The brainstem is arguably the most important area of the brain in terms of keeping us all alive. Most medically educated people know that the Brainstem is tied heavily towards our ability to breathe and maintain heart rate.
But the Brainstem does so much more! It’s a bottleneck point for neural transmission the entire body, so lesions of the Brainstem can impact any other part of the body.
When we look at the function of the Brainstem, we usually separate the anatomy into 3 regions.
• Midbrain
• Pons
• Medulla
