The brain and neuropsychology - Page 155-159

Question 1

How do the lobes work?

Answer 1

Through most actions and abilities that result from the cooperative work of multiple regions of the brain (functional networks).

Question 2

What are the four different lobes?

Answer 2

• Frontal lobe.
• Parietal lobe.
• Occipital lobe.
• Temporal lobe.
• Cerebellum.

Question 3

How are brain functions sorted?

Answer 3

Specific brain functions are associated with particular areas on the cerebral cortex.

Question 4

What functions are we referring to?

Answer 4

Localised functions.

Question 5

What is a localised function?

Answer 5

A function such as language or vision, which is found in a particular area on the cerebral cortex.

Question 6

What is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 6

The folded outer layers of the cerebrum.

Question 7

What area on the cerebral cortex controls movement?

Answer 7

The motor area.

Question 8

How does the motor area control our movement?

Answer 8

Using motor neurons to send messages to our muscles. Active parts of the body, such as our fingers and thumbs, have a larger share of the motor cortex than less active parts of the body like the torso.

Question 9

What is the area behind the motor area called?

Answer 9

The somatosensory area.

Question 10

What is the somatosensory area?

Answer 10

The area of the cerebral cortex concerned with sensory feeling.

Question 11

How is the somatosensory area linked with sensitivity?

Answer 11

The more sensitive an area of the body is, the larger the amount of somatosensory cortex it involves.

Question 12

How do the two cerebral hemispheres control the body?

Answer 12

The two cerebral hemispheres control the opposite sides of the body.

Question 13

How do they control the opposite sides of the body?

Answer 13

The sensory and motor strips on the right hemisphere deal with the left side of the body, and those on the left hemisphere deal with the right side.

Question 14

What is the visual cortex?

Answer 14

The area of the cerebral cortex concerned with vision.

Question 15

Where is the visual cortex found?

Answer 15

In the occipital lobe, just above the cerebellum.

Question 16

How was the visual cortex identified?

Answer 16

From servicemen in the first world war who suffered shrapnel damage to the back of the head, and became partially blind