Biopsychology - Localisation of function in the brain

Question 1

what is localisation of function

Answer 1

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

Question 2

what is lateralisation

Answer 2

• right side of the brain controls the left side of the body
• left side of the brain controls the right side of the body

Question 3

what is the motor area

Answer 3

• region of the frontal lobe involved in regulating movement

Question 4

what is the somatosensory area

Answer 4

• as area of parietal love that processes sensory information

Question 5

what is the visual area

Answer 5

• part of the occipital lobe that receives and processes visual information

Question 6

what is the auditory area

Answer 6

• located in the temporal lobe and concerned with the analysis of speech based information

Question 7

what is Broca’s area

Answer 7

• area in frontal lobe of the left hemisphere
• responsible for speech production
• damage can cause Broca’s aphasia - slow speech

Question 8

what is Wernicke’s area

Answer 8

• area of the temporal lobe in the left hemisphere
• responsible for language comprehension
• Wernicke’s aphasia when damaged - nonsense words

Question 9

what are the parts of the brain

Answer 9

• temporal lobe
• parietal lobe
• occipital lobe
• frontal lobe

Question 10

what is the case of Phineas Gage

Answer 10

• metre long pole went through his cheek passing through his skull
• most of his frontal lobe was missing
• his personality changed but could still carry out all other functions
• frontal lobe is involved in decision making, social, behaviour and impulse control

Question 11

what are the strengths of localisation

Answer 11

Evidence from neurosurgery
- areas of the brain linked to mental disorders
- cingulotomy involves isolating cingulate gyrus implicated in OCD
- Dougherty reported on 44 people who had the surgery done
- after 32 weeks 30% met the criteria for successful response for the surgery
- behaviours associated with serious mental disorders may be localised

Evidence from brain scans
Petersen
- Wernicke’s area active during a listening task
- Broca’s area active in a reading task
Buckner and Peterson
- episodic and semantic memories in pre-frontal cortex

Question 12

what are the limitations are localisation of function

Answer 12

Language localisation questioned
Dick and Trembley
- 2% modern researchers believe Wernicke’s are and Broca’s area control language
- language function distributed more holistically than we thought
- language centres also found in subcortical regions
- contradiction of localisation theory