it would trigger me stepping on the break pedal or turning left when I am listening to
navigation directions
3. Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus would work regularly with processing if I’m hungry or thirsty
and those would then motivate me to pull over and grab food from a restaurant of some sort.
This would also make it hard to focus on driving as it is distracting me from giving full attention
to what is going on around me.
4. Hippocampus: This would help with remembering body movements such as green means go,
red means stop. It would access navigation as well. Helping with arriving to a place such as
school, work, and my house.
5. Cingulate Cortex: The ACC would help with deciding a route to take on the road, when to stop,
when to go. The ACC plays a role in emotions, so it could cause stress if traffic sucks, or it cause a
sense of calm like driving at night. The PCC assists in visual processing, so it can assess what I am
seeing on the road such as the car ahead of me stopping, or an emergency vehicle trying to pass
through cars
 6. Amygdala: This would take sensory information such as seeing a car accident in front of me or
hearing cars honking behind me and produce emotional output for that. In the first situation I
would feel sad or shocked by what happened. In the second situation I could feel agitated or
anxious by the noise.
7. Nucleus Accumbens: Seeing a sunset while driving or listening to my favorite would trigger the
pleasure circuitry
Cerebral Cortex Structures
1. Frontal Lobe: This would coordinate motor functions such as my hands moving the steering
wheel, it would help with making decisions such as how fast I should be going, it would process
what my attention should be on and shift that when needed, the frontal lobe would also help
with emotional maturity on the road such as not taking any risks like jumping lanes constantly
2. Occipital Lobe: Would begin the process of interpreting input from my eyes like seeing a yellow
light and slowing down. It would be able to recognize what each light color means and then be
able to send that information to help with the motor function of what to do with my foot on the
pedal
3. Parietal Lobe: This would help me understand that my body is inside of the car, along with that it
would help me know where my hands and feet are and then that would lead to assessing what
they should be doing while driving
4. Temporal Lobe: This would help with recognizing objects such as different signs on the road, as
well as allowing me to process sounds like emergency vehicles and the honking of cars
5. Corpus Callosum: This would help with allowing the two cerebral hemispheres to communicate
which then nerve signals can pass through between both sides of the brain. This can help me
move my hands, arms, legs, and feet while driving and it allows me to use both sides to process
visual and sensory information. Due to the brain working by the left hemisphere controlling the
right side of my body and the right hemisphere controlling the left the corpus callosum allows
these two sides to work together. This then allows me full control over what I am doing,
including driving a car the correct way.