---
title: "The Brain: Regions and the Evidence for What They Do"
description: "The brain is not one organ doing one job, and the map of which region does what was built from damage, stimulation and scanning rather than from looking. Knowing how that evidence was gathered is what"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-brain-regions-and-the-evidence-for-what-they-do-mt_BA_DGCDic8
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-brain-regions-and-the-evidence-for-what-they-do-mt_BA_DGCDic8.md
retrieved: 2026-09-12
---

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# The Brain: Regions and the Evidence for What They Do

The brain is not one organ doing one job, and the map of which region does what was built from damage, stimulation and scanning rather than from looking. Knowing how that evidence was gathered is what stops the map from being a set of labels to memorise.

Subject: Science · Area: The Human Body · Ages 15 to 16
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-brain-regions-and-the-evidence-for-what-they-do-mt_BA_DGCDic8

## Ready when they can

- Name the major regions of the brain and state one function each is responsible for
- Explain what a case of localised damage can and cannot show about a region's job
- Say why treating the brain surgically is difficult, in terms of its structure rather than its importance

## Lesson: How we mapped the working brain

Your cerebrum handles thought and memory. Your cerebellum tunes balance and movement. Your brainstem runs breathing and heartbeat. The frontal lobe plans, the temporal lobe serves hearing and memory, the occipital lobe serves vision, and the parietal lobe tracks touch and space.

Much of this map came from local damage. When one patch is hurt and one skill fades, that patch matters for the skill. But one case cannot show the patch works alone, exactly what it computes, or that every brain matches.

**Example.** After a stroke at the back of the brain, a patient may lose part of sight yet still hear and plan well. You may link the hurt patch to vision. You may not claim vision lives only there.

**Tip.** Surgery on the brain is hard because of its build. It is soft and tightly packed, vital paths cross it, and the skull leaves no spare room. Surgeons map speech and movement first and cut as little as they can.

**Recap.** Regions split the work, damage hints at each job, and the tight packed build makes surgery hard.

## Practice

8 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [The Reflex Arc and Synapses](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-reflex-arc-and-synapses-mt_evlgCVxTnK)
- [Neurons & Brain Structure](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/neurons-and-brain-structure-mt_okUMpHsV-P)

## Opens up

- [Regional Anatomy of the Central Nervous System](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/regional-anatomy-of-the-central-nervous-system-mt_S9f5cUS8NZ)