Localisation and Lateralisation (BioPsychology) Flashcards
Key terms
Look at booklet :)
Localisation of function
Localisation of function
Motor Area
The motor area is located in the frontal lobe and is responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body.
Hitzig and Frisch (1870) first discovered that different areas of the motor correct by electrically stimulating the motor area of dogs. And so on……….
LOCATION- Frontal Lobe
Somatosensory Area
The somatosensory Area is located in the parietal lobe and recieves incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature etc. Different parts of the somatosensory Area recieve messages from different locations of the body. Robertson (1995) found that this area of the brain is highly adaptable, with Braille readers having larger areas in the somatosensory Area for their fingertips compared to normal sighted participants.
LOCATION- Parietal Lobe
Auditory Area
The auditory Area is located in the temporal lobe and is responsible for analysing processing acoustic information. Information from the left ear goes primarily to the right hemisphere and information from the right ear goes primarily to the left hemisphere. The auditory area contains different parts, and the primary auditory area is involved is processing simple features of sound, including volume, tempo and pitch.
LOCATION- Temporal Lobe
Language Centres: Broca’s Area
Discovered by Paul Broca, who discovered this region while treating a patient names Leborgne, who was more commonly referred to as ‘Tan’.
Tan could understand spoken language but was unable to produce any coherent words, and could only say ‘Tan’.
After his death Tan’s death Broca conducted a post-mortem examination on Tan’s brain and discovered that he had a lesion in the left frontal lobe. This led Broca to conclude that this area was responsible for speech production. People with damage to this area and experience Broca’s aphasia, which results in slow and inarticulate speech.
LOCATION- Left Frontal Lobe
Visual Area
At the back of the brain, in the occipital lobe is the visual area, which receives and processes visual information. Information from the right-hand side visual field is processed in the left hemisphere, and information from the left-hand side visual field is processed in the right hemisphere. The visual area contains different parts that process different types of information including colour, shape or movement.
LOCATION- Occipital Lobe
Language Centres: Wernicke’s Area
Wernicke’s area found in the left temporal lobe, and it is thought to be involved in language processing/ comprehension. People with damage to this area struggle to comprehend language, often producing sentences that are fluent, but meaningless
He found that patients with lesions to Wernicke’s area were still able to speak, but were unable to comprehend language.
LOCATION- Left Temporal Lobe
Evaluation
Hemispheric Lateralisation
Lateralisation is the idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and that each hemishpere has functional specialisations, e.g. the left is dominant for language, and the right excels at visual motor tasks. The two hemispheres are connected through nerve fibres called the corpus callosum, which facilitate interhemispheric communication: allowing the left and right hemishperes to ‘talk to’ one another.
Evaluation
Split Brain Research Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967).
Aim: To examine the extent to which the two hemispheric lateralisation with the use of split-brain patients.
Method: look in booklet and for findings.
Conclusion: The findings highlight a number of key differences between the two hemishperes. Firstly, the left hemisphere is dominant in terms of speech and language. Secondly, the right hemisphere is dominant in terms of visual-motor tasks.
