ABSTRACT
The human brain is the only one of our organs that could not conceivably be given to another person. It is special because of the way in which it changes from birth to childhood to adult life. The functions of the brain include: sensory perception; movement and motor control; autonomic control; and the 'higher' functions of thinking and feeling. The human brain or mind is different from the computer brain because it is linked to a body through which a person experiences the world. There are particular areas of the brain whose integrity is essential for certain aspects of psychological functioning. The pattern of arousal associated with each emotion is different, although there is a good deal of overlap between, for example, pleasurable excitement and fear. Verbal memory depends on the effective functioning of the prefrontal cortex, which is not biologically mature enough to verbally represent experience until the end of the second postnatal year.
