Okay, so let's dive into the hindbrain in more detail. Like we talked about, the hindbrain is going to be controlling some of the most evolutionarily basic functions of life. So, things like respiration, alertness, basic motor skills, etc. In addition to that, the hindbrain is also going to be collecting sensory signals from the body and sending motor signals from the brain. Because of its location, as you can kind of see in our image, a lot of hindbrain structures are basically located in the brainstem so they are continuous with the spinal cord and it's going to act as a bit of a bridge between the spinal cord and the forebrain.
Anytime we have sensory signals coming up from the spinal cord it'll go through the hindbrain and then get sent to the forebrain and anytime we have motor commands coming from the forebrain they'll go down through the hindbrain to the spinal cord, acting as a bit of a bridge between the spinal cord and forebrain. Now, there are 4 major structures of the hindbrain. If we are thinking about the most evolutionarily basic functions, what do we have to do? Well, we have to be awake and sleep. Right?
Pretty simple stuff. And a lot of that gets handled by a structure called the pons, which you can see here in yellow. As you can see, it's one of the higher hindbrain structures. The pons is going to be doing a lot for our sleep-wake cycle and in particular, it's going to be handling a lot of the sleep side of things. Things like helping you go through the stages of sleep as well as helping you enter REM sleep which is the part where you actually dream.
The pons is helping us sleep and it also, so pons means bridge in Latin and it was named that because it kind of bridges the hindbrain and the forebrain. Because it's the highest structure in the hindbrain anytime we have signals coming down from the forebrain they'll often enter the pons and then get routed to wherever they need to go and vice versa. So if we have signals coming from other parts of the hindbrain they'll get sent through the pons as they move up to the forebrain. So it's acting as a bridge between the hindbrain and forebrain. Alright, we have our pons, it's helping us sleep and stay awake, that's really great.
What else do we have to do if we're thinking evolutionarily basic stuff? Well, breathing might be nice. Right? And a lot of that is going to get handled by a structure called our medulla, which is depicted here in purple. The medulla controls all types of autonomic functions, like breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, all that good stuff, and it also is going to handle some very basic reflexes.
So things like coughing and sneezing. Now the pons and the medulla actually have a little helper in the form of the reticular formation. The reticular formation is depicted here in green and, as you can see, it kind of snakes its way up through the brainstem right through the medulla and the pons. I always think of a reticulated python to help me remember the shape of the reticular formation. Because it moves right through the medulla and the pons it's going to be performing many overlapping functions with them.
The reticular formation is important for autonomic functions, very similar to the medulla, things like respiration and heart rate, and it's also going to be important for maintaining consciousness and it plays a role in that sleep-wake cycle. An important thing to note here is that the reticular formation, kind of opposite of the pons, is going to play a bigger role in the wake side of things. So, maintaining consciousness, alertness, and arousal are going to be handled more by the reticular formation while the pons handle more of the sleep side of things. Alright, we're awake, we can sleep, we can breathe, all that good stuff.
What's another basic function of life? Well, movement. Right? Movement would be nice, and a lot of movement is going to get handled by a structure called the cerebellum, which is located here in blue. Cerebellum actually means little brain in Latin and it literally looks like a tiny little brain tucked up underneath your brain in the back.
It's very cool. Now we're going to talk about quite a few different structures in the brain that are important for movement but the unique thing about the cerebellum is that it is really essential for elements of movement like coordination, also very important for balance, as well as the timing of precise movements. So again, we'll talk about quite a few structures that help with movement. Movement is very complicated, but when you think about the cerebellum I want you to really focus in on the idea of coordination and precision of movement. That's really what's getting handled uniquely more by the cerebellum.
Alright, so I know that that was a lot to keep track of and it's okay if you haven't memorized it all yet. We're actually going to have a really nice summary sheet for you coming up at the end of our unit when we finish talking about brain structures. So we'll have all of these brain regions listed there with some nice little memory tools to help you keep track of them. Alright, I will see you guys in the next video. Bye bye.