Localisation of function in the brain

Question 1

strengths of localisation theory

Answer 1

1. evidence form neurosurgery
   - cingulotomy involves isolating the cingulate gyrus which has been implicated in OCD
   - Doughterty et al (2002) reported that out of 44 people who had undergone a cingulotomy 30% had meet the criteria for a successful response to surgery and 14% for partial response at a 32 week post surgical follow up
2. evidence from brain scans
   - Petersen et al (1988) used brain scans to demonstrate how wernicks area was active during a listening task and Broca during a reading task
   - review of a long term memory study by Petersen (1996) revealed that semantic and episodic memories resided in different parts of the prefrontal cortex
   - confirm localised areas for everyday task

Question 2

limitations of the localisation theory

Answer 2

1. langue may not be localised to just Broaca and Wernicke Areas
   - study by Dick and Tremblay (2016) found that only 2% of modern researchers think that the language in the brain is completely controlled by Broca and Wernickes areas
   - FMRIs show neural processes have revealed that language function is distributed holistically in the brain
   - language streams have been identified across the cortex and the thalamus

Question 3

what is the holistic thoery of the brain

Answer 3

all parts of the brain are involved in the processing of thoughts and actions

Question 4

what is the localisation if function

Answer 4

different parts of the brain perform different task and are involved with different parts of the body
- if a certain area of the brain becomes damaged through illness or injury the function associated with that area will also be affected

Question 5

hemispheres of the brain

Answer 5

• the cerebrum is divided into 2 symmetrical hemispheres
• lateralisation is one physical and psychological functions are controlled by a particular hemisphere

Question 6

motor area

Answer 6

• back of the frontal lobe
• controls voluntary movement in the opposite side of the body
• damage would result in loss of control over fine movements

Question 7

somatosensory area

Answer 7

• front of both partial lobes
• separated form the motor area by the central sulcus
• where sensory information from the skin is represented

Question 8

visual area

Answer 8

• occipital lobe
• each eye sends information from its visual field to the opposite visual cortex
• damage to the left hemisphere produces blindness on the right visual field of both eyes

Question 9

auditory area

Answer 9

• temporal lobe
• analyses speech based information
• damage may produce hearing loss

Question 10

Brocas area

Answer 10

• 1880s
  -brocas ares is a small area in the left frontal lobe responsible for speech production
• damage causes broca aphasia which is slow laborious speech
• case study on Tan

Question 11

wernikes areas

Answer 11

• wernikes area is in the left temporal lobe
• responsible for language understanding
• wernikes aphasia results in nonsense words (neologism)