When a neck/spinal injury is suspected, the jaw thrust technique can be used instead. The main aim of the jaw thrust is to bring the chin forwards without moving the neck. This lifts the tongue from the back of the airway and relieves obstruction. It is worth noting that there are a variety of different jaw thrust techniques used across the world.
That's lower level processing. Higher levels of your brain are also activated to make sense of the sensory information. When you initiate a reflex action, like withdrawing your hand from a hot surface, the first part of the response is initiated at the spinal cord. But, as soon as the information reaches your brain, your motor cortex, cerebellum, frontal cortex, parietal cortex, etc, take over, planning and controlling movement.
The frontal lobe contains most of the dopamine-sensitive neurons in the cerebral cortex. The dopamine system is associated with reward, attention, long-term memory, planning, and drive. Dopamine tends to limit and select sensory information arriving from the thalamus to the fore-brain. The temporal lobe is located on the bottom section of the brain. 2  This lobe is also the location of the primary auditory cortex, which is important for interpreting sounds and the language we hear.