Localisation of Function

Question 1

what is localisation of function?

Answer 1

Localisation of function refers to a theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, processes and activities

Question 2

When was research into this carried out? and who by?

Answer 2

Research into localisation of function was carried out by Paul Broca and Karl Wernicke

Question 3

What are different areas of the brain?

Answer 3

visual cortex, motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, auditory cortex

Question 4

Where is the visual cortex located and what does it process?

Answer 4

The visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe and processes visual information

Question 5

How does the visual cortex function?

Answer 5

Nerve impulses are transferred from the retina to the visual cortex via the optic nerves

Question 6

Where is the auditory cortex and what does it process?

Answer 6

The auditory cortex is located in the temporal lobe and is responsible for auditory processes

Question 7

How does the auditory cortex process auditory information?

Answer 7

the cochlea detects sound and then transports messages to the brain stem for basic processing, then onto the auditory cortex

Question 8

Where is the motor cortex located and what is it responsible for?

Answer 8

The motor cortex is located in the frontal lobe and is responsible for co-ordinating movement

Question 9

Where is the somatosensory cortex located and what is it responsible for?

Answer 9

The somatosensory cortex is located in the parietal lobe and it processes information relating to sensory information (e.g touch, pain, pressure and temperature)

Question 10

What is the left hemisphere responsible for and what is located in the left hemisphere?

Answer 10

The left hemisphere is believed to be the language centre of the brain, it contains the Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area

Question 11

What is the Wernickes area, where is it located and what is it responsible for?

Answer 11

The Wernicke’s area is located in the temporal lobe (encircling the auditory cortex) and is responsible for speech comprehension

Question 12

What is Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 12

Wernicke’s aphasia is when damage occurs to the wernicke’s area, impairing one’s abillity to comprehend speech (as its ability to recieve sound impulses has been impaired), whilst speech is fluent - it is often meaningless

Question 13

What is the Broca’s area + what is it responsible for?

Answer 13

The Broca’s area is located in the left frontal lobe of the brain and is responsible for speech production.

Question 14

What does damage to the area cause?

Answer 14

Damage to the Broca’s area leads to the development of Broca’s aphasia - this is characterised by slow, laborious and lacking in fluency

Question 15

Who is a case study for Broca’s aphasia, what did they find, when did they study him?

Answer 15

A case study depicting Broca’s aphasia is Patient Tan, after suffering damage to his Broca’s area, the patient was unable to utter any word besides the word ‘Tan’, following his death and post-mortem examination - They found he had experienced severe damage to his left frontal lobe.

Question 16

What is an evaluation for this patient?

Answer 16

Dronkers et al (2007) conducted an MRI scan on Patient Tan, and found that neighbouring areas of the brain were also damaged, thus Broca’s aphasia may occur as a result of damage to other brain areas rather than the Broca’s area solely, something which is unaccounted for in the initial research by Paul Broca

Question 17

What evaluation supports localisation of function?

Answer 17

Research by petersen et al (1988) used brain scans to demonstrate the increased activity of the Wernicke’s area during a listening task and the Broca’s area during a reading task, the increase of activity supporting the theory of different purposes/activity for differing brain areas

Question 18

Evaluate this research

Answer 18

Petersen used a scientific method of testing the theory, thus his research has strong internal validity and is able to be replicated to support his findings.

Question 19

What is a case study that supports localisation of function?

Answer 19

Phineas Gage

Question 20

What happened to this individual?

Answer 20

Phineas Gage experienced an accident whilst working on the railway i which a 3 foot pole, struck through his head, causing severe damage to his left frontal lobe. This led to changes in his personality, as he lost his sense of inhibition and anger. this acts to support the theory of localisation of function, as it suggests specific areas of the brain to be associated with particular behaviours (e.g one’s personality)

Question 21

What are evaluations for this case study?

Answer 21

• As it was entirely specific and subjective to Phineas Gage’s experience, we cannot generalise its findings to a wider population
• Furthermore, the findings and scientific methodology used to study this case are dated back to the 1800’s thus we cannot be assured of it’s accuracy, causing the findings to lack historical validity.

Question 22

What is an evaluation of all research supporting the theory?

Answer 22

Whilst there is much research supporting the theory, it fails to take into account the individual differences.

Question 23

What differences?

Answer 23

Gender differences, women as studied by Herasty (1997) are found to have larger Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas than men, suggesting there to be more ease in language comprehension

Question 24

What does this imply?

Answer 24

This implies that the theory suffers from a level of beta bias (as it fails to account for the individual differences between men and women - as seen in the area studied during scans/activities).