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The brain

Your brain is amazing! It helps you walk, talk, breathe, eat, hear, learn, play, smile, feel, think, dream and remember things.

An illustrated brain showing various regions highlighted in colour

We all have a brain inside our head. We need it to do every single thing, every minute of the day and even when we are asleep!

Neurons

Inside your brain there are millions of tiny cells that are way too small to see. These cells are called neurons. Neurons are very special because they can send messages to other cells in the brain and the rest of the body.

Lobes

The brain has different parts called lobes. Each lobe takes charge of different tasks. Here’s some more about lobes:

There are other parts of the brain that are not lobes, such as the limbic region and the hippocampus:

Illustration of the brain showing a small area in the middle highlighted in red

Deep in the centre of our brain, the limbic region is in charge when we feel sad or happy, calm or scared.

It makes us want to do things and NOT want to!

It’s also important for our memory and it’s where we find the hippocampus. The hippocampus is only small but it has a very big job! Its name comes from the Latin word for seahorse, because it has a seahorse shape (sort of…). It looks after our new memories, like the facts you have just read about brain parts.

Watch the short clip below to see how the different brain parts fit together inside our head:

The brain in 3D

Lobes working together

So, now you know that inside the brain we have lobes which are in charge of different things. But there’s something else, too! Each lobe needs every other lobe to do its job. Every minute of every day, our neurons are busy carrying messages between the different parts of the brain. All the parts of our brain are working together so we can do the things we do. Thanks brain! Thanks lobes! Thanks neurons!

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Last updated
23 November 2023