Brain Activity in Various Situations 1. Anne, the landscape artist, is standing at her easel painting

2. Crazy Eddie, the professional wrestler, is in the ring wrestling. The crowd is yelling and his opponent is taunting him. Eddie yells back at his opponent. The two of them are out of breath and sweating profusely. They continue their well-orchestrated series of wrestling moves.

• Eddie’s medulla is hard at work keeping his heart-rate up to pump blood to all the muscles he is using and controlling his breathing as well.
• The hypothalamus is also contributing to the situation in that is controlling the release of hormones and blood chemistry, possibly making him feel more aggressive.
• Eddie’s motor cortex is very busy sending out messages to make certain voluntary movements so he can out-maneuver his opponent.
• The visual cortex is helping Eddie maintain his distance from his opponent as he looks for weakness and a chance to strike.
• Both Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas are at work comprehending his opponent’s vocal taunts and moving muscles to yell back in response.

3. Jill is a law student studying for her exam. She is reading about violent rape and murder cases. She is snacking on popcorn and drinking coffee.

• Jill’s corpus collosum is important in this case as it helps information cross from one side of the hemisphere to the other is need be.
• The visual cortex is important here as she is reading her textbook.
• Jill’s hypothalamus is also used here in directing her maintenance activities- eating in this case.
• The same hypothalamus might contribute to an emotional or hormonal response to the text that Jill is reading about violent rape and murder.