By Makena Wood, B.Sc. Neuroscience student

In educating about and sharing resources related to brain development, we often get questions about where a behaviour comes from in the brain or vice versa – “Which part of the brain is responsible for this behaviour, and how do I support it?” This blog will provide a basic understanding of the anatomy of a few relevant structures to behaviour. However, something important to understand about the brain is that no one structure is ever working alone. The brain has an endless number of connections between structures that are strengthened or silenced with experience and affect the way that behaviour is produced. It would be nearly impossible to attribute a behaviour to a single structure in the brain; therefore, while it is helpful to understand some basics about how the brain works, even the experts are far from having a complete understanding of why we behave the way we do.

Brain Structures

Here are the 10 most fundamental structures and areas of the brain that will help you understand how behaviour is produced by your brain:

1. The prefrontal cortex

2. The amygdala

3. The hippocampus

4. The cerebellum

5. The corpus callosum

6. The basal ganglia

7. The thalamus

8. The parietal lobe

9. The occipital lobe

10. The temporal lobe

I will discuss each of these structures and areas briefly by outlining where they are found in the brain and the role they play in producing behaviour.

The prefrontal cortex

Of the 10 structures I’ll cover in this blog, hopefully the prefrontal cortex rings a bell. When BBT is at events or in the community educating about play and executive function, we will typically try to reference the prefrontal cortex while explaining the benefits of play for the brain. This is because the prefrontal cortex is largely what we are targeting through playful activity. If you’re familiar with BBT, or if you’ve had the chance to explore any of our other blogs or free online courses, then you know that play helps strengthen executive function. Executive function is the umbrella term for other skills like working memory, behavioral inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. These skills are essential for success in school, and lifelong social abilities like emotional regulation, attention, and impulse control. These skills and many more are found in the prefrontal cortex; the very frontmost part of your brain that begins to develop through early childhood but doesn’t finish until the ages of 25-30

**[image via]** **https://www.brainfacts.org/3d-brain**

The amygdala

The amygdala is the part of the brain that is largely responsible for emotional regulation and learning, especially having to do with fear, and the stress response. It is located in your temporal lobe (which is the side of your head) and is closely connected with the hippocampus (a structure we’ll discuss later). Because of this, it is believed that the amygdala plays a significant role in encoding (“saving” or “recording”) the emotional component of memories. For example, if you recall a memory from childhood where you were playing at the park, other parts of your brain were responsible for remembering who you were at the park with, the weather that day, and the colour of the slide, whereas the amygdala paid attention to the fact that you were feeling happy or playful. As we know, an important benefit of play is the development of emotional regulation and stress reduction; while emotional regulation was also discussed in relation to the prefrontal cortex, play likely also serves to support the amygdala’s ability to appropriately evaluate emotional situations and generate proportional stress responses given that it is an emotional center in the brain.

The hippocampus

The hippocampus is your memory center. The hippocampus and the amygdala together are part of a larger network of brain structures collectively known as the limbic system. The limbic system is a theoretical emotional network in the brain, so it makes sense that structures like the amygdala (fear, stress, emotion) and the hippocampus (memory) would be integral to the limbic system. The hippocampus is mainly responsible for long-term memory and spatial memory. A fun fact often taught in introductory neuroscience courses is that London taxi drivers have larger hippocampi compared to the average person due to their need to remember the numerous and complex taxi routes of the large city of London. The hippocampus, like many other structures in the brain, has a reciprocal relationship to play. Play helps strengthen the hippocampus by providing opportunities to learn new information and navigate new environment, and the hippocampus provides the foundation needed to encode information about play, like remembering the rules to your favourite games, understanding the social context in which you’re playing, and using positive memories associated with play to regulate emotions when it may become challenging.

The cerebellum

The cerebellum is the large “cauliflower” shaped part of your brain at the back of your head. The cerebellum is what helps you coordinate movement, like catching and throwing a ball. It also contributes to a type of learning called motor learning. The cerebellum corrects mistakes made during movement; for example, the slight adjustments in the path of your throw as you throw a ball at a target and try to hit the center are thanks to your cerebellum. Games that involve physical activity are crucial for strengthening cerebellar activity, and physical play would not be possible without the work of the cerebellum.

The corpus callosum

The corpus callosum is the bridge between the two halves of your brain. Your brain is split into right and left hemispheres which need to be able to communicate with each other; the corpus callosum is how they communicate. An important feature of the brain is that many functions are lateralized, meaning that they are only found in the right or the left side of the brain. For example, language is usually processed in the left side of the brain of right-handed individuals. This makes it especially important for the two halves of your brain to communicate so that they know what the other half is doing. Lateralization of function is likely what originated one of the most famous myths in science: left-brained vs. right-brained people, or the idea that someone “mainly” uses either the left or right side of their brain. The corpus callosum shows us that both sides of the brain must necessarily communicate with each other, and there isn’t a dominance of one side over the other.

The basal ganglia

The basal ganglia are a network of brain structures that are responsible for voluntary movements and habit formation. A voluntary movement is any movement that you must think about or that you have to put effort into. Habits are created in the brain through repeatedly firing the same circuits, usually in connection with an experience (like playing) or the response to that experience (feeling happy, or a sense of reward after winning a game); these circuits are found in the basal ganglia. Play is important for developing healthy habit formation and practicing voluntary movement. The basal ganglia support the motivated behaviour behind engaging in play and other social behaviours.

The thalamus

The thalamus is the relay center of your brain. That is, as information comes into your brain from your sensory systems (i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and movement), your thalamus is usually the first structure to receive this information and decide where to send it. Because it coordinates much of the activity in the rest of the brain, it makes sense that the thalamus is located in the middle of the brain. Play involving many sensory systems will not only stimulate each of those systems but will enhance thalamic function and sensory processing.

The parietal lobe

The last three structures to be covered are each responsible for one of our three main senses as humans: touch, sight, and hearing. First, the parietal lobe is found on top of your head and is responsible for the integration of sensory information related to touch (otherwise known as ‘somatosensation’). It also contributes to our spatial awareness by integrating information related to where our body is in space (e.g., if your arms are above your head, if you’re close to another object, or if you’re upright). A well-connected parietal lobe can enhance the sensory experience of play and contribute to better spatial reasoning; likewise, games that focus on these skills will support parietal lobe development.

The occipital lobe

The second of the sensory lobes is the occipital lobe, found on the back of your head, which is responsible for visual processing. The occipital lobe helps us determine many of the features of what we’re seeing, such as colour, shape, depth, fine detail, and movement. Your occipital lobe is always working on something in your visual field, and is especially strengthened by activities involving complex visual patterns like puzzles.

The temporal lobe

Lastly, the temporal lobe is responsible for your auditory processing, otherwise known as hearing. Found on either side of your head (above your ears), the structures in the temporal lobe make sense of sound information and relate it to language to create understanding. Language production, a different function in the brain from language comprehension, is found in the frontal lobe in an area known as Broca’s area. Aside from hearing and language comprehension, the temporal lobe is also associated with memory, because it houses the hippocampus (discussed above), as well as with musical abilities. Play is usually a social activity which involves using both memory and language, so strong temporal lobe function is important to facilitate play, but can also be achieved through games involving conversation, song or music, and memory.

If you are interested in further exploring or understanding neuroanatomy and how the brain works to produce behaviour, www.brainfacts.org is an excellent website for introductory neuroscience and includes an interactive 3D interface that you can use to explore the brain.

References

https://www.brainfacts.org/3d-brain

Introduction to Brain Anatomy

Building Brains Together

Introduction to Brain Anatomy

Animal Relationships and Social Health

Building Brains Together