Localisation Of Functions In The Brain

Question 1

What are the 4 lobes?

Answer 1

• Frontal lobe: responsible for cognitive functions such as attention, thinking, memory, etc. It also processes autonomic and emotional processes
• Parietal lobe: concerned with processing physical sensations and coordination between visual and auditory sensations
• Temporal lobe: processes auditory information, understanding speech and language and memorising symbols, sounds, and words
• Occipital lobe: interprets visual impulses, memory, and stimuli and helps with colour-visual orientation

Question 2

What and where are the 4 cortex?

Answer 2

• Motor cortex: frontal lobe, responsible for the generation of voluntary motor movements (present on both hemispheres although each side controlling muscles on the opposite side)
• Auditory cortex: temporal lobe, responsible with analysing speech and sound
• Visual cortex: occipital lobe, contains several different areas, each of these processing different types of visual information e.g. colour, shape or movement
• Somatosensory cortex: detects sensory events arising from different regions of the body by using sensory information from the skin it. It produces sensations such as touch, pressure, pain, temp, etc.

Question 3

What and where are the 2 speech centres?

Answer 3

• Broca’s area: frontal lobe, critical area for speech production, when damaged can lead to Broca’s aphasia
• Wernicke’s area: temporal lobe, involved in understanding language, when damaged can cause Wernicke’s aphasia where patients could produce fluent but meaningless speech