Interesting Brain Regions
Cingulate - The cingulate (Latin for "collar") is shown in yellow. This is an area used for "cognitive control" or "executive function". When you are trying to inhibit a natural response, the cingulate is active.
Orbitofrontal Cortex - The orbitofrontal cortex, just above the eye socket, is shown in pink. It is an important region for planning and impulse control. We are doing experiments with people who have damage in this region of their brains.
Amygdala - The amygdala is shown in orange. It is an area of the brain important in fear and other emotions. When you hear a loud bang your amygdala jumps into action, sending neurotransmitted information to the thalamus, the striatum (an area important in reward prediction) and the frontal cortex. Amazingly the amygdala is active if you see an angry face for only 16 milliseconds (less than one flicker of a movie). It is like a guard dog that reacts very, very rapidly to possible danger but is too "dumb" to distinguish what the danger really is (that's the job of the cortex). So when you hear a loud bang you have an instant physical reaction; a couple of seconds later the cortex figures out whether the bang is somebody dropping a schoolbook, a door slamming, or a gunshot.
Somatosensory - Somatosensory cortex is shown in green. It maintains a sensory map of the entire body and involved in sensory-motor integration. Scientists at Caltech are currently working on "neural prosthetics", these would be connected directly to the brain so that people could not only control them with thought, but patients could also receive sensory information from the prosthetics. link
Insula - The insula (Latin for "island") is shown in purple. It is tucked between the frontal and temporal lobes. The insula is where the brain records bodily sensations and discomfort, as well as a sense of self-causation (what neuroscientists call "agency"). If you smell a disgusting odor, feel pain, are being choked, feel sad, or are excluded from a social event, your insula will be active.