localisation of function

Question 1

what’re the main brain areas

Answer 1

Frontal Lobe
Motor Area
Somatosensory Area
Parietal Lobe
Occipital Lobe
Temporal Lobe
Broca’s area
Wernicke’s area

Question 2

what’s the role of the frontal lobe and consequences of damage

Answer 2

involves: Reasoning/decision-making, Planning, Emotions, Problem solving, Impulse control

If damaged: changes in personality, difficulty concentrating/planning

Question 3

what’s the role of the parietal lobe and consequence of damage

Answer 3

involves: Orientation, Recognition, Processing sensory information (touch sight etc).
If damaged: visuo-spacial difficulty (difficulty navigating new/old places)

Question 4

what’s the role of the temporal lobe and consequence if damaged

Answer 4

Involves: Hearing/processing of auditory info, Analysis/production of speech
If damaged: may lead to hearing loss/Language comprehension problems

Question 5

what’s the role of the occipital lobe and consequence if damaged

Answer 5

involves: visual processing, info from RHS of each eye goes to the LVF and vice versa

if damaged: sight problems/blindness

Question 6

what’s the role of the motor area and consequence if damaged

Answer 6

involves: strip down the back of the frontal lobe in both hemispheres, controls voluntary movement (picking a pen) in the opposite side of the body

if damaged: loss of fine motor movements

Question 7

what’s the role of the somatosensory area and consequence if damaged

Answer 7

involves: strip down front of parietal lobe, separated from motor area by ‘central sulcus’ valley, represents sensory info from the skin (touch, heat etc), the more sensitive areas (fingertips) the larger the area representation

if damaged: numbness

Question 8

what’s the broca’s area and where is it located

Answer 8

centre of speech production

located in the left frontal lobe

Question 9

what’s the wernicke’s area and where is it located

Answer 9

controls speech comprehension

located in left parietal/temporal lobe

Question 10

what’s broca’s aphasia

Answer 10

lesions (damage) to the broca’s area means patients CANNOT produce speech fluently but CAN comprehend it

Question 11

what is Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 11

lesions (damage) to the wernicke’s area and patients CAN produce fluent speech but CANNOT comprehend it

Question 12

what is localisation of function

Answer 12

the idea that different parts of the brain perform different tasks

Question 13

what is holism in regards to LoF

Answer 13

the idea that all the parts of the brain work together to perform tasks

Question 14

what’re 3 supports for LoF

Answer 14

Phineas Gage, Brain Scan evidence, Neurosurgical evidence

Question 15

what’re 2 strengths for holism (weaknesses of LoF)

Answer 15

Lashleys Rats, Plasticity

Question 16

how does the case of Phineas Gage support LoF

Answer 16

Severe trauma to his frontal lobe in a rail-road spike incident, described as “no longer Gage” and described by some as angry. shows how the frontal lobe, when damaged, was responsible for changes to behaviour/mannerisms, supporting the idea of LoF

Question 17

How do Brain Scans support LoF

Answer 17

Petersen et al. used brain scans to show broca’s area activation during a reading task and wernicke’s area during a listening task. furthermore, episodic and semantic memories reside in different areas of the prefrontal cortex. Therefore precise and objective data provides good internal validity, supporting LoF

Question 18

how does neuroscience support LoF

Answer 18

Dougherty et al reported on 44 OCD patients with a cingulotomy (cingulate gyrus lesion operation), 32 week post surgery 30% had a ‘successful’ response and extra 14% had ‘partial success’. therefore OCD seems partially localised to one area of the brain, supporting LoF theory

Question 19

how do lashleys rats weaken the LoF idea and support holism

Answer 19

10-50% of rats brains were removed before being taught to learn a maze. as a result no area was more or less important for the rats ability to learn the maze and, for rats, every part of the cortex was used for learning rather than a specific area. He said learning was too complex to be localised and that higher cognitive functions aren’t localised, weakening LoF

Question 20

how does plasticity weaken the idea of LoF and support holism

Answer 20

due to the brains ability to partially reorganise itself and recover lost/damaged functions (plasticity), the brain seems more holistic rather than each part of the brain having a specifically exclusive area that other parts cannot perform, weakening LoF