The impact of neurological damage

Question 1

Neurological damage

Answer 1

1. damage to the body’s central and peripheral nervous system
2. Neurological damage refers to any kind of damage to parts of the nervous system
3. The brain is an important part of our central nervous system; if it is damaged, the messages that would normally be passed around in the nervous system might be interrupted
4. It could be that a large part of the brain is damaged, meaning that the neurons that would usually have a specific function are no longer working
5. Alternatively, the damage could be on a smaller scale, where a few neurons in a larger network of neurons are damaged and are not working properly
6. Either way, the normal functions of the brain might not be possible and can have a significant impact of a persons thoughts and behaviours

Question 2

Examples of brain damage affecting the brains ability to process information

Answer 2

1. visual agnosia
2. prosopagnosia
3. damage to the pre-frontal cortex

Question 3

Agnosia

Answer 3

1. an inability to interpret sensations and thus to recognise things
2. agnosia is a problem in the way the brain processes sensory information, which means that the brain is unable to make sense of the information
3. this results in a person not being able to recognise something that is presented to them

Question 4

Visual agnosia

Answer 4

1. an inability to recognise things that can be seen
2. visual agnosia is a disorder in which a person can see perfectly well but they cannot understand what they are seeing
3. e.g. they could be shown a picture of a kettle but would not be able to say it is a kettle
4. This can be the result of damage to the parietal lobe because it is a disorder of perception
5. With visual agnosia, the information sent from the eyes to the brain cannot be understood, meaning that the person cannot identify the things they can see

Question 5

Symptoms of visual agnosia

Answer 5

1. patients might not be able to recognise the colour of an object
2. patients might not be able to recognise objects and name them
3. patients might not be able to recognise places they are familiar with

Question 6

Prosopagnasia

Answer 6

1. also known as face blindness
2. they are unable to recognise faces even though they can be seen
3. The eyes can send information to the brain about the face, but the brain is unable to recognise who the face belongs to, even thought they might now the person well
4. In some cases, people with prosopagnosia cannot cannot recognise family members
5. Prosopagnosia can be caused by damage to a part of the brain near the back of the temporal lobe, next to the occipital lobe, known as the FFA

Question 7

FFA

Answer 7

1. Fusiform face area

2. part of the temporal lobe, close to the occipital lobe, that it thought to help in face recognition

Question 8

Symptoms of prosopagnosia

Answer 8

1. patients with prosopagnosia find it difficult to identify people from their faces
2. some people find that they can see all faces as “the same” and cannot tell them apart
3. Others find that they cannot recognise faces of people that they know really well
4. Other people have more trouble with matching up pictures of faces that they do not know

Question 9

pre-frontal cortex

Answer 9

the area of the brains cortex at the very front of the frontal lobe, immediately behind the forehead

Question 10

impact of damage to the pre-frontal cortex

Answer 10

1. the pre-frontal cortex helps us to control our impulses, so it is part of the brain that will stop you from doing something like hitting someone when you are angry
2. It is also the part of the brain that helps us to keep our emotions balances so that we do not get too emotional, no matter what emotion we are feeling
3. When this part of the brain is damaged, people can become impulsive and aggressive
4. Damage to the pre-frontal cortex can make it difficult for people to control their emotions and so their personality may seem to change quite a lot
5. For some people, this type of damage can mean they are more likely to commit crimes that they would not have done before

Question 11

Evidence to support the impact of damage to the pre-frontal cortex

Answer 11

1. adrian raine et al. studied the brains of murderers and compared these to a similar group of people who had not committed murder
2. he found that there were differences in the pre-frontal cortex of the two groups
3. murderers had less activity in the pre-frontal part of the brain, making them more impulsive and more aggressive
4. This has been used as an explanation for why some people are more prone to violent and impulsive behaviour than others