Practice question · True or false
A stroke destroying the medulla is far more immediately life-threatening than a stroke of the same size in the cerebellum.
Hints
- Compare the functions: which structure controls heartbeat and breathing?
- Losing coordination is disabling; losing autonomic vital control is often fatal.
Show the answer
True
Why
True. The medulla controls heartbeat and breathing, so damage there is often fatal, whereas equivalent cerebellar damage causes clumsy movement - serious but not immediately lethal. Reasoning from function to consequence is the point.
Practise The Brainstem and Cerebellum
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on The Brainstem and Cerebellum
- A patient with cerebellar damage can reach for a cup, and the hand oscillates around it before closing. Why…
- Sort each structure by whether it is part of the brainstem.
- Match each concrete role or effect to the structure responsible.
- The reticular formation is small and diffuse, with projections spreading through the whole cortex. Why does…
- A patient with a small pontine stroke is fully conscious, thinking normally, and can move only their eyes.…
- Select every statement that is TRUE about the brainstem and cerebellum.
- A stroke destroying a few cubic centimetres of medulla is usually fatal, while a stroke destroying far more…