Localisation of function and plasticity Flashcards
What lobe is the motor cortex in
The frontal lobe
What lobe is the somatosensory cortex in
The parietal lobe
What lobe is the visual cortex in
The occipital lobe
What lobe is the auditory cortex in
The temporal lobe
What lobe is the wernickes area in
The temporal lobe
What lobe is the Broca’s area in
The frontal lobe
Define brain plasticity
The brain is plastic in the sense that I can change and adapt as a response to stimuli throughout our lives to fit our needs
What is synaptic pruning
Synaptic pruning is the brain deleting or strengthening neural pathways depending on how often we use them
What are the three ways that the brain recovers
Axonal sprouting: growth of new nerve ending to connect with undamaged nerve cells to for neural pathways
Reformation of blood vessels
Recruitment of homologous areas: areas in the brain that are similar can take on the role of the lost area (compensating for the lack of activity in damaged areas)
How old was little Jodie when she had the hemispherectomy (C)
3 years old
What research did maguire do into Plasticity? (P) 🟩
Maguire studied the brains of london taxi drivers after doing a test called “the knowledge” and found increased grey matter in the posterior hippocampus which is associated with navigational skills
How did Bezzola demonstrate that plasticity doesn’t always decline sharply with age? (P) 🟩
Bezzola made participants aged 40 to 60 do 40 hours of golf training, using fMRI scans bezzola found increased activity in the motor cortex
Where did tulving find Episodic and semantic memories to be located (P)
🟩 + 🟥
Tulving used a sample of 11 participants (including himself and his wife) and concluded:
Semantic: Posterior cortex
Episodic: Anterior cortex
How can plasticity be bad for us? (P) 🟥
The brain adapting to repeated drug use leads to poor cognitive functioning and increased risk of dementia
How does little Jodie support Functional recovery/ go against localisation of function? (P) 🟩/🟥
Little Jodie had seizures because of Rasmussen’s syndrome (seizures) that originated in the right hemisphere.
Doctors removed the right Hemisphere and replaced it with cerebrospinal fluid, her left hemisphere took on all the responsibilities of the right and within weeks she was walking with both legs.
How did Broca find the Broca’s area (P) 🟩
Broca looked at a case study (Tan) who could only find tan, post mortum Broca found Legions in Tans frontal lobe, that area was named Broca’s area
What areas were damaged for Phineas Gage and how did he change (P) 🟩 + 🟥
Frontal lobe
Before Gage was considered calm and collected but became quick tempered and rude
What field of research came from research into functional recovery? (P) 🟩
Neurorehabilitation
What can damage to the visual cortex cause
Loss of sight (cortical blindness)
what can damage to motor cortex cause
Loss of fine muscle function of the opposite side of the body
what can damage
To the somatosensori cortex cause
Loss of sensation on the opposite side of the body
what can damage to auditory cortex cause
Loss of hearing (cortical deafness)
What can damage to the Broca’s area cause
Broca’s aphasia, for example they cannot use prepositions correctly
What can damage to the Wernicke’s area cause
Wernicke’s aphasia, struggling to understand fluent speech
Who is more likely to recover from damage to the brain
(Age and gender)
Younger people
Women
Who was EB
A 14 year old patient with massive brain tumours on the left, after a hemispherectomy, he lost all speech abilities and after a few years was fully capable speech with a few dyslexia type symptoms.
What kind of scan did Maguire use
FMRI
Where did Maguire find better after the knowledge test
Posterior hippocampus
