The Brain

After my extensive post yesterday that remained unresolved I started researching the brain. Before understanding brain damage, I figured it was important to understand healthy brain function.
The brain is made up of four lobes and the cerebellum.

(Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia)
Overly simplified, here is what each part is responsible for:
Cerebellum: Governs movement and coordination
Occipital Lobe: Governs visual reception and recognition
Parietal Lobes: Processing sensory information and responsible for speech
Temporal Lobes: Sound and smell receptors and may be involved in short term memory
Frontal Lobe: Primary processing center, responsible for personality.

However, this is an oversimplification, and much of how the lobes interact to form consciousness and much of what we consider to be human is not understood. However, we might be able to speculate on how a zombie's brain might function. Obviously there is an interested sensory awareness, primarily in hearing and smell. Sight loses the primacy it most likely had in life due to accelerated decomposition in the eyeballs, and the decrease in use. The cerebellum is very important as far as maintaining the shamble, but it is very protected due to its location within the skull and surrounding muscle tissue. The largest part of the brain, the frontal lobe is inconsequential, as these higher functioning skills are no longer necessary for the zombie simple hunt/eat stratagem.

So how does this all effect the damage to the brain? Is it possible to injure part of the brain and not kill the zombie? Or (the more likely theory) the brain is a summation of its parts and needs to be whole in order to allow for zombie survival. I tend to think this may be the answer. Even though live humans are able to make up for parts of the brain that are removed zombies lack the healing (and cell growth) to allow for the brain to compensate for its absent bits. Regardless, this will require more research.

In a more practical application, I picked up this lovely tool at my local hardware store:

Intended for gardening and lawn care, it can serve as an excellent braining tool. At five feet in length, it has a significant reach. It is light weight and easy to carry. With a simple swing, it could easy penetrate the skull of zombie, causing significant trauma to the brain (just to be sure it was traumatizing enough it is a good idea to give it a little wiggle after it's in the skull). And it was only ten bucks.