Mapping the Human Brain
Explore the architecture of the mind from the wrinkly outer cortex to the deep survival core. Learn where memories, senses, and motor habits live, and trace how distinct regions collaborate to produce everyday experience.
Like Duolingo, but for Mapping the Human Brain. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
23 levels across 3 sections, about 46 minutes end to end, roughly 9 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Outer Shell: Conscious Thought and Sensation; The Inner Engine: Survival, Emotion, and Autopilot; and The Networked Mind: Integration and Adaptation. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Mapping the Human Brain
- Automatic survival processes like breathing and heart rate are managed by deep, primitive brain structures near the base
- The wrinkly outer surface (the cerebral cortex) handles conscious thinking, deliberate decisions, and sensory awareness
- The brain is layered from essential survival mechanisms at the bottom up to higher cognitive functions at the outer surface
- The skull has a fixed volume, creating a strict boundary on total brain size
- Crumpling the cortical surface into ridges (gyri) and grooves (sulci) packs much more surface area into that small space
- A greater surface area allows for billions more interconnected neurons to process information
- The brain is divided down the middle into two mirrored halves called hemispheres
- The prominent deep groove running from front to back separating these halves is the longitudinal fissure
- Despite looking almost like two separate organs from above, the hemispheres communicate across deep connective pathways
- The brain's wiring is contralateral, meaning each side controls and senses the opposite side of the body
- The right hemisphere directs movement and receives sensation for the left side of the body
- The left hemisphere directs movement and receives sensation for the right side of the body
- The cerebral cortex is split into four distinct lobes visible in profile: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital
- Prominent landmark grooves divide these lobes, such as the central sulcus separating the frontal and parietal lobes
- The frontal lobe sits in front, parietal at the upper back, occipital at the rear base, and temporal low on the sides
- The prefrontal cortex acts as an executive manager that puts the brakes on instant impulses
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Mapping the Human Brain the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What is the wrinkly outer surface of your brain, the cerebral cortex, busy doing?
Get it right to open this lesson and 22 more in the app.
How to learn Mapping the Human Brain, step by step
Go in order. 23 short levels across 3 sections, about 46 minutes in all, five minutes a day.
- 1
The Outer Shell: Conscious Thought and Sensation
- Finding Your Way Around the Cortex
- The Frontal Lobe: Planning and Execution
- The Sensory Lobes: Seeing, Touching, and Hearing
- 2
The Inner Engine: Survival, Emotion, and Autopilot
- The Limbic Core: Emotion, Drive, and Memory
- The Deep Machinery: Coordination and Vital Signs
- 3
The Networked Mind: Integration and Adaptation
- Hemispheric Teamwork and Information Highways
- The Adaptable Map: Neuroplasticity in Action
3 sections · 7 units · 23 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Questions about Mapping the Human Brain
How do I learn Mapping the Human Brain?
Go in order: start with The Outer Shell: Conscious Thought and Sensation, then The Inner Engine: Survival, Emotion, and Autopilot, then The Networked Mind: Integration and Adaptation. On Tomo that's 23 short levels, about 46 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.
Is there a Duolingo-style app for Mapping the Human Brain?
Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. Mapping the Human Brain is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.
Is the Mapping the Human Brain course free?
Yes. Mapping the Human Brain is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.
How long does it take to learn Mapping the Human Brain?
23 levels across 3 sections, about 46 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.
Do I need any background to start Mapping the Human Brain?
No. It's pitched at a beginner level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Mapping the Human Brain is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Mapping the Human Brain today.
Download Tomo, search Mapping the Human Brain, and play your first lesson in under a minute.