Neuroanatomy
Brain
How to spot it. The organ filling the cranial cavity, with the folded cerebral hemispheres above and the brainstem and cerebellum below and behind.
What it does. Receives and interprets sensation, initiates movement, and regulates breathing, circulation and many other automatic processes.
Where it sits. Continuous below with the spinal cord; wrapped in the meninges and floating in cerebrospinal fluid.
NEET points
Class 11 · Unit V · Human Physiology · Neural Control and Coordination
- Three divisions: forebrain — cerebrum, thalamus and hypothalamus; midbrain; hindbrain — pons, cerebellum and medulla.
- The corpus callosum joins the two cerebral hemispheres. The cortex is grey matter, the fibre tracts beneath it are white matter.
- The hypothalamus controls hunger, thirst and body temperature and secretes the releasing hormones that govern the pituitary.
- The medulla oblongata contains the respiratory, cardiovascular and gastric secretion centres — the centres you cannot survive the loss of.
- The limbic system, with the amygdala and hippocampus, governs emotion, motivation and sexual behaviour.
Chapter numbering moved when NCERT rationalised its books in 2023 and the NTA has revised the NEET syllabus since, so this maps by unit and title. It is a study aid, not a syllabus.