research into localisation Flashcards
how did phineas gage injury impact him and how does it support localisation?
his injury impacted certain brain functions not others.
he was able to walk and talk indicating his motor and language areas were not damaged
whereas he had changes to his emotional behaviour as he became irrational and violent- showing that the area of the brain that was damaged from the rod controls his emotional behaviour
who was tan and how does his case study support the concept of localisation?
tan was a patient who had problems with speech production and could only say the word tan.
it supports that speech production is localised to the brocas area.
there is a correlation between the damaged area of tans brain(brocas area) and the type of damage he experienced (speech production)
this is supported by modern case studies of patients with brocas aphasia- someone with damage to brocas area and has speech problems
what was the procedure of lashleys rats?
he trained rats to navigate a maze then cut lesions into parts of their cerebral cortex to see if any part was responsible for their memory of the maze.
he removed between 10-50% of the rats cerebral cortex
what were the findings of lashleys rats ?
the rats could still continue to use memory to use memory to find their way through the maze
localisation of damage didnt affect memory
even after removing 10-50% of cerebral cortex the rats could still run the maze
what was the aim of lashleys rats ?
to see whether the brain held memory in a physical way ( the engram)
what are the conclusions of lashleys rats?
memory is not localised
lashley concluded that basic functions like movement or breathing could be localised
however the rest of the brain has the ability to carry out any functions necessary.
this means that 1 area of the brain could take over a damaged area. he called this equipotentiality
what are the ethical issues of lashleys rats?
harm to animals. they were given brain damage and eventually put down
what is the benefit of lashleys rats ?
we couldnt have done the research with people - too much harm
application - we learned more about the holistic way the brain functions
why does lashleys rat lack generalisability?
used rats.
humans and animals are different. the basic brain structures may be similar but humans use higher order thinking.
this means it may lack generalisability to humans.
we cant extrapolate findings from animals directly to humans
