Hemispheric Lateralisation Flashcards
What are the two hemispheres connected by?
Corpus callosum
What does contralateral mean?
Each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
The division of functions between the two hemispheres
What is the left hemisphere responsible for?
Processing of language
Where are the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas found?
left hemisphere
What is Broca’s area responsible for?
speech production
What is Wernicke’s area responsible for?
language comprehension
What is the right hemisphere responsible for?
processing of visual information, imagination and creativity
What was the name of Broca’s patient, and what was his condition?
Tan, he could only produce one spoken word: ‘tan’ and suffered complete paralysis down the right side of his body
What did Broca find when performing a brain autopsy on Tan?
A lesion on the left temporal lobe of Tan’s brain
What is the name of the condition based on Broca and what does it mean?
Broca’s aphasia - used as a diagnose for people who have difficulty producing speech
What problem did Wernicke identify?
That patients were able to speak but not able to comprehend language
What did Wernicke find when analysing patient’s brains?
Damage to the temporal lobe in the left hemisphere
What is the name of the condition based on Wernicke and what does it mean?
Wernicke’s aphasia - used as a diagnose for people who have difficulty understanding language and accessing the correct words
What is the term for the procedure severing the corpus callosum?
Corpus callosotomy
Who did Sperry use as participants?
11 patients who had a corpus callosotomy as a treatment for their epileptic seizures
What three tasks were used to measure the visual fields?
Describe what you see, tactile tests and drawing tasks
What happened when the picture was presented to the right visual field in the describing task?
The patient could perfectly describe what they saw
What happened when the picture was presented to the left visual field in the describing task?
The patient could not describe what was shown and often reported that there was nothing there
What happened when an object was placed into the right hand in the tactile task?
The patient could describe verbally what they felt or they could identify the test object presented in the right hand by selecting a similar appropriate object.
What happened when an object was placed into the left hand in the tactile task?
The patient could not describe what they felt and could only make wild guesses. But, the left hand could identify a test object presented in the left hand by selecting a similar appropriate object.
What happened when an object was presented to the right visual field in the drawing task?
The right-hand would attempt to draw a picture, but it wasn’t very clear.
What happened when an object was presented to the left visual field in the drawing task?
The left-hand would consistently draw clearer and better pictures
What was the conclusion made about the left and right hemispheres based on Sperry’s research?
The left hemisphere is dominant in terms of speech and language, while the right hemisphere is dominant in terms of visual-motor tasks/
