Page 49 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

The Intelligent Mind • 33

stored in a centralized location in the left hemisphere, a
woman’s verbal abilities are more diffusely located on both
sides of the brain. This might explain why men have a
slightly more difficult time expressing their emotions. They
have to get the emotional information from the right hemi-
sphere across the primary bridge (corpus callosum) to their
verbal abilities in the left hemisphere, whereas women have
some verbal abilities already located on the same side as
13
their emotions. See Chapter 3, “Teach Your Brain Agility,”
for more details of gender differences.
Each hemisphere is further divided into lobes.
Each lobe has generalized functions. The frontal lobes
have the capability to plan for the future, control movement,
integrate emotional responses, and produce speech. The
parietal lobes receive and process information received from
the senses—such as pain, taste, and smell—and are involved
with logic and mathematical processes. The occipital lobes
handle vision. The temporal lobes hear and interpret lan-
guage, tones, sound patterns, and music; and participate in
emotion. The limbic lobe is responsible for sexual, emotional,
and memory processing (see Figure 2-7).
14
Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Baycrest
Center for Geriatric Care announced that the frontal lobes
are where humor is processed. People with a brain injury
to a frontal lobe don’t get punch lines. They prefer slapstick

Central sulcus Parietal lobe Central sulcus
Frontal lobe

Lateral fissure
Occipital Lobe
Figure 2-7 Side and central cross sectional views of the lobes