Biopsychology - Localisation Of Function

Question 1

Evidence for localisation of function:

1) P
2) D
3) P
3) T

Answer 1

1) Phineas Gage:
Had an accident Where an iron pole went into the school and damaged the most part of his left frontal lobe.
After this accident his personality changed suggesting that the temporal lobe is responsible for mood.

2)Neurosurgical: 
Dougherty et al. 44 OCD patients with severe OCD underwent surgery on the Cingulate gyrus. 
1/3 showed successful response 
14% showed partial response 
This suggests behaviours are localised 

3) Peterson: used Brain scans to demonstrate how why Wernicke’s area was active during listening task and Brocke’s area was active during a reading task suggesting that these areas of the brain have different functions.

Tulving et al: A study of long-term memory revealed that semantic and episodic memory memory reside in a different part of the pre-frontal cortex.

Question 2

Evidence for Holism theory of function

1) L

Answer 2

1)Lashley:
He suggests that learning is distributed around the brain
He removed different areas of the brain (between 10% and 50%) to see how it would affects rats learning of a maze

•No area proved more important which suggests that learning isn’t localised but all parts of the brain

Question 3

Localisation of function theory

Answer 3

1) Developed by Wernicke and Broca
2) This is the idea/theory that states different parts of the brain perform different tasks, behaviours, processes and activities
3) Damaging that area affects its function associated with that area.

Question 4

Define Holism of function

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Wernicke’s area

Answer 5

Located in the left hemisphere of temporal lobe

• Responsible for speech comprehension

Question 6

Broca’a area

Answer 6

Located in the the left frontal lobe and is responsible for speech production.

Question 7

Cerebral Cortex

Answer 7

The outer layer of both hemispheres
• 3mm thick
Our cerebral cortex is more advanced that that of an animal

Question 8

Damage to Wernicke’s area causes:

Answer 8

Wernicke’s aphasia: produce neologisms as part of their speech (nonsense words)

Question 9

Damage to the Broca’s area causes:

Answer 9

Broca’s aphasia: characterised speech that is slow and lacks fluency
Affects language production but not understanding

Question 10

How many lobes are in the brain and function:

Answer 10

1) Frontal lobe: higher order thinking and is the motor cortex
2) Parietal lobe: in control of senses is Somatosensory Cortex
3) Ocipital lobe: controls vision and is the visual cortex
4) Temporal lobe: responsible for sound and is the auditory cortex

Question 11

Wernicke’s area

Answer 11

It’s located in the left hemisphere of temporal lobe

• Responsible for speech comprehension

Question 12

Damage to the left frontal lobe

Answer 12

Causes motor impairments on the right side of the body.
loss of muscle function/paralysis
Eg cannot play piano