Event-related EEGM

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Cortex and white matter

Brainstem and subcortex

PLATE 1 A first approach to the anatomy of the brain. A. Always keep in mind how thebrain is situated in the human head. It’s the first step in appreciating the spatial layout of thecortex, which is filled with some 85% white matter, the shielded ‘highways’ that link allthe major regions to each other. Bottom right: The cortex is mounted on the brainstem andsubcortex, which flows up from the spinal cord. The event-related EEG is a reminder thatthe young lady in A has a constant, dynamic flow of massive signal traffic flowingthrough her brain, which we can pick up with surface EEG.

Horizontal section

Sagittal section Coronal section

Corpus callosum

PLATE 2 Use the human head (upper left) to stay oriented. We can see the corpuscallosum from the left side. The brain has three major planes of section to keep in mind.

Left lateral view

Vision

Hearing and Wernike’s area (speech input)

Body senses and multisensory

Motor control

Executive and Broca’s area (speech output)

Olfaction

Medial view

PLATE 3 The specialized regions of the cortex, the huge covering of the brain. Cortex isa flat sheet that is folded into the upper cranium. Notice the colored regions – the majorfunctions of the cortex. It is the cortex that is believed to support the specific contents ofconscious experiences. Its posterior half is sensory, its front half is motor and ‘futuredirected’ – cognition, working memory, planning, decision-making.

Front= anterior= rostral

Up= dorsal= superior Peripheral nervous

system (PNS)Central nervoussystem (CNS)

Brain

SpinalcordSpinal

nerve

Cranialnerve

= ventral= inferior

Side= lateral

Middle= medial

Top view

Back= posterior= caudal

PLATE 4 Neurons pervade the body, and the spinal cord is a great highway channelbetween the brain and the rest of the body. Left, we see the brain from a left medialperspective. Notice the canonical directions, which are like North, South, East and Westin geography. The simplest terms are given on top (Up, Down, etc.). But anatomistsalways use the Latin-based words. Use this figure for reference if you need to understanda brain figure in the book.

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Hippocampus and amygdala in both medial temporal lobes

Coronal section

Medial temporal lobes(in yellow and green)Bottom view

Cingulatecortex

InsulaInsula

Temporallobe

Temporallobe

Parahippocampal gyrus

Fusiform gyrus

PLATE 5 Again, begin with the human head, and notice how the two hippocampi arenestled insideof eachof the two temporal lobes.Avertical slice fromear to ear (coronal) onlyshows the hippocampi as small circular disks (red). On the bottom, if you imagine craningthe head backward, you can visualize the location of themedial temporal lobe (MTL)whichcontains the two hippocampi. Those structures are crucial for emotion, vision, andmemory.

White matter tracts connect all parts of the centralnervous system – shown in artificial colors

PLATE 6 Upper Left: The white matter tracts emerge in a great ‘fountain’ of fiber tractsfrom the thalamus. Other fiber tracts run in all the major directions. Below and to the rightare tractographs, specialized MRI scans that show the massive highways between all majorparts of the brain. Almost all are bi-directional. Source: Upper left, Izhikevich&Edelman, 2008;

right side: Hofer & Frahm, 2006.

Schematic illustration of themedial prefrontal – brainstem ‘axis’

Autonomic regulation

Autonomic brainstem activityEndocrine and immune regulation

Gianaros, Fig. 3: Stressor-evoked activity correlated withblood pressure reactivity(meta-analysis)

Wager, part I, Fig. 5, andPart II, Fig. 3: Socialthreat responses mediateheart rate increases

Urry, Fig. 3: increases duringemotion regulation correlatedwith autonomic indicators ofcognitive demand

King, Fig. 4: Traumascript related activitycorrelated with ACTHresponse

Eisenberger, Fig. 2:Activity during socialexclusion correlatedwith endotoxin-induced IL-6

O’Connor, Fig. 1:Activity to grief-evoking wordscorroelated with IL-1βincreases

Ohira, Fig. 3: Stress-related correlates ofplasma NK cellincreases

Cechetto, Fig. 5:Valsalva

Wager, Part II, Fig. 5:Social threat

PAGPB

NTS

PAG

PLATE 7 The body and brain are highly interconnected. Upper left, we see how themedial view of the brain (facing right) is well-connected with endocrine system(hormonal) and immune regulation, and with autonomic regulation (heart, lungs,stomach, intestines, and blood vessels). Humans have no voluntary control over thesefunctions, unlike our external muscles of the body and head. Source: Lane &Wager, 2009.

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H3C

H3C

PLATE 8 Awider perspective. On the upper left, we see a person looking at a rotatingvisual disk, which triggers widespread brain activity, beginning in area V1 (dark blue).V1 is as big as a credit card, but it is folded inside the occipital lobe. Below, we see acomparison to a fruit fly brain, which has perhaps 100,000 neurons. A single neuron isshown to the right, followed by a single organic molecule, an amino acid (becauseof the amine fraction (NH), and a carboxyl fraction (COOH). All the vertices inthe diagram stand for carbon atoms. R refers to a side chain, which could be quitevariable. All levels of analysis, from molecules to gross anatomy, are vitally important.All proteins and many neurotransmitters involve amino acids.