localisation and lateralisation

Question 1

4 lobes :

Answer 1

frontal
parietal
occipital
temporal

Question 2

frontal lobe function

Answer 2

higher order processes e.g attention, memory, emotions, problem solving etc

Question 3

parietal lobe function

Answer 3

integrates sensory information with regards to touch, taste and visio-spatial information

Question 4

occipital lobe function

Answer 4

visual processes such as interpreting info from the eye

Question 5

temporal lobe function

Answer 5

perception and recognition of auditory information

Question 6

left hemisphere is responsible for

Answer 6

language

Question 7

right hemisphere is responsible for

Answer 7

visuo spatial skills

Question 8

contralaterally meaning

Answer 8

left hemisphere controls right side of body and vice versa

Question 9

localisation of function meaning

Answer 9

specific areas of the cerebral cortex are associated with specific functions

Question 10

brocas aphasia meaning

Answer 10

cant produce language but can understand

Question 11

wernickes aphasia meaning

Answer 11

cant understand language but can produce

Question 12

global aphasia meaning

Answer 12

cant understand or produce language

Question 13

4 cortex’s:

Answer 13

motor
somatosensory
visual
auditory

Question 14

motor cortex location and function

Answer 14

frontal lobe in both hemispheres
-sends messages to muscles via brain stem and spinal cord to control movement of body

Question 15

somatosensory cortex location and function

Answer 15

parietal lobe
-recieves incoming sensory info from skin to produce sensations e.g pain

Question 16

visual cortex location and function

Answer 16

occipital lobe
-recieves and processes visual info and contains different parts that processes differences info including colour and shape

Question 17

auditory cortex location and function

Answer 17

temporal lobe
-analysing and processing accoustic info and contains different parts

Question 18

brocas area location and function

Answer 18

frontal lobe of left hemisphere
-production of speech, damage = brocas aphasia

Question 19

wernicked area location and function

Answer 19

left temporal lobe
-responsible for language comprehension, damage = wernickes aphasia

Question 20

Brocas research and further research (evaluation)

Answer 20

• studied an epileptic patient (Tan) who lost his speech, conducted a post mortem investigation on his brain and discovered a lesion to left frontal lobe
• Domanski - his brain was preserved and scanned using modern day technologyand found area responsible for speech was correctly localised
• Dronkers carried out an MRI and found there was furhter damage = cant be sure

Question 21

localisation evaluation

Answer 21

• biological reductionism, reduces complex human bahviours and cognitive processes to one specific brain region, highly unlikely memory is a result of activation of 1 brain area / counterpoint = Lashley equipotentiality theory = basic functions are localised but more complex functions arnt
• gender differences in cognitive function, Broca’s and Wernickes area is sexually dimorphic (larger in females) may explain why girls perform better at language subjects = beta bias and cant generalise

Question 22

hemispherical lateralisation definition

Answer 22

hemispheres are bridged by the corpus collosum which is a bundle of fibres that acts as communication between each hemispheres
each hemisphere has a different function which explains why theyre not symmetrical, brain is contralateral (right controls left side of body and vice versa
left hemisphere=language
right hemisphere=spacial awareness

Question 23

split brain AO1

Answer 23

refers to damage to the corpus collosum causing disruption to the communication between the 2 hemispheres, the seperation is sometimes medically induced to combat effects of severe, drug resilient epilepsy - this can have major effects on a persons behaviour and perception
if visual material was presented to right visual field alone the p only used their right hand to draw etc but if presented to left visual field they couldn’t and then Sperry compared these to a control group=supports lateralisation and 2 different streams of consciousness

Question 24

Sperry’s research evaluations

Answer 24

• limitation is the sample of the control group had neither epilepsy or split brain procedure = 2 key differences in the group, using epileptic p without split brain wouldve increased internal validity
• issues in generalising, small sample of 11 patients = have experienced many seizures and had lots of medication at high doses so functioning of their brains differ to general pop so may not be lateralised the same
• not many ethical issues, p’s had split brain for their epilepsy not for research = unique opportunity to study effects of such an invasive procedure without causing harm however p’s may not fully know what theyre signing up for