While memory, language and problem solving each give us advantages, being a group species our emotional intelligence is also well developed. Any of these functions could be championed but it is likely that the question needs to be answered as to of how we have survived in terms of competition to other species. However, the answer might be slightly different when considering competition between humans?

Yes, this is a question that requires the knowledge of pruning. But does it depend on how different the world will be in 200 years' time. Also, the baby will go through a period of vulnerability unless cared for.

Just remember the nature of the brain cell and its dark nucleus versus the white myelin sheaf of the axon. The cortex is most obviously made up from grey matter but think of examples of other areas of grey matter that might exist sub-cortically.

Brodmann's mapping of the brain areas relates to the proportion of cell types that demarcate the various levels.

With this question you would need to consider that the levels of the cortex are interconnected and also some levels are largely efferent (projecting out to other brain areas) and other levels are mainly afferent (projecting inwards). Also, the proliferation of certain cell types often provides a clue to the functional role of the brain area.

The demarcation of different areas is a subjective judgement, but Brodmann's areas remarkably often coincide with differential functional roles. Do you think that this might be partly because by default we have been guided in our neuropsychological research by these areas or is this mainly because when cell types change within the cortex the area has a different functional role?

I don't think there is a need to help here but consideration might be given to slight differences that might exist between sensory and motor areas. They are often slight — why is this?

This is a question that demands a knowledge of the four main arteries and the functions of the brain areas they irrigate. The question may be answered in terms of the middle cerebral artery, the anterior cerebral artery, the posterior cerebral artery and the basilar artery. An answer could be given in terms of memory, language and executive dysfunction, life preserving functions and functions relating to arousal and alertness. Also a distinction may be made in terms of types of movement disorders expected.

At the most extreme it is division between those holistic theorists who propose that behaviours and cognition are represented by patterns of electrical activity throughout the brain and those who believe that different brain areas have a distinct and separate functional role.

Hughlings Jackson referred to levels of brain organisation — some levels that were least sophisticated and phylogenically older areas and others that were more refined and newly evolved. The question could be answered in terms of what might happen to a behaviour or cognition if one of these levels were damaged. Jackson, who is considered the father of English neurology, contributed to writings on epilepsy in the mid-nineteenth century and proposed that the higher levels inhibited the lower levels. For example, alcohol is seen as inhibiting the cortex and producing disinhibited behaviour or behaviour that shows diminished control.

This can be done in a straightforward way by reading and understanding the text and thinking what he has not described. Luria is considered by some as the grandfather of modern neuropsychology but he obviously did not have the benefit of modern research techniques and the results of modern neuropsychology. The overall idea that there is an interaction between specialist areas to achieve a function is still accepted today and has been supported by modern studies that have looked at active connectivity between brain areas. Think of the main functions as you perceive them and then consider whether these are well catered for in Luria's model.

Although researchers have considered this concept for some time it has been a research focus only relatively recently. It is measured according to those areas that become deactivated when a person is required to switch from internal contemplation to a task that actively requires an external focus of attention. In other words, those areas that by default appear to be crucial to self-referential thought or daydreaming. Why do we daydream? Is it a process like defragging that allows the reorganisation of ideas in relation to existing knowledge or is it perhaps additionally a process that allows the rehearsal of memories that are important to us? No one knows, but because we are involved in this process for a considerable time during the day, there is an assumption that it serves a useful purpose.