Lateralisation, Language and Intelligence Flashcards
What is lateralisation?
Lateralisation is the localisation of a function in one hemisphere or the other.
What is split-brain operation?
Where pathways connecting the right and left hemispheres are severed, called commissures.
What is the largest commissure?
The corpus callosum.
What commissure links the two temporal lobes?
The anterior commissure.
What commissure links the right and left hippocampi?
The hippocampal commissure.
What is savant behaviour?
Exceptional skills and talents found in people whose intellectual functioning otherwise falls within the range of mental retardation.
What is associated with right-hemisphere function?
- Art.
- Music.
- Spatial skills.
What is Rasmussen’s syndrome?
A rare brain disorder that produces seizures in only one hemisphere.
- Generally in children under the age of 5.
How is Rasmussen’s syndrome treated?
The only course of treatment is the removal of one entire hemisphere.
What is neuroplasticity?
Changes in the neurons of neural pathways, as a result of behaviour, environment, neural processes, thinking or emotions, and damage.
What is the left hemisphere associated with?
- Language.
- Mathematics.
- Logical processing.
How is language defined?
The communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Which brain region is believed to play a significant role in speech production.
The left inferior frontal region.
- This area is now called Broca’s area.
How is aphasia defined?
Total or partial loss of the ability to either produce or comprehend spoken language.
What are the symptoms of Broca’s area?
- Difficulty in producing speech.
- Very slow speech, that requires significant effort.
- Errors occur in the pronunciation of some phonemes.
