Brain injury Flashcards
What is the prefrontal cortex’s role and what would happen if it is damaged?
Role - decision making, planning, problem solving
Damaged- can’t regulate amygdala (responsible for aggressive actions) so low tolerance for frustration. Increased restlessness and impulsivity. Poor cognitive skills due to 18% reduction of frontal lobe
What is the hypothalamus’ role and what would happen if it is damaged?
Role - hormone regulation, homeostasis
Damaged - unable to regulate appropriate levels of hormones in relation to behaviour
What is the role of the hippocampus and what would happen if it was damaged?
Role - memory consolidation: STM to LTM
Damaged - problems creating episodic mems, unable to learn emotional responses and learn from experience. Poor learning of when or not to be aggressive, links to recidivism
What is the role of the amygdala and what would happen if it is damaged?
Role - emotional regulation, fight/flight
Damage - lack of emotional responses, inability to understand emotion, poor regulation of fight/flight, reduced ability to sense of danger
What is a TBI?
Traumatic brain injury, from sudden impact of the head which results in injury of brain
What is ABI?
Acquired brain injury, injury to the brain for internal reasons like a stroke/infection/lack of oxygen
What is the link between gender and brain injury?
Young boys are more likely to get a TBI as they are more likely to involve themselves in risk taking activities than woman
evidence for brain injury
Phinneas gauge - he had a rod go through his head that caused significant damage to his frontal lobe and amygdala, this caused him to be erratic and made him a lot more aggressive
Applications
this has a lot of applications to society the reach done to brain injury helps make sure we know what the implications of getting these injuries is to a person - on the other hand it is almost impossible to treat brain injury’s and when the brain is injured it is impossible to rehabilitate it.
how good is the research
most research such as raine et al was studied in a lab which lacks ecological validity, this means that it is hard to make sure that the research done into it reflects the real life behaviours of people that have brain injurys.
