Biopsychology (A2) Flashcards
What is lateralisation
The dominance of one hemisphere of the brain for a particular physical and psychological function
E.g. Left hemisphere is dominant for language
What is localisation
The theory that specific areas of the brain are associated with particular physical and psychological functions
What is contralateral
When the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vice versa
E.g. what you see in the right visual field is processes by your left hemisphere
The left hemisphere is dominant for speech
What are the two areas called in the left hemisphere that help produce and understand speech
- Broca’s area
- Wernicke’s area
What does Broca’s area do
Responsible for converting thought into speech
What does Wernickes area do
Plays an important role in understanding other people’s speech and producing speech which makes sense
What happens if there’s damage to either brocas or Wernickes area
Result in Aphasia
This is inability or impaired ability to understand or produce speech
Detail vs holistic
What hemisphere is used to describe a picture in detail
What hemisphere is used to describe a picture holistically
Detail= Greater activity in the left hemisphere
Holistic= Greater activity in the right hemisphere
What hemisphere deals with recognising emotions and spatial relationships
Right hemisphere
Who are split-brain patients
Individuals who have undergone a corpus callosotomy, meaning a large part of their corpus callosum is cut
Why did they have a large part of their corpus callosum cut and the result of it
Large part of the corpus callosum was cut as it was a way to treat epileptic sufferers.
As a result of this procedure, the 2 hemispheres cannot communicate with each other
Aim of split brain research
To investigate the hemispheric functioning of split brain patients
Method of split-brain research
- Quasi experiment
- 11 participants who’ve had their corpus callosum severed to treat severe epilepsy
- Participants were asked to perform range of tasks, and performance was compared to participants with no inter-hemispheric disconnection
What were the tasks in split-brain research
Part of the method
- Presenting information to one hemisphere by sending it to one visual field (they were blindfolded in one eye)
- Other tasks, their hands were screened from them so they could not see objects placed in front of them, and they had to pick up that object with a certain hand
Results of the split-brain research
1- Participant saw screwdriver in left visual field, therefore shown to right hemisphere. Participant saw ‘nothing’ as left hemisphere controls language not right
2- Participant saw screwdriver in left visual field, therefore shown to right hemisphere. Participant was able to pick it up as right hemisphere controls left arm and was told to pick it up with left arm
3- Participant saw baseball with right visual field, therefore shown to left hemisphere. Participant could describe what he saw as left hemisphere controls language
Conclusion for split brain research
- Left hemisphere is Verbal, right hemisphere is non-Verbal
- Therefore, when information is presented to left visual field, therefore right hemisphere, the participant couldn’t communicate what he saw as the two hemispheres cannot communicate (shows lateralisation in the brain)
- 2nd task, of motor movements, happened because the brain is contralateral. Motor tasks are contralateral
Evaluate split-brain research
S- Standardised procedure, therefore very reliable, if repeated you get same results
L- Results cannot be generalised, as epileptic patients were used
L- Ethical issues, as it can cause psychological harm, discovering their inability to perform certain tasks
L- Small sample of 11 PP’s, findings are not representative of the target population
L- Quasi experiment, cannot randomly allocate participants, therefore lack of control of variables reducing validity
What does split brain research show evidence for
Lateralisation
E.g. helps us know left hemisphere is for speech therefore would know why stroke patients with damage to their left hemisphere have impaired speech
Where specifically is the Broca’s area located in the brain and it’s function
Where specifically is the Wernickes area located in the brain and it’s function
Broca’s area= Left frontal lobe- involved in language production
Wernickes area= Left temporal lobe- involved in language comprehension/understanding
What are the 4 cortex’s/areas
Motor cortex
Somatosensory cortex
Visual cortex
Auditory cortex
Where is the motor cortex and whats it’s function
- Located in the Frontal lobe in BOTH hemispheres (ones side of brain controls muscles on opposite side of body, contralateral)
- Motor cortex is responsible for voluntary
movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body
Damage to this results in impaired movements
Where is the somatosensory cortex and what’s its function
- Located In the Parietal lobe in BOTH hemispheres (one side of brain receives sensory information from opposite side of body, contralateral)
- Somatosensory cortex receives sensory information from the skin, to procedure sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature etc.
Where is the visual cortex and what’s its function
- Located In the Occipital lobe in BOTH hemispheres (information in left visual field is processed in right hemisphere and vice versa)
- Visual cortex receives and processes visual information. Contains different parts that process different parts of information (colour, shape, movement)
Where is the auditory cortex and what’s its function
- Located In the temporal lobe in BOTH hemispheres (information from left ear, processed in right hemisphere, vice versa)
- Auditory area responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information (speech)
