Localisation and Lateralisation

Question 1

what are the names of each area of the brain called?

Answer 1

-motor cortex - controls voluntary movements
-somatosensory cortex - processes sensory information (will lose sensations if damaged)
-visual cortex - receives and processes visual information (blindness if damaged)
-auditory cortex - concerned with analysis of speech-based information (hearing loss if damaged)
-Broca’s area
-Wernicke’s area

Question 2

what is localisation of function?

Answer 2

-the idea that different parts of the brain perform specific functions
-if a certain part is damaged, then the function associated with it could be affected or lost all together

Question 3

what is a holistic machine ?

Answer 3

-the whole brain is used to carry out a behaviour
-opposite of localisation

Question 4

what is aphasia?

Answer 4

-language disorder
- brocas area is damaged
-left frontal lobe

Question 5

what is brocas area?

Answer 5

-area of frontal lobe
-responsible for speech production
-if damaged will experience:
-lack of fluency with speech
-know what you want to say but you cant

Question 6

what is wernicke’s area?

Answer 6

-area of temporal lobe
-in left hemisphere
-responsible for language comprehension
-if damaged will experience:
-difficulty making sense of what you say

Question 7

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 7

-idea that two halves of the brain are functionally different
-each hemisphere has functional specialisations

Question 8

Explain how unusual behaviour in split brain patients could be tested in an experiment?

Answer 8

• the overall study was the Sperry (1968) who tested split brain patients with different experiments:
  -one being the key ring - two words displayed on a screen - he would say the word ring (seen by the right visual field and processed by left hemisphere controls speech)
  -pick up the key (seen by left visual field and processed by right hemisphere specialised for facial recognition
  -chimeric face experiment - say saw a man and select an image of a woman

Question 9

discuss Sperry (1968) research about split brain patients?

Answer 9

-participant gazes at a fixation point on a tachistoscope
-a stimulus (word/image) is projected on the screen
-one visual field or the other
-1 word/image per 0.1 of a second

Question 10

strengths and weaknesses into research of split brain patients?

Answer 10

-strengths:
-performed in a lab, highly controlled setting
-results were compared to a control group-shows difference in how brains work
-research based on multiple patients and all demonstrated same results
weaknesses:
-only 11 males studied - lacks generalisability to females as their brains might work differently
-all were epileptic - could have already affected brain functioning
-very rare cases-difficult to replicate today, reliant on original evidence

Question 11

case study of HM?

Answer 11

-HM suffered from epilepsy
-he had both sides of his hippocampus removed
-he had no memories and lost the ability to form new memories
-his intellectual abilities remained and he had normal digit span
-could learn new motor skills by repeated practise

Question 12

Evaluation of HM case study?

Answer 12

-this is strong evidence that the hippocampus is responsible for memory
-has only happened to one male and he had epilepsy so not generalisable to others
-removing the hippocampi may have damaged surrounding tissues decreasing accuracy

Question 13

brocas study of leborgne and others?

Answer 13

-leborgne appeared perfectly healthy but couldn’t speak apart from one syllable ‘tan’
-when he died, broca inspected his brain and found a lesion in frontal lobe of left hemisphere (Brocas area)
-he found the exact same lesion in a different patient who could only say 5 words

Question 14

evaluation of brocas study of leborgne?

Answer 14

• multiple cases with consistent results so conclusive and replicable
  -however in some cases, other brain areas were also damaged