The brain's organization is based in part on large structures directly visible to
the eye and in part on structures that require a microscope and special stains to
resolve. Working from the "directly visible" structures to the "microscopic" is
the "top down" approach, and working the other way from molecules to cells to
whole structures is the "bottoms up"  strategy.

Next is a picture of the brain with arrows to a lot of places.  Don't worry about
the different names of the places shown (or the ones that aren't shown either). 
We will come to them again.