Study guide · 6 units · 41 things to learn
MCAT brain and nervous system study guide
The brain shows up in two MCAT sections: the nervous system in Biological and Biochemical Foundations, and the biological bases of behavior in Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations. This guide covers both, unit by unit.
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Work through the units in order. Read each topic, open each part in 3D, then take the unit's quiz: everything you answer comes back in your daily review, right before you would forget it. Ticks show what you have done on this device.
1. Neurons, the nervous system and hormones
Quiz this unit in 3DContent categories 3A and 7A: the parts of a neuron, the action potential, synapses and neurotransmitters, reflexes and motor control, how the nervous system is divided (including the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems), and the endocrine system.
- Neurons and nerve signalsTopic · How a nerve cell is built, and how it fires a signal.
- NeurotransmittersTopic · The brain's chemical messengers: dopamine, serotonin, GABA and more.
- The nervous systemTopic · Central and peripheral, somatic and autonomic: how it is organized.
- The autonomic nervous system: sympathetic and parasympatheticTopic · Fight or flight, rest and digest: how the body runs its automatic jobs.
- Spinal cordBrain part · The body's main information highway, and home to lightning-fast reflexes.
- How the brain controls movement: upper and lower motor neuronsTopic · From motor cortex to muscle, and how to tell upper from lower motor neuron damage.
- Hormones and the brain: the hypothalamus and pituitaryTopic · How the hypothalamus and pituitary gland steer the body with hormones.
2. Forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain
Quiz this unit in 3DContent category 7A: the structure and function of the brain, from the cortex and limbic system down to the brainstem and cerebellum.
- The big pictureLesson in 3D · Cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem.
- Lobes of the brainTopic · The four lobes of each hemisphere, and what each one does.
- ThalamusBrain part · The brain's grand central station: nearly every sense stops here on its way up.
- HypothalamusBrain part · An almond-sized control center for temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep and hormones.
- Limbic systemBrain part · The brain's emotion and memory team, wrapped around its deep core.
- Basal gangliaBrain part · Your action selector: says "go" to one move and "no-go" to all the rest.
- MidbrainBrain part · The top of the brainstem: eye reflexes, hearing relays and dopamine factories.
- PonsBrain part · The "bridge" linking cortex to cerebellum, and a key player in dreams and breathing.
- Medulla oblongataBrain part · Your life-support center: breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure and swallowing on autopilot.
- CerebellumBrain part · The "little brain" that holds most of your neurons and makes every move smooth.
3. Lateralization and how the brain is studied
Quiz this unit in 3DContent category 7A: lateralization of cortical functions, split-brain research, and the methods used to study the brain.
4. Sensing the environment
Quiz this unit in 3DContent category 6A: visual and auditory pathways in the brain, somatosensation and pain, smell and the vestibular sense.
- SeeingLesson in 3D · From the eye to the back of the brain.
- The visual pathway: from the eye to the brainTopic · From the eye to the visual cortex, and what damage on the way does.
- Primary visual cortexBrain part · V1: the first cortical stop for sight, a precise map of what your eyes see.
- Lateral geniculate nucleusBrain part · Vision's relay station: a six-layered bent knee where signals from your eyes arrive.
- Hearing and balanceLesson in 3D · From the inner ear to the cortex.
- Primary auditory cortexBrain part · The first cortical stop for sound, laid out by pitch like piano keys.
- Touch, pain and temperature: the sensory pathwaysTopic · How touch, pain and temperature travel up the spinal cord to the sensory strip.
- Primary somatosensory cortexBrain part · Your touch map: every patch of skin has its own spot on this strip.
- Olfactory nerve & bulb (I)Brain part · Your smell line: the only sense that skips the thalamus and heads straight to emotion.
5. Sleep, drugs, memory, language and reward
Quiz this unit in 3DContent category 6B: sleep stages and circadian rhythms, consciousness-altering drugs and the reward pathway in addiction, memory, neural plasticity and long-term potentiation, and the brain areas that control language.
- Sleep and the brainTopic · The body clock, the stages of sleep, dreaming and why we sleep.
- How drugs affect the brainTopic · How drugs act on synapses, the reward pathway, and addiction.
- Ventral tegmental areaBrain part · A dopamine hub for reward and motivation, firing when life beats your expectations.
- Nucleus accumbensBrain part · The brain's reward hotspot, turning "I like that" into "I want more".
- How memory worksTopic · Kinds of memory, how memories are made, and where they live.
- Neuroplasticity: how the brain rewires itselfTopic · How learning, growing up and injury rewire the brain.
- Language and the brainTopic · Broca's and Wernicke's areas, reading and signing, and the types of aphasia.
- LanguageLesson in 3D · Hearing, understanding, speaking, reading.
6. Emotion and stress
Quiz this unit in 3DContent category 6C: theories of emotion, the brain regions involved in emotion, the limbic system, emotion and the autonomic nervous system, and the effects of stress on the body.
- Emotion and stress: the amygdala and fight or flightTopic · How the brain makes fear and other feelings, and handles stress.
- Emotion and rewardLesson in 3D · Fear, drive and the value of things.
- AmygdalaBrain part · The almond-shaped alarm that spots danger and gives memories their emotional punch.
- Prefrontal cortexBrain part · The front-most part of your brain, where you plan, focus and keep yourself in check.
- Cingulate cortexBrain part · A belt of cortex hugging the brain's center: emotion, pain, errors and memory.
Tips for studying
- MCAT questions are built around passages about experiments. Know what each structure does well enough to predict what happens when it is damaged or stimulated.
- The psychology section tests the brain as a cause of behavior: link each structure to a behavior (the amygdala to fear, the hippocampus to new memories, the nucleus accumbens to reward).
- Use the daily review. Short, spaced practice sessions stick far better than one long cram.
Built from the official outline
This guide follows these official pages. Check them for the latest version of what your exam or class covers.
- AAMC content category 3A: nervous and endocrine systems
- AAMC content category 6A: sensing the environment
- AAMC content category 6B: making sense of the environment
- AAMC content category 6C: responding to the world
- AAMC content category 7A: individual influences on behavior
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