Localisation Of Function In The Brain

Question 1

What is localisation of function?

Answer 1

The idea that the brain has particular regions that are responsible for specific functions.

Question 2

The brain is ________.

Answer 2

Contralateral.

Question 3

Answer 3

Question 4

Functions of frontal lobe:

Answer 4

-Voluntary motor movements (motor cortex).
-Speech production (Broca’s area).
-Consciousness.

Question 5

Functions of partial lobe:

Answer 5

-Touch perception (somatosensory cortex).
-Sensory input.

Question 6

Functions of occipital lobe:

Answer 6

-Vision (visual cortex).

Question 7

Functions of temporal lobe:

Answer 7

-Auditory processing.
-Language comprehension (Wernicke’s area).

Question 8

Motor cortex:
-Area of brain
-Responsibilities
-Hemispheres
-Damage

Answer 8

-Frontal lobe.
-Voluntary motor movements.
-Both.
-Impaired movements.

Question 9

Somatosensory cortex:
-Area of brain
-Responsibilities
-Hemispheres
-Damage

Answer 9

-Parietal lobe.
-Detects incoming sensory events (e.g. touch) to produce sensations (e.g. pain).
-Both.
-Lack of sensations (such as pressure, temperature and pain).

Question 10

Visual cortex:
-Area of brain
-Responsibilities
-Hemispheres
-Damage

Answer 10

-Occipital lobe.
-Vision.
-Both.
-Damaged eyesight (e.g. damaged LVA produces blindness in RVF).

Question 11

Auditory cortex:
-Area of brain
-Responsibilities
-Hemispheres
-Damage

Answer 11

-Temporal lobe.
-Processing auditory information.
-Both.
-Damaged hearing.

Question 12

The amount of somatosensory area devoted to a particular body part denotes its ________.

Answer 12

Sensitivity.

For example, receptors in our face & hands occupy over half of the somatosensory area.

Question 13

Each eye sends information from the right visual field (RVF) to the left visual cortex (LVC) and from the left visual field (LVF) to the right visual cortex (RVC). This means damage to the left hemisphere can…

Answer 13

produce blindness in the right visual field (RVF) of both eyes.

Question 14

What study supports localisation of function in the brain?

Answer 14

Phineas Gage.

Question 15

How does the case study of Phineas Gage support localisation of function in the brain?

Answer 15

Phineas Gage - a railroad worker in the USA - had a rod go through Phineas’ head when an explosion went wrong.

He recovered well from the injury, spoke and remained conscious.

However, his personality traits changed from well-mannered to hostile & aggressive.

The personality change can be explained by damage to the frontal lobe.

Question 16

What two points undermine the Phineas Gage case study?

Answer 16

-Case study, one individual person, can’t generalise.

-Lashley (1950) left rats in a maze with food, then rats had different cortexes removed, but all kept at least partial memory of the maze in the end.

Lashley concluded that memory didn’t lie in specific parts of the brain.

Suggests learning is too complex to be localised, and that learning (higher cognitive functions) requires all the areas of the cortex (holistically distributed).

Question 17

What is Broca’s area?

Answer 17

An area in the frontal lobe (left hemisphere) that is responsible for fluent speech production.

Question 18

What is Wernicke’s area?

Answer 18

An area in the temporal lobe (left hemisphere) that is responsible for speech comprehension.

Question 19

How did Broca find Broca’s area?

Answer 19

Broca found a patient who could only say the word ‘tan’. He performed a post-mortem on him (and 8 others), and found a lesion (Broca’s area). As it was the only visible area of damage, Broca concluded that it was the area responsible for speech production.

Question 20

What is aphasia?

Answer 20

A language disorder that affects the way one communicates.

Question 21

How did Wernicke find Wernicke’s area?

Answer 21

He found that patients who had damage near the auditory cortex had specific language impairments (e.g. the inability to comprehend language).

Question 22

What is Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 22

A language disorder where people find difficulty producing speech.

Question 23

What is Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 23

A language disorder where people find difficulty in understanding words and communicating (making sense).

Question 24

What study contradicts Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area?

Answer 24

Turk (2002) discovered a patient who suffered damage to the left hemisphere, but developed the capacity to speak in the right hemisphere, eventually leading to the ability to speak about the information presented to either side of the brain.

This suggests that localisation is not fixed and that the brain can adapt to damage in certain areas.

Question 25

What study contradicts Broca’s area?

Answer 25

Dronkers (2007) conducted an MRI scan on Broca’s patient’s brain to test Broca’s findings. Although there was a lesion found in Broca’s area, they also found evidence to suggest other areas may have contributed to the failure in speech production.

This suggests that Broca’s area may not be the only region responsible for speech production, and that Broca’s aphasia could be the result of damage to other neighbouring regions.