Biopsychology : Localisation of function

Question 1

Localisation of function

Answer 1

Localisation of function is the idea that certain functions (e.g language , memory etc have certain locations within the brain.

Question 2

Hemispheric Lateralisation

Answer 2

Lateralisation is the belief that two halves of the brain are function,y different and that each hemisphere has functional specialisation e.g the left is dominant for language and the right excels at visual motor tasks

Question 3

Motor Area

Answer 3

The motor area is responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body

Question 4

Somatosensory Area

Answer 4

The somatosensory area receives incoming sensory information from our skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain , temperature, etc.

Question 5

Visual area

Answer 5

The visual area receives and processes visual information. The visual area contains different parts that process different types of information including colour, shape or movement

Question 6

Auditory area

Answer 6

The auditory area is responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information

Question 7

Broca’s area

Answer 7

The Broca’s area is found in the left frontal lobe and is thought to be involved in language production.

Question 8

Wernicke’s Area

Answer 8

The Wernicke’s area is found in the left temporal lobe and is thought to be involved in language processing/ comprehension

Question 9

Split brain research

Answer 9

Split brain patients are individuals who have undergone a surgical procedure where the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres is cut

Question 10

Plasticity

Answer 10

Brain plasticity refers to the brains ability to change and adapt because of experience.

Question 11

Functional recovery

Answer 11

Functional recovery is the transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas

Question 12

Who was Phineas Gage?

Answer 12

In 1848 while working on rail line, experienced a drastic accident in which a piece of iron went through his skull. Although Gage survived this ordeal he did experience a change in personality such as loss of inhibition and anger. This change provided evidence to damaged was responsible for personality .

Question 13

Facts about motor cortex/ area

Answer 13

• Back of the frontal lobe
• responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body.
• The regions of the motor area arranged into logical order for example the region that controls finger movement is located next to the region that controls the hand and arm and so on.

Question 14

Facts of somatosensory area

Answer 14

-Located at the front of the parietal lobe
- receives incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain , temperature etc.

Question 15

Facts of visual cortex / area

Answer 15

• back of the brain in the occipital lobe is the visual area, which receives and process visual information.
• Information from the right hand side visual field is processed in the left hemisphere, and information from the left hand side visual field is processed in the right hemisphere .

Question 16

What is Auditory cortex / Area

Answer 16

• located in the temporal lobe
• responsible for analysising and processing acoustic information.
• information from the left ear goes primarily to the right hemisphere and information from the right ear goes primarily to the left hemisphere.

Question 17

Who is Tan

Answer 17

• Paul Broca discovered Broca’s Area while treating a patient named Leborgne , who was referred to as Tan.
• Tan could understand spoken language but was unable to produce any coherent words, and could only say ‘Tan’
• After Tan’s death , Broca conducted a post mortem examination on Tan’s brain and discovered that he had a lesion in the left frontal lobe.
• he concluded that this area was responsible for speech production
• people with damage to this area experience Broca’s aphasia which results in slow and inarticulate speech.

Question 18

Wernicke’s Area facts

Answer 18

• part of the brain was involved in understanding language. Wernicke found that patients with lesions in Wernicke’s area struggle to comprehend language often prodding sentences that are fluent but meaningless (Wernicke’s aphasia ).
• Conclueded that language includes a separate motor and sensory region
• the motor region is located in Broca’s area and the sensory region is located in Wernicke’s area.

Question 19

More facts about Motor Area

Answer 19

• Frontal lobe
  Left, Right or both : Both , the motor area on one side of the brain controls the muscles on the opposite side.

Question 20

More facts about Somatosensory Area

Answer 20

Location : Parietal Lobe
Left, Right or both hemispheres: Both , the somatosensory area on one side of the brain receives sensory information from the opposite side of the body

Question 21

More facts about Visual Area

Answer 21

Location : Occipital lobe
Left,right or both hemispheres: Both
Information from the right hand side visual field processed in the left hemisphere and information from the left hand side visual field is processed in the right hemisphere.

Question 22

More facts about Auditory Area

Answer 22

Location : Temporal lobe
Left, Right or both hemispheres : Both
Information from the left ear goes primarily to the right hemisphere and information from the right ear goes primarily to the left hemisphere.

Question 23

More facts about Broca’s and Wernicke’s Area

Answer 23

both on the left hemisphere

Question 24

Evaluation of Localisation of Function

Answer 24

• Lashley proposed the equipotentiality theory, which suggests that the basic motor and sensory functions are localised, but that higher mental functions are not. He claimed that intact areas of the cortex could take over responsibility for specific cognitive functions following brain injury. This therefore casts doubt on theories about the localisation of functions, suggesting that functions are not localised to just one region, as other regions can take over specific functions following brain injury. ( this goes against localisation of function)
• Broca’s area may not be the only region responsible for speech production and the deficits found in patients with Broca’s aphasia could be the result of damage to other neighbouring regions

Question 25

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 25

The two hemispheres are connected through nerve fibres called the corpus callosum, which facilitate interhemispheric communication: allowing the left and right hemispheres to ‘talk to’ one another.

Question 26

What is the Split Brain Research?

Answer 26

Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967) were the first to investigate hemispheric lateralisation with the use of split-brain patients.

