2- Cognitive Neuroscience 2.3 Flashcards
Basic principle of brain organisation is called
Localisation of function
What is localisation of function?
e.g
Location of specific functions in specific areas of the brain.
For example, areas have been identified that are specialized to process information involved in the perception of movement, form, speech and different aspects of memory.
Most of the cognitive functions are served by the:
Cerebral cortex
Definition of cerebral cortex
The three-mm-thick outer layer of the brain that contains the mechanisms responsible for higher mental functions such as perception, language, thinking and problem-solving.
What is the cortex?
wrinkled covering you see when you look at an intact brain (Figure 2.11).
Early evidence for localisation of function came from:
Neuropsychology
What is neuropsychology?
field of psychology that aims to understand how behaviour and cognition are influenced by brain functioning and that is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of people with brain damage.
The study of the behavioural effects of brain damage in humans.
A great deal of neuropsychological research involve:
study of patients who have suffered brain damage caused by stroke—disruption of the blood supply to the brain, usually by a blood clot.
Earliest report of localisation of function based on:
Tan
- stroke patient was written by Paul Broca (1861). Broca studied a patient who had suffered damage to his left frontal lobe. This patient had extreme difficulty talking and could only say the word “Tan,” and hence this became his name.
What did Broca suggested with Tan’s difficulty with talking and only saying tan
Broca suggested that the area in the left frontal lobe, now called Broca’s area, is specialized for speech
What is Broca’s area
An area in the frontal lobe associated with the production of language. Damage to this area causes Broca’s aphasia.
Carl Wernicke studied group of paitents with the damage in the area of the temporal lobe (part at the side of your head)
what did he find?
- In contrast to Broca’s patient Tan, the speech of these patients was fluent and grammatically correct but tended to be incoherent.
- Wernicke therefore suggested that the part of the temporal lobe that was damaged in these patients, now called Wernicke’s area, is responsible for language comprehension.
What is Wernicke’s area
Area in the temporal lobe associated with understanding language. Damage to this area causes Wernicke’s aphasia.
Broca and Wernicke indentified areas such as:
(Broca’s area) and one area for comprehending language (Wernicke’s area).
Although this straightforward categorization in terms of production and comprehension has been modified by the results of more current research, the idea that these two areas of the brain serve different functions is still valid today. In addition, their results formed a major impetus to further explore the idea of localization of function.
Visual cortex located in what lobe?
Occipital lobe
(back of our head)
What does visual cortex recieve
receives signals from our eyes,
Where does auditory cortex receives signals from?
receives signals from the ears
Where is the auditory cortex located?
is in the upper (superior) temporal lobe and is responsible for hearing.
Diagram of all the lobes
Diagram method of double discciation:
The results of the neuropsychology studies described above indicate that face recognition is served by one area in the temporal lobe and that this function is separate from mechanisms associated with recognizing other types of objects, which is served by another area of the temporal lobe. Neuropsychological research has also identified areas that are important for perceiving motion and, as we will see later in this book, for different functions of memory, thinking and language. In addition to neuropsychology, another tool for demonstrating localization of function is brain imaging.
Diagram of the gross anatomy of brain
Anatomical diagram
