Chapter 3 Flashcards
Who published the first accurate and detailed description of the brain’s complex physical shape?
Thomas Willis
What did Thomas Willis emphasise?
The substance (grey/white matter) of the brain’s various structures
The stalks of white matter (nerve tissue) that interconnect the two halves of the brain
Commissures
Whose anatomical findings laid the groundwork for the discovery of neurons?
Franz Josef Gall
The reading of a person’s character in his or her physical features
Physiognomy
Who promoted physiognomy?
Johan Kasper Lavater
What are the three factors that made Gall’s theory of phrenology weak?
- Assumed that the shape of the skull accurately reflects the shape of the brain
- Oversimplified faculty solution
- Unreliable testing of hypotheses (fatal flaw)
The surgical removal of specific small parts of an animal’s brain, in order to observe any resulting changes in behaviour of function
Ablation
Who discovered that electrical stimulation in the motor strip region elicits specific movements on the oppossite side of the body?
Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig
What three areas did David Ferrier discover?
- Visual area
- Auditory area
- Strip immediately behind the motor strip associated with sensory functions for the same body parts
When patients can speak fluently with correct grammar, but their understanding of spoken language is severely impaired
Sensory aphasia
Speech marked by numerous peculiar words and mispronunciations
Paraphasia’s
The brain region implicated in sensory aphasia
Wernicke’s area
Association fibres between Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas get demaged while the areas remain intact, and so self-monitoring of speech gets lost
Conduction aphasia
The brain has sufficient neural plasticity so that when one part of it is injured, other parts can potentially take over in providing the same functions
Equipotentiality
