Localisation of function

Question 1

What is localisation of function?

Answer 1

Specific functions have specific locations within the brain

Question 2

What does the motor area do?

Answer 2

Area involved in regulating movement

Question 3

Where is the motor area?

Answer 3

Frontal lobe

Question 4

What does the somatosensory area do?

Answer 4

Processes sensory information

Question 5

Where is the somatosensory area?

Answer 5

Parietal lobe

Question 6

What does the visual area do?

Answer 6

Receives and processes visual information

Question 7

Where is the visual area?

Answer 7

Occipital lobe

Question 8

What does the auditory area do?

Answer 8

Analysis of speech based information

Question 9

Where is the auditory area found?

Answer 9

Temporal lobe

Question 10

What does Broca’s area do?

Answer 10

Produces speech

Question 11

Where is Broca’s area found?

Answer 11

Frontal lobe

Question 12

What does Wernicke’s area do?

Answer 12

Language comprehension

Question 13

Where is Wernicke’s area found?

Answer 13

Area in the temporal lobe

Question 14

What did Broca and Wernicke discover during the 19th century?

Answer 14

That specific areas of the brain are associated with psychological and physiological functions

Question 15

What is cortical specialisation?

Answer 15

The idea that different parts of the brain are involved with different parts of the body

Question 16

What are the two hemispheres of the brain?

Answer 16

Left and right

Question 17

What is lateralisation?

Answer 17

Our functions are controlled by a particular hemisphere

Question 18

Everything on the right side of the body…

Answer 18

Is controlled by the left hemisphere

Question 19

Everything on the left side of the body…

Answer 19

Is controlled by the right hemisphere

Question 20

What is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 20

Grey layer 3mm thick covering the inner parts of the brain

Question 21

What are the 4 lobes of the brain?

Answer 21

Parietal
Occipital
Temporal
Frontal

Question 22

What might damage to the motor area cause?

Answer 22

Loss of control over fine motor movements

Question 23

What would damage to the left hemisphere cause?

Answer 23

Issues in right visual field for both eyes

Question 24

What might damage to the temporal lobes cause?

Answer 24

Hearing loss

Affect the ability to comprehend language

Question 25

What might damage to Wernickes area cause?

Answer 25

Wernickes aphasia

Produce nonsense words

Question 26

Where is language restricted to in most people?

Answer 26

Left hemisphere

Question 27

What can damage to Broca’s area cause?

Answer 27

Broca’s aphasia

Slow speech which is laborious and lacking fluency

Question 28

What did Peterson et al (1988) find?

Answer 28

Brain scans were used to demonstrate how wernickes area was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during a reading task suggesting different areas of the brain have different functions

Question 29

What did Tulving et al (1994) find?

Answer 29

Semantic and episodic memories reside in different parts of the prefrontal cortex

Question 30

How is research into localisation of function beneficial?

Answer 30

It is objective and highly scientific

Question 31

What was lobotomy and when did it develop?

Answer 31

1950’s

Imprecise and involved severing connections in the frontal lobe in an attempt to control aggressive behaviour

Question 32

What is plasticity an argument for?

Answer 32

Against localisation

Question 33

What is plasticity?

Answer 33

When the brain has be damaged and a particular function has been lost, the rest the brain is able to reorganise itself to recover the lost function

Question 34

What did Lashley do?

Answer 34

Removed between 10-50% of the cortex in rats that were learning a maze.
The process of learning appeared to use every part of the brain rather than being confined to one area

Question 35

What did Lashley suggest?

Answer 35

Higher cognitive functions such as those involved in learning are not localised but distributed in a more holistic way

Question 36

What conclusions can Lashley draw from his research?

Answer 36

Learning is too complex to be localised

Question 37

Does the case of Phineas Gage support localisation of functioning?

Answer 37

Yes

Question 38

Outline the case study of Phineas gage.

Answer 38

• He worked on the railroad and was involved in an explosive accident
• Explosive hurled a metre length pole through his left cheek, eye and exiting his skull, taking a section of his brain with it - the frontal lobe
• he went from calm to quick tempered and rude, suggesting the frontal lobe was involved in regulating mood

Question 39

What did Dougherty do? (2002)

Answer 39

Reported on 44 OCD patients who had undergone a cingulotomy at post surgical follow up after 32 weeks, 1/3 met the criteria for a successful response and 14% a partial response