Introduction to cognitive neuropsychology and the cognitive neuropsychology of language Flashcards
What is cognitive neuropsychology?
The study of the relations between brain functions and behaviour (especially as determined through evidence from damaged brains).
What are the main ways in which a brain injury can be acquired?
- Missile wounds
- Tumours
- Impact
- Surgery
- Disease
- Strokes
What is the assumption of modality of brain function?
Localisation - brain function is modular with different structures performing different roles (although functions rely on distributed brain systems - interlinked).
What did Franz Joseph Gall recall?
Students with good memories had protruding eyes = theories:
- localisation of function and individual differences
- phrenology
How were phrenological bumps assessed?
Cranioscopy (measuring tool)
Who tricked Johan Spurzheim into thinking he was admiring the skull of Laplace, when it was actually an imbecile?
Flourens.
Why did phrenology fall?
- Entirely subjective
- Outside of skull doesn’t even mirror inside of skull, let alone brain.
- Completely made up.
What did Flourens find when he lesioned parts of the cortex on different animals?
- At first the animals moved very little and refused to eat or drink
- Later they recovered function until they appeared normal.
= inconsistent with localisation.
What do lesions to the brainstem cause?
Permanent breathing difficulties.
What do lesions to the cerebellum cause?
Loss of locomotor coordination.
What are Brodmann’s areas?
Areas he mapped according to the appearance of cells in the cortex under a microscope - cytoarchitectonics.
What is cytoarchitectonic structure influenced by?
Connections - it should therefore map onto psychological functions.
What did Jean Baptiste Boullard propose?
- Certain brain functions are localised
- Damage to left hemisphere = impaired movement on the right.
- Language on left, loss of speech when pressure applied to exposed frontal lobes.
What did Paul Broca do?
Found Broca’s area:
- Autopsy on Tan revealed a lesion in the left frontal lobe.
- Demonstrated lateralisation and localisation
- Anterior speech region
- Broca’s aphasia.
What did Carl Wernicke do?
- Investigated temporal lobe region behind Broca’s area - region of the cortex that receives information from the ear.
- Patients with damage there spoke fluently but with no sense (Wernicke’s aphasia) - they could hear but not understand.
