cognitive neuropsych and language Flashcards
Define what is meant by cognitive neuropsychology
-Relationship between brain regions and behaviour
-Assign psychological functions to particular brain functions
-Links to brain damaged patients, using imaging and lesion studies
How do people damage their brains?
-Missile wounds e.g. bullets
-Tumours e.g. cancer
-Impact e.g. road accidents
-Injury e.g. traumatic
-Surgery e.g. intractable epilepsy
-Disease e.g. hydrocephalus
-Strokes e.g. bleeds
What are the assumptions?
-Brain function = localised and modular
-Localisation of function = functions tend to rely on different brain structures
-E.g. language and memory rely on many different parts of the brain
-Some areas are specialised to perform roles
What are the 2 historical cognitive neuropsychologists?
-Franz Jospeh Gall and Johan Spurzheim
-Suggested idea of protruding eyes meaning they are a large brain pushing their eyes out
What was found when looking into localisation of function?
-Studied individuals with skills in maths, music etc.
-Found ‘bumps’ in areas of their skull
-Stated that the region underneath was under developed
What is phrenology?
-Study of the skull structure which allows us to indicate mental faculties
-E.g. amativeness (sex drive)
What is cranioscopy?
-Observations of human skull
-Used as a method of personality assessment
What was done in the study to look at phrenology?
-Used cranioscopy
-Assessments were subjective
-Found that the outside of the skull wasn’t the same as the inside of the skull
What was the study done looking into recovery?
-Lesion parts of cortex of different animals were looked into
-Observations of behaviours
-At first = moved little and didn’t eat/drink
-Later = recovery of function and appeared normal
What do lesions in the brain stem mean?
-Permanent breathing difficulties
What do lesions to the cerebellum mean?
-Loss of locomotor coordination
-Body moved in one direction/same direction
-E.g. walking, skipping
What is Broadmann’s (1909) cytoarchitectonic map?
-Mapping outer cortex of the brain
-Labelled zones based on cell organisation, type and connections
What did Bouillaud suggest?
-Certain functions ate localised and lateralised
-If there is damage to the left hemisphere then this will typically cause impaired movement on the right side
What is Broca’s area?
-Anterior speech regions
-Broadmann area 44 and 45
-Specialised in allowing you to talk
-Between frontal lobe and temporal lobe
What is Broca’s aphasia?
-Syndrome that results from damage to this area
-Inability to talk
What is Wernicke’s area?
-Investigated the region of the cortex that receives info from the ear
-Region of temporal lobe, near the back
-Broadmann area 22
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
-Found that the patients spoke fluently but had no sense
-They could hear but couldn’t understand what was spoken to them
What is Wernicke’s model of language processing?
-Auditory info is sent to different regions
-Wernicke’s area, arcuate fasciculus and Broca’s area
What is conduction aphasia?
-Impairment in the ability to repeat words despite intact comprehension and fluent speech
-Neurons that run from one region to another that specialises in language processing is damaged = Arcuate fasciculus
