• Animal and human brain similarities are often physical.Animal Kingdom3 image by Alhazm Salemi from Fotolia.com
  
  Most similarities between animal and human brains occur among vertebrate and mammal groups. Possessing a backbone with a peripheral nervous system attached to the brain, vertebrates including humans and other mammals all have the same brain parts. Brain centers or nuclei found in mice and rats also appear in human, horse and whale brains.
  
  

Humans and All Animals

• Brain processing received data determines how all animals respond.human skull image by david hughes from Fotolia.com
  
  From the simplest living creatures to the complexity of a human being, the brain is a mass of nerve tissue located in the head controlling body functions. The brain neurons (nerve cells) receive signals from sense organs then sends signals (through neurons) to muscles. The manner a brain processes received data determines how all animals respond.
  
  

Fetus Development

• Early stages of fetal brains both animal and human show bulges.Eggs image by Josef F Stuefer from Fotolia.com
  
  Early stages fetal brain development among fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals look like groups of bulges in the nerve cell tube. During further fetal growth, these similar bulges enlarge acquiring specific adult brain characteristics essential to survival.
  
  

Central Nervous System

• All brains of all animals make up central nervous system.blue brain image by John Sfondilias from Fotolia.com
  
  Brains of all animals, including humans, make up the central nervous system transmitting and receiving signals or impulses. With the brain serving like the hard drive on a computer, it controls all body functions, and as software of a computer, the brain interprets or analyzes complex information.
  
  

Distinctive Structures

• Forebrain, midbrain, and the hindbrain are three divisions of vertebrate brains.Kernspintomographie image by Marem from Fotolia.com
  
  The brain of vertebrates has three main divisions: the forebrain, midbrain, and the hindbrain. Connecting to the spinal chord housed in the backbone, the hindbrain or medulla oblongata controls life-sustaining body functions like breathing and heart rate. Located in the hindbrain is the cerebellum brain controlling balance. The fore brain, or cerebrum controls the sense of smell among vertebrates. Vertebrate midbrains contain the optic lobes necessary for receiving and interpreting visual signals as well as controlling motor responses.
  
  

Mammal Brain Control

• All mammal brains determines how it acts.boy cuddling his pet kitten image by Stepanov from Fotolia.com
  
  Among all mammals, brain electrical path control include reflexes, goal directed and exploratory behavior, and basic action progression. Science continues to research which brain parts, circuits and networks define these common mammal functions.