The entire body and all its functions, voluntary and involuntary, are managed by a combination of the right and left hemispheres of the brain and the lobes housed in each. The left hemisphere is in charge of the right side of the body and conversely for the right hemisphere. By itself, each hemisphere has duties such as kinesthetic awareness and "seeing the big picture" from smaller pieces of information (right side) and using language and making a detailed analysis of information (left side). The hemispheres and lobes work together and separately to keep us alive (e.g., breathing functions) and engaged (e.g., problem solving) in our day-to-day lives.
The Frontal Lobes
The frontal lobes of the brain are tasked with housing our personality and emotional control skills. This is a busy section with functions and roles in a number of daily activities including motor functions, emotional responses, problem solving, memory, language, impulse control and social and sexual behaviors.
The Parietal Lobes
The parietal lobes of the brain contain two separate functional areas: one for sensation/perception and the other for integrating sensory input. The parietal lobes take sensory (taste, smell, sight, sound, touch) information and use it to form single cognitive ideas (perceptions) that organize the world around us. The parietal lobes also house areas specific to visual attention, touch perception and purposeful movements.
The Temporal Lobes
The temporal lobes of the brain function to help manage hearing abilities, memory and visual perceptions. The temporal lobes also help us to form and use categories by helping us find similarities between objects under our consideration.
The Occipital Lobes
These sections of the human brain act in concert as the center of our visual perception system. They are located in the rear of the brain, and their sole responsibility is vision.
The Cerebellum
The cerebellum's function is to manage our physical behaviors or motor skills. It is in charge of coordinating voluntary movements and managing balance and equilibrium. In addition, some memory for reflexive (involuntary) movements is also stored here.
The Brain Stem
This section of the brain manages attention, arousal and consciousness. This is an amazingly busy area in our brains because all sensory information traveling throughout the body and to and from the brain itself travels through this area. The brain stem is also in charge of several important functions many of us take for granted such as breathing, heart rate, swallowing, reflexive movements in response to sight and sound, perspiration, sleeping ability, vestibular (balance) function, blood pressure, digestion and alertness.
