Hemispheric Lateralisation

Question 1

What us localisation?

Answer 1

This is the theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different functions and behaviours. So if the brain is damaged in that area the function will also become damaged.

Question 2

State and explain the areas of the brain and their function

Answer 2

Motor cortex - controls voluntary movements both hemispheres have a cortex with each side controlling muscles on the opposite side. So left hemisphere controls right hand Same with somatosensory area

Visual centre- processing information starts when ligh enters and strokes photoreceptors on the retina. Right hemisphere processes images seen by the left eye

Auditory centre- processing of sound

Language centre- Broca’s area-speech production. Wernicke area speech comprehension

Question 3

What are the evaluation points associated with localisation

Answer 3

Evidence from brain surgery- shown that operating on an area in the brain associated with OCD has been proven to help ocd symptoms as 30% of patients had met the criteria of response and 14% met partial criteria

Evidence from brain scans- brain scans showed that wernicke had more activity during listening task and Broca’s area had more activity during reading task found Peterson

However Ashley found that by removing brainnmatter between 10-50% there was not a single area to be more disruptive in the rats ability to learn a route through a maze

fMRI scans shows that language is not localised and continues throughout the brain and only 2% of researchers believe it to be localised therefore showing that it may not be localised and therefore invalid explanation of functions in the brain