module 6 - damage response and brain hemispheres

Question 1

Phineas Gage

Answer 1

• had railroad spike stabbed through his face and left frontal lobe (prefrontal cortex)
• personality changed (rude, impulsive, less able to inhibit his actions)

Question 2

neuroplasticity

Answer 2

brain’s ability to change, making learning and memory possible

Question 3

neurogenesis

Answer 3

• formation of new neurons
• happens throughout life, but especially during early development

Question 4

lateralization

Answer 4

a function being handled more by one hemisphere than the other
- fMRI is good for looking at this because it shows blood flow in the brain

Question 5

what is lateralized in the left hemisphere

Answer 5

• quick, literal inferences
• basic understanding
• literal understanding of reading, writing, and language

Question 6

what is lateralized in the right hemisphere

Answer 6

• abstract inferences
• subtleties of speech (rhythm, prosody, etc.)
• spatial reasoning

Question 7

split brain patients

Answer 7

• patients whose corpus callosum is severed
• hemispheres can’t communicate with each other
• ex: language is only from one side. if you see a cat, it goes to the right side of your brain and the left can’t say that it sees the cat because that information isn’t sent over