Hemispheric lateralisation

Question 1

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 1

The fact that the brain is made up of two hemispheres and each one is responsible for different functions

Question 2

What connects the two hemispheres?

Answer 2

The corpus callosum, it allows them to communicate with one another

Question 3

Which side of the body does the left hemisphere control?

Answer 3

the right

Question 4

What’s the left hemisphere responsible for?

Answer 4

Spoken and written language
Numerical and scientific skills
Ability to use and understand sign language
Reasoning

Question 5

What’s the right hemisphere responsible for?

Answer 5

Musical and artistic awareness
Space and pattern perception
Recognition of faces and emotional content of facial expressions
Generating emotional content of language
Generating mental images to compare spatial relationships

Question 6

What 2 areas are found in the left hemisphere suggesting language is lateralised?

Answer 6

Broca’s area
Wenicke’s area

Question 7

Examples of non-lateralised functions

Answer 7

The visual, motor, somatosensory and auditory cortex are present on both hemispheres so both hemispheres control their functions

Question 8

What are the limitations of the theory of hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 8

Ignores brain plasticity - Turk et al (2002) - questions validity
Ignores individual differences - Szaflarki et al (2006) - cannot apply to everyone (population validity?)