BIOPSYCHOLOGY - localisation of function in the brain

Question 1

what is localisation of function?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

what is the holistic theory?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

what is the motor area?

Answer 3

a region of the frontal lobe involved in regulating movement

Question 4

damage to motor area causes…

Answer 4

loss of control over fine movements

Question 5

what is the somatosensory area?

Answer 5

an area of the parietal lobe that processes sensory info such as touch

Question 6

what is the visual area?

Answer 6

a part of the occipital lobe that receives and processes visual info

each eye sends info from the RVF to left visual cortex and from LVF to right visual cortex.

Question 7

damage to the LH could cause..

Answer 7

blindness in part of the RVF for both eyes

Question 8

what is the auditory area?

Answer 8

located in the temporal lobe and concerned with the analysis of speech- based infromation

Question 9

damage to temporal lobe can cause…

Answer 9

hearing loss

Question 10

what is Broca’s area?

Answer 10

• small area in left frontal lobe
• speech production
• damage = Broca’s aphasia - slow speech, lacks fluency
• difficulty with prepositions and conjunctions

Question 11

what is Wernicke’s area?

Answer 11

• region in the left temporal lobe
• responsible for language understanding
• damage = Wernicke’s aphasia - nonsense words as part of their speech

Question 12

give strengths of localisation theory?

Answer 12

+ damage has been linked to mental disorders
eg Dougherty et al (2002) said that 44 people who has undergone cingulotomy ( isolating region called the cingulate gyrus which has been implicated in OCD), 30% met criteria for successful response to surgery, 14% partial response
= behaviours associated with serious mental disorders may be localised

+ evidence from brain scans supports the idea that many everyday brain functions are localised.
Petersen et al found through a brain scan that Wernicke’s area was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during a reading task = objective methods provide scientific evidence that many brain functions are localised.

Question 13

give limitations of localisation theory?

Answer 13

• Lashley removed areas of the cortex in rats that were learning the route of the maze = no area was proven to be more important than any other area in terms of the rats’ ability to learn the route = suggests that higher cognitive processes are distributed in a more holistic way.
• language may not be localised to just Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
  eg 2% of modern researchers think that language is distributed far more holistically. fMRI allows neural processes to be studied clearly which show that there are language streams across the cortex, including in the RH = contradicts localisation theory