Hemispheric Lateralisation & Split-Brain Research Flashcards
(14 cards)
what does Hemispheric Lateralisation mean?
the theory that certain functions are controlled by one side of the brain e.g. language speech production
what is localisation of function
different areas for the brain are responsible for different functions or behaviours
what is contralateral organisation
the idea that the hemispheres control the opposite sides of the body
What happened to paul broca
studied a person called tan
he would always respond with tan tan
he had problems producing speech
supports localisation of function and that speech production happens in the left hemisphere
what did Wernicke find out
patients had problems comprehending speech
in the left hemisphere
explain sperrys research
their corpus callosum was cut
Patients were shown images or words in either their left or right visual field.
Normally, information from the right visual field is processed by the left hemisphere, and vice versa.
In split-brain patients, the hemispheres couldn’t share information, allowing researchers to study their independent functions
what were the findings of sperrys research
language processing is dominant in the left hemisphere where as the right hemisphere specalizes spatial and visual tasks
this is because when an image was shown to the left visual field patients could not describe it but they could draw objects
what is the right hemisphere responsible for
spatial and visual info
what is the left hemisphere responsible for
language
what are advantages of split brain research
Strengths:
- Lab experiment
- Highly useful (understanding brain damage cases)
its scientific
the experiment had high controlled and standarised
info was presented at 1/10th of a second to ensure the info went to only one hemisphere to ensure that the patient would not move their eye
this made it more replicable and valid
what are disadvantages of split brain research
- Small sample size
- Artificial tasks
lack of EV variables / control group (many suffered from epilepsy)
drug therapy
small sample so less generalsible so lesss useful + reliable
lacks population validity
contradictory evidence
patient JW could speak
function of wernickes area
language comprehension
allows comprehension to be meaningful
function of brocas area
speech
brocas area allows speech to be fluent
difference between brocas area and wernickes area
brocas area
important for speech production
it makes speech production more fluent
wernikes area
important for language comprehension
makes comprehension more meaningful
