MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 30 of 100

Correct — C, the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the body's thermostat: it receives temperature information from the skin and from the blood flowing through it, compares it with a set point of about 37 °C, and triggers the corrective response — sweating and skin vasodilation when the body is too warm, shivering and vasoconstriction when it is too cold. It is a small structure of the forebrain (part of the diencephalon), lying just below the thalamus, and it also runs hunger, thirst, sleep–wake rhythm and the control of the pituitary gland.

• (a)Medulla oblongata — The medulla oblongata is the hindbrain's vital-reflex centre — it controls heartbeat, breathing and blood pressure and reflexes such as swallowing, vomiting, coughing and sneezing. It does not set or defend body temperature.
• (b)Cerebrum — The cerebrum handles the higher functions — thought, memory, language, voluntary movement and the conscious interpretation of sensation. You consciously feel hot or cold through the cerebrum, but the automatic regulation is done by the hypothalamus.
• (d)Cerebellum — The cerebellum maintains posture, balance and the smooth coordination of voluntary muscular movement. It has no role in temperature control.

Thermoregulation is a classic example of homeostasis working by negative feedback: a sensor detects a deviation, a control centre compares it against a set point, and effectors push the value back. Here the control centre is the hypothalamus, and the effectors are sweat glands, skin blood vessels and skeletal muscle (shivering). Fever fits the same model — pyrogens released during infection raise the hypothalamic set point, so the body feels cold and shivers until it reaches the new, higher temperature. The hypothalamus is also the bridge between the nervous and endocrine systems, since its releasing hormones control the pituitary.

Questions in this area are really 'brain part → function' matching, so learn the four structures as a set rather than one at a time. The usual trap is medulla oblongata, because students remember it as the seat of 'automatic' body functions — true for heartbeat and breathing, but temperature belongs to the hypothalamus.

• Hypothalamus — thermoregulation, hunger, thirst, sleep–wake cycle; controls the pituitary gland
• Located in the forebrain (diencephalon), just below the thalamus
• Normal human core temperature set point is about 37 °C; fever is a raised hypothalamic set point, not a failure of the thermostat
• Medulla oblongata — heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, swallowing and vomiting reflexes
• Cerebellum — balance, posture and coordination of voluntary movement; cerebrum — thought, memory and voluntary action

• Picking the medulla oblongata because it controls 'involuntary' functions — it runs heartbeat and breathing, not temperature
• Confusing the hypothalamus with the thalamus, which is the relay station for sensory signals to the cerebral cortex
• Assuming the pituitary is the master of everything — the pituitary itself is directed by hypothalamic releasing hormones

Almost always as a one-line 'which part of the brain controls X' or as a match-the-list pairing brain structures with functions. Memorise the four-way table (hypothalamus / medulla / cerebrum / cerebellum) and both directions of the question are covered.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which part of the human brain controls the heartbeat and breathing?

  • (a)Cerebellum
  • (b)Medulla oblongata
  • (c)Hypothalamus
  • (d)Cerebrum

  Answer(b) Medulla oblongata — it houses the cardiac, respiratory and vasomotor centres.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The hypothalamus links the nervous system to the endocrine system mainly by controlling:

  • (a)the thyroid gland directly
  • (b)the pituitary gland
  • (c)the adrenal medulla directly
  • (d)the pancreas

  Answer(b) The pituitary gland — hypothalamic releasing and inhibiting hormones govern pituitary secretion, which in turn drives the other endocrine glands.