Brain and nurophychology- Understand the lateralisation of function in the hemispheres Flashcards
What is the asymmetrical function?
The two hemispheres of the brain are not exactly the same, both in terms of their structure and their functions. Although they may look very similar, they do not mirror images of one another
What is the role of the left hemisphere?
Plays a big role in the processing of language. An area in the left hemisphere, known as Broca’s area, controls the production of speech. Also helps us to control our ability to write and to understand language.
What is the role of the right hemisphere?
Has a large role to play in our spatial awareness. Control our ability to recognise and perceive faces. It is often seen as being more creative. Involved processing of music and also in making sense of visual information
What is the role of the corpus callosum?
Is a thick band of nerves fibres that connects the left and right hemispheres together. It allows messages to be passed from the left to the right hemisphere and vice versa.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
lateralisation as an explanation of sex differences between males and females?
Some studies have provided evidence to show that male and female brains work differently because of how the roles of different areas of the cortex are organised.
There is plenty of evidence to support differences in the brains of males and females.
- Brain scans
- Laboratory experiments
These methods allow the research to be well controlled and help to prevent the interference of extraneous variables. This strengthens the explanation as the research evidence is scientific and so the explanation, developed from this evidence, can also be seen as such.
Some evidence that the right and left hemisphere of male and females brains may work slightly differently, the research has weaknesses. e.g. Rilea et al, (2005) study, males did not always do better than females on the spatial tasks. There were spatial tasks used in the study that did not use a lot of ‘ right-brain’ activity. So the differences in how males and females use the right hemisphere for spatial tasks cannot account for all differences in performance.
e.g A study published by Sommer et al, (2004) suggested that there was no strong evidence that females used both hemispheres for language tasks, meaning that this is not a good explanation for girls bring better at language skills than boys
What is spatial awareness?
The ability to negotiate space and navigate our way around our environment
What is vice versa?
What you have said is also true in the opposite order
