Brain is an important organ of the body which controls the central nervous system (CNS) and virtually controls all the human activities. The brain is divided into three parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. The forebrain includes the several lobes of the cerebral cortex that control higher functions, while the mid and hindbrain are more involved with unconscious, autonomic functions. It is highly intricate and is responsible for the thoughts, actions, and senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing) that affect distinct sets of nerve cells and brain chemicals.

The UT Dallas Institute of Brain Research is dedicated towards understanding, protecting and healing this complex organ. The mission of the institute is to understand the brain’s ability to restore and protect healthy functioning, protecting the brain from unnecessary mental decline and healing the brain through treatments that regenerate the brain function. The institute has come up with a unique horizontal approach that establishes protocol for healthy brain function, diagnose and treat children and adults, focus across brain concerns in diseases and injury, provide long term follow up, facilitate discovery, expedite promising new treatments, and transfer application across diverse diseases or injuries.

UT Dallas intitute of Brain Health has a cherished board of directors which comprises of a leadership council and an advisory board. The leadership council includes Sallie and Frederic Asche, Jr.Claudia and Dennis Berman, Toni and Norman Brinker, Dianne Cash, Theresa and David Disiere, Patsy Donors, John Harbin, Matrice Ellis-Kirk, among others as its members.

ain't there also the left and right brain?? also from my biology class i learnt that theres neurons linking to the backbone/back to the muscles, does this involve the mid and hindbrain??

This post has been edited by nstay: Jun 10 2008, 04:33 PM

There is indeed a left and right brain. They say the left brain is in charge of more logical, mathematical thinking and language whereas the right brain is in charge of more creative aspects, and people-oriented ones. They are connected by the corpus callosum which allows information to travel from one hemisphere to the other. I just watched the BBC documentary "Brain Story" where they talked to a man who had this structure severed, so his right and left brain were completely separate from each other. It was interesting because he could draw different shapes with different hands simultaneously, and he would have difficulty naming things he saw that appeared on the left (because this info went to his right brain, which isn't in charge of language).

They also considered the idea of consciousness and whether or not it is specialized in one hemisphere of the brain, but since this man and others seemed to have the same sense of themselves that they had before their brains were split, it seems to be something that requires aspects of the whole brain. The whole documentary was very fascinating; I highly recommend it.

The brain is such an interesting organ...it is hard to imagine that this lump of tissue is responsible for who we are and for our entire lives!