Arieh Smith
Mrs. MacAleer
Period 9
12/11/06
A Cranial Journey
We begin the brain with four lobes respective in size,
The occipital lobe receives signals from thine eyes.
The temporal lobe process auditory signals indeed,
While the frontal lobe facilitates prudent judgment (unlike weed).
Within the frontal lobe, a sensory and motor cortex have we,
The former receives senses while the latter moves your body; what else can you see?
Within the lobe too are Brocas and Wernickes area,
They help to process and produce language; without them youd be in hysteria!
The two hemispheres of the brain are of equal dimension,
The right dominates in art and the left in language; class, pay attention!
We then descend towards the hindbrain, oldest of them all,
In which lies the blood pressure and heart rate controlling medulla, long and quite tall.
The reticular formation is involved in arousal and facial expression,
And the cerebellum coordinates muscle movement and balance; have a question?
We arise toward the midbrain, lonely and alone,
It connects muscle movements with senses; lets proceed to another zone.
That theres the pituitary gland; it releases hormones,
The corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres take off those headphones!
The limbic system which deals with emotion and memory has just appeared!
The amygdala process fear and aggression, and no, thats not weird.
Theyre near the hippocampus; memory indeed it encodes and stores,
The adjacent thalamus receives sensory input; it too is yours!
Here is the forebrain, essential to reason,
Theres the hypothalamus, coordinating the endocrine system and emotional season.
The cerebrum is involved in complex thought processes, this is quite true,
It is incredibly important, and without it youd be blue!
Examining the surface of the brain, we witness a gyrus;
It is a hill of small proportion are you writing this on your papyrus?
We also see the sulci, which are rather little valleys,
They increase the surface area of the brain, unlike dirty back alleys.
We have thus come to the end of our journey; are you kids happy?
I really hope you didnt think this poem was sappy.
Anyway, thats it, its over, please dont rebel,
I thank you for reading the poem, and I bid you farewell!