Localisation of function Flashcards
What’s the history of the brain?
Before 19th Century when Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas were discovered Psychologists widely adopted a holistic theory of the brain – all parts of the brain were thought to be involved in processing of thought and action. This was known as the holistic theory.
It is now widely assumed that if brain damage occurs to a specific area of the brain, the associated function would also be damaged.
Broca & Wernicke discovered that different areas of the brain were associated with functions - localisation of function.
What is lateralisation?
Some physical & psychological functions are dominated by a particular hemisphere
What is localisation of function?
The idea that different parts of the brain are involved with certain tasks and with different parts of the body.
This then led to the idea that if certain areas of the brain are damaged that the function associated with this area would also become damaged.
What is the cerebral cortex?
A 3mm outer layer covering the inner parts of the brain
What are the hemispheres of the brain?
The brain is divided into two symmetrical halves - left & right hemisphere.
How does brain activity of each hemisphere control bodily functions?
Brain activity of the left hemisphere controls bodily functions on the right side.
Brain activity on the right hemisphere controls bodily functions on the left side.
What is the frontal lobe?
Motor area: involved with regulating movement.
Controls movement on the opposite side of the body.
Reasoning, creativity, judgement, planning, behaviour control and emotion.
If damaged: affects personality, social and sexual behaviour.
What is the parietal lobe?
Somatosensory area: where sensory information from the skin is located, i.e., heat, touch.
Movement, orientation, recognition, perception, touch, pain, taste, pressure & temperature.
If damaged: Impaired reading, writing, and sensory perception.
What is the occipital lobe?
Visual area: Vision, detection of movement and colour
If damaged Visual disturbances, visual hallucinations
What is the temporal lobe?
Auditory area: Word understanding, memory, speech, hearing, language.
When damaged: Impaired memory, hearing, understanding spoken language.
Where is the broca’s and wernicke’s area?
Broca’s - left frontal lobe
Wernicke’s - left temporal lobe
What is the broca’s area?
Found a small area in the left frontal lobe responsible for speech production.
Damage: Slow speech, lack of fluency, Broca’s aphasia.
What is the wernicke’s lobe?
Identified a region in the left temporal lobe linked to understanding speech and comprehension.
Damage: Produce nonsense words, wernicke’s aphasia.
What are the strengths of localisation of function?
What are the limitations of localisation of function?
