biopsych Flashcards
What is the localisation of function theory?
The theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours.
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
The brain consists of two hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum with each hemisphere contributing to different functions.
What is the left hemisphere responsible for? [Bonus: What areas does it contain?]
The left hemisphere is responsible for language based functions. It contains Brocas area: Speech production and Wernickes area: Language processing.
What is the right hemisphere responsible for?
The right hemisphere is responsible for the recognition of emotions and spatial awareness functions.
What is the frontal lobe responsible for and what does it contain?
The frontal lobe is responsible for voluntary movement and higher executive functions.
It contains the motor cortex which regulates voluntary movements in logical order.
What is the temporal lobe responsible for and what does it contain?
The temporal lobe contains the primary auditory centre associated with processing sensory information.
What is the parietal lobe responsible for and what does it contain?
The parietal lobe contains the somatosensory centre where sensory information is processed to produce sensations such as pressure and pain.
What is the occipital lobe responsible for and what does it contain?
The occipital lobe contains the primary visual centre where it receives and processes visual information to understand things such as shapes and colours.
Where is Brocas and Wernickes area located?
Brocas area [speech production] is located in the frontal lobe [voluntary movement] and Wernickes area [language comprehension] is located in the temporal lobe [processing auditory information] .
How is localisation and lateralisation of the brain studied? Discuss how.
The brain is studied through case studies which are in-depth examinations of an individual or group.
Pros: Allows the study of unethical situations and more ecologically valid compared to laboratory experiments as it is conducted in real life situations.
Cons: Hard to generalise as they are often specific cases and therefore difficult to replicate and lack reliability.
Paul Broca & Leborgne [Evaluation support for localisation]
+Leborgne suffered from epilepsy and could only say the word TAN.
+His frontal lobe was damaged therefore an area was identified to be responsible for speech production.
+Modern time research identified more specific regions but the cause remained the same.
GR [Evaluation support for localisation + latersaliation]
+Developed blindness in her right visual field however had no damage in her eyes but only to the brain.
+When asked to detect a letter on the screen she could not identify what it was but was aware something was there.
+Concluded that she damaged her left visual centre in the occipital lobe. (Hemispheric lateralisation)
Karl Lashley 1950 [Evaluation challenge for localisation]
+Removed brain areas of the cortex in rats however found no specific area involved in learning, the function was spread around the brain.
+Looks at the brain holistically rather than each area being localised.
Herasty 1997 {Evaluation challenge for localisation theory]
Females have larger Brocas area and Wernickes area than in males meaning that they may have larger language capabilities.
+Localisation fails to take account of individual differences [ suffers from beta bias ]
+Suggests that more research needs to be conducted on separate genders
Neurosurgery {Evaluation support for localisation and lateralisation]
Neurosurgery is a positive application of the localisation and lateralisation theory as they take into account it for their procedures as it suggests that mental disorders are localised in the brain.
Economical implications involves providing more jobs for people and allowing more people to return to work via effective treatment.
How did Sperry 1968 investigate split brain research and what were the results?
He projected an image to the right visual field of a split brain individual and they were able to explain what they saw due to there being language centres in the left hemisphere however could not in the left visual field.
He asked participants to draw with the left hand and drew more accurately compared to the left as the right hemisphere is responsible for processing spatial information.
Gazzaniga [Evaluation support for split brain research]
Woman had a severed corpus callosum and was presented a nude woman in her left visual field and giggled however could not explain why. This is because her right hemisphere processed emotions but do not contain language centres to verbalise her emotions.
Outline and evaluate post mortem examinations
Post mortem examinations are the analysis of a deceased persons brain and comparing it to a neurotypical brain to establish a cause of mental disorders.
Pro: Broca and Wernicke relied on this technique before neuro- imaging to establish links between the brain and behaviour.
Cons: Correlation does not aways mean causation and it does not take into account of individual differences and has ethical issues.
Outline and evaluate fMRI
Also known as functional magnetic resonance imaging will track the energy released when haemoglobin binds to oxygen. Active parts of the brain will consume more O2 therefore can be identified during certain mental processes.
Pros: Produces dynamic 3D images to map how different parts of the brain interact during behaviours to understand localisation. Activity + Physiology.
Cons: Relies primarily on blood flow and does not consider electrical activity in the brain which is a important component in understanding the brain. Also very expensive and requires high expertise.
Outline and evaluate EEGs
EEGs measure general electrical activity of the brain by attaching electrodes directly to the brain to generate general wave patterns.
Pros: Contributed to the understanding of sleep cycles by being used in sleep laboratories and diagnosis of epilepsy.
Cons: Generates very general and non specific data therefore you cannot pinpoint the exact location of neural activity.
Outline and evaluate ERPS
ERPs are a type of EEG which can filter out extraneous brain activity to leave responses to a specific stimuli. This is linked to the identification of cognitive processes and used by cognitive neuroscientists.
Pros: Useful in testing research that suffer from social desirability. For example Costa, Brauna + Birbaumer used ERP to record male and female responses to nudes of opposite genders. Women stated they felt nothing however they had higher brain response when shown a nude of a male.
Cons: Not always easy to eliminate extraneous variables and can be difficult to conduct as it requires minimal movement.
What is plasticity in the brain?
Plasticity is the brains ability to change and adapt from experience and new learning. Often found to be the strongest during childhood, however recent research has found that even mature brains will continue to show plasticity.
Maguire et al [Evaluation support for plasticity]
Conducted MRI scans of taxi drivers vs non-taxi drivers and discovered that the area for spatial awareness and the amount of gray matter in the posterior hippocampus was larger in taxi drivers.
There was positive correlation between time in job and difference in brain structures.
Experience in taxi driving meant more information of routes and therefore different brains.
Kuhn [Evaluation support for plasticity]
Playing video games for 30 minutes per day increased the brain matter in the cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum.
This is because video games require complex cognitive requirements such as decision making and spatial navigation.
