biopsychology - localisation of function

Question 1

what is localisation of function

Answer 1

the theorey that different areas of the brain are responsible for specific behaviours, processes or activities

Question 2

where is the motor area found

Answer 2

frontal lobe

Question 3

what is the motor area responsible for

Answer 3

controlling voluntary movement in opposite sides of the body by sending signals to the muscles in the body

Question 4

where is the somatosensory area found

Answer 4

parietal lobe

Question 5

what is the somatosensory area responsible for

Answer 5

processes incoming sensory information from the skin producing sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature ect.

Question 6

where is the visual area found

Answer 6

occipital lobe

Question 7

what is visual area responsible for

Answer 7

recieves and processes visual information , each eye sends information from the right visual field to the left visual cortex, and from the left visual field to the right visual cortex

Question 8

where is the auditory area found

Answer 8

temporal lobe

Question 9

what is the auditory area responsible for

Answer 9

analysis of speech based information

Question 10

where is Broca’s area found

Answer 10

left frontal lobe

Question 11

what is broca’s area responsible for

Answer 11

speech production

Question 12

where is wernicke’s area found

Answer 12

left temporal lobe

Question 13

what is wernicke’s area responsible for, what can damage to this area result in

Answer 13

language comprehension, wernicke’s aphasia, sentances produced are fluent but meaningless.

Question 14

outline the case study that supports the idea of localisation of function

Answer 14

Phineas gage while working on a rail line experienced an accident where a piece of iron went through his skull. He survived however he experienced a change in his personality that made him more angry and lacked inhibition.This supports idea that behaviours are localised to regions of the brain as it was believed the area the iron stake damaged the area responsible for personality.

Question 15

outline the research by fritsch that supports the existance of the motor area

Answer 15

discovered that different muscles are co-ordinated by different areas of the motor cortex by electrically stimulating the motor area of dogs, this resulted in muscular contractions in different areas of the body depending on where the probe was inserted.

Question 16

Outline the case study that lead to the knowledge of Broca’s area

Answer 16

Paul Broca discovered this area after treating a patient who was commonly referred to as ‘tan’. Tan could understand spoken language but was unable to produce any coherant words and could only say ‘tan’. After Tans death Broca conducted a post mortem exam on Tans brain, and discovered he had a lesion in the left frontal lobe. This led broca to believe this area was responsible for speech production, damage to this area results in Broca’s aphasia which is chacterised by slow and inarticulate speech

Question 17

what is the hollistic theorey of functioning

Answer 17

all parts of the brain are involved in processing of thought and action

Question 18

What research evidence suggests functioning is more hollistic

Answer 18

Lashley trained rats to navigate mazes. He then systematically made leisons in the various areas of the cerebral cortex. leisons varied in size and location across the experimental groups. He then tested the rats ability to navigate the mazes.
found that the severity of learning and memory deficits was more closely related to the total amount of cortical tissue removed rather than the specific location of the lesions. This led him to propose that the cortex works as a whole in learning and memory processes.

Lashley observed that other parts of the cortex could often compensate for damaged areas, suggesting that functions were not strictly localized but could be redistributed across the cortex.

suggests that some higher cognitive functions such as learning and memory are not localised to a specific region but rather distributed across the cortex which challenges the localisation of function theory

Question 19

What highly valid method of research supports existance of wenicke’s and broca’s area

Answer 19

Peterson et al used brain scans to demonstrate that wernicke’s area was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during a reading task , a review of long term memory studies revealed that semantic and episodic memories reside in different areas of the prefrontal cortex.

Question 20

what is the real world benefit of understanding localisation of function

Answer 20

allowed the brain to be mapped to identify localised brain regions, this is important for brain surgeons as they know which regions are vital, and which can be removed with little impact on function, this has improved surgery to avoid further damage.