Quick answers to common questions about the brain - with links to go deeper.
The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, made up of the left and right hemispheres and the four paired lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital). Of the individual lobes, the frontal lobe is the largest.
No single region "controls" memory alone, but the hippocampus is essential for forming new explicit memories, while long-term storage is distributed across the cerebral cortex. See our amnesia article for what happens when memory-related regions are damaged.
The amygdala is central to emotional processing, especially fear and threat response, but emotion more broadly involves a network including the frontal lobe (regulation) and hippocampus (emotional memory).
The left and right hemispheres show some specialisation - for most people, language is left-hemisphere dominant, for example - but they work together constantly via the corpus callosum, the thick band of fibres connecting them. The idea that people are strictly "left-brained" or "right-brained" is a popular myth; both hemispheres contribute to almost all complex tasks.
Effects vary by location and severity, but frontal lobe damage can affect personality, judgment, impulse control, and - if the motor cortex is involved - voluntary movement. The 1848 case of Phineas Gage, covered on our frontal lobe page, remains the most famous historical example.
Estimates put the human brain at roughly 86 billion neurons, connected by an estimated 100 trillion synapses. Surprisingly, more than half of those neurons are packed into the comparatively small cerebellum.
The brain is the physical organ - networks of neurons and supporting tissue. The "mind" typically refers to the subjective experience, thoughts, and consciousness that arise from the brain's activity. How physical brain activity gives rise to subjective experience remains one of the deepest open questions in neuroscience and philosophy.
To a degree, yes. Through neuroplasticity, the brain can form new connections and sometimes shift functions to undamaged areas after injury, which is the basis for much of rehabilitation therapy after stroke or traumatic brain injury. However, the brain's capacity for repair is limited compared to some other tissues, which is why prevention and prompt treatment (for example, in stroke) matter so much.
It varies enormously by condition - genetics, ageing, injury, infection, vascular problems, and environmental factors can all play a role, often in combination. Our Conditions section covers the current understanding of causes for specific conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and epilepsy.
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