What does the Brain do?

Different parts of the brain receive and understand different messages from
different parts of your body. The Brain is divided into two halves called Hemispheres.
The Right Hemisphere works the left side of the body and the Left Hemisphere works
the right side of the body. These two Hemispheres are joined together by a thick 
grouping of more than 200 million nerve fibres called the Corpus Callosum (The
Corpus Callosum is also called the "white matter" of your brain). These nerve fibres
let messages pass from one side of the brain to the other.

 child looking through a magnifying glass

Each Hemisphere of your brain has parts called Lobes. Each Lobe has different jobs that it does. The part of the Brain that makes our body parts move is called The Motor Cortex. It is found towards the back of the Frontal Lobe which is located at the front of your head. Different parts of the Motor Cortex of your Frontal Lobe move different parts of your body. Researchers have been able to map exactly which part of your brain moves each part of your body. They created a picture or a "Motor Map" of this which is called The Motor Cortex Homunculus to show us which part of our brain in the Motor Cortex is responsible for moving each part of our body.


Researchers also discovered that there is another part of our brain that is next to the Motor Cortex that helps us feel things like touch, hot, cold and pain in different parts of our body. This area of the brain is called the Sensory Cortex and it is found in the Parietal Lobe. The Parietal Lobe is located beside and behind the Frontal Lobe (in about the middle of your head). The sensory cortex was also made into a map. This map showing us which part of our brain helps us to feel which part of our body and is called The Somatosensory Homunculus


Other parts of the Brain do different things too, like help us to speak, understand, think, see and hear. The brain has a place for everything that we do, think and say. This is why you can have specific problems doing different things or can act differently if your Brain is injured in a specific place after an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). It is also why every brain injury or ABI is different.


Go to the ABIOS website Brain Map for more information about the what the Brain does.



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Contact ABIOS
abios@health.qld.gov.au

Last updated: 12 July 2022