Aim: The aim of their research was to examine the extent to which the two hemispheres are specialised for certain functions.

Method: An image/word is projected to the patient’s left visual field (which is processed by the right hemisphere) or the right visual field (which is processed by the left hemisphere). When information is presented to one hemisphere in a split-brain patient, the information is not transferred to the other hemisphere (as the corpus callosum is cut).

Sperry and Gazzaniga conducted many different experiments, including describe what you see tasks, tactile tests, and drawing tasks.

In the describe what you see task, a picture was presented to either the left or right visual field and the participant had to simply describe what they saw.

In the tactile test, an object was placed in the patient’s left or right hand and they had to either describe what they felt, or select a similar object from a series of alternate objects.

Finally, in the drawing task, participants were presented with a picture in either their left or right visual field, and they had to simply draw what they saw

Question 27

Who were the split brain patients?

Answer 27

Split-brain patients are individuals who have undergone a surgical procedure where the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres, is cut. This procedure, which separates the two hemispheres, was used as a treatment for severe epilepsy.

Question 28

Findings of Split Brain Research? (Describe what you see)

Answer 28

Describe what you see :
1. picture presented to the right field ( processed by left hemisphere)
- The patient could describe what they saw demonstrating the superiority of the left hemisphere when it comes to language production
2. picture presented to the left field ( processed by right hemisphere)
-The patient could not describe what was shown and often reported that there was nothing present.

Question 29

Findings of Split Brain Research? (Tactile Tests)

Answer 29

1.) Objects placed in the right hand (processed by the left hemisphere)
- The patient could describe verbally what they felt. Or they could identify the test object presented in the right hand(left hemisphere) by selecting a similar appropiate object, from a series of alternate objects.

2.) Objects placed in the left hand (processed by the right hemisphere)
- The patient could not describe what they felt and could only make wild guesses. however the left hand could identify a test object presented in the left hand (right hemisphere) by selecting a similar appropriate object, from a series of an alternate objects.

Question 30

Findings of Split Brain Research? (Drawing Tasks)

Answer 30

1. Pictured presented to the right visual field (processed by left hemisphere)
   - While the right-hand would attempt to draw a picture, the picture was never as clear as the left hand, again demonstrating the superiority of the right hemisphere for visual motor tasks.
2. Pictured presented to the left visual field (processed by right hemisphere)
   - The left hand (controlled by the right hemisphere) would consistently draw clearer and better pictures than the right hand (even though all the participants were right handed).

This demonstrates the superiority of the right hemisphere when it comes to visual motor taks.

Question 31

Conclusion for Split Brain Research?

Answer 31

Conclusion: The findings of Sperry and Gazzaniga’s research highlights a number of key differences between the two hemispheres. Firstly, the left hemisphere is dominant in terms of speech and language. Secondly, the right hemisphere is dominant in terms of visual-motor tasks.

Question 32

Evaluation of Split Brain Research?

Answer 32

• research has suggested that lateralisation changes with age. Szaflarki et al. (2006) found that language became more lateralised to the left hemisphere with increasing age in children and adolescents, but after the age of 25, lateralisation decreased with each decade of life. This raises questions about lateralisation, such as whether everyone has one hemisphere that is dominant over the other and whether this dominance changes with age.
• it could be argued that language may not be restricted to the left hemisphere. Turk et al. (2002) discovered a patient who suffered damage to the left hemisphere but developed the capacity to speak in the right hemisphere, eventually leading to the ability to speak about the information presented to either side of the brain. This suggests that perhaps lateralisation is not fixed and that the brain can adapt following damage to certain areas.

Question 33

What is Brain Plasticity?

Answer 33

Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt because of experience. Research has demonstrated that the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones in response to changing experiences.

Question 34

What is a Functional recovery?

Answer 34

the transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas. It can do this through a process termed neuronal unmasking where ‘dormant’ synapses (which have not received enough input to be active) open connections to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain. This allows new connections in the brain to be activated, thus recovering any damage occurring in specific regions.

Question 35

What is neuronal unmasking

Answer 35

neuronal unmasking where ‘dormant’ synapses (which have not received enough input to be active) open connections to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain.

Question 36

Evaluation for Plasticity and functional recovery?

Answer 36

• Maguire et al. found that the posterior hippocampal volume of London taxi drivers’ brains was positively correlated with their time as a taxi driver and that there were significant differences between the taxi drivers’ brains and those of controls. This shows that the brain can permanently change in response to frequent exposure to a particular task.
• Kuhn et al. found a significant increase in grey matter in various regions of the brain after participants played video games for 30 minutes a day over a two-month period

-A final strength of research examining plasticity and functional recovery is the application of the findings to the field of neurorehabilitation. Understanding the processes of plasticity and functional recovery led to the development of neurorehabilitation which uses motor therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain to counter the negative effects and deficits in motor and cognitive functions following accidents, injuries and/or strokes. This demonstrates the positive application of research in this area to help improve the cognitive functions of people suffering from injuries.

Question 37

Event-Related Potentials (ERP)

Answer 37

Event-Related Potentials (ERP) use similar equipment to EEG, electrodes attached to the scalp. However, the key difference is that a stimulus is presented to a participant (for example a picture/sound) and the researcher looks for activity related to that stimulus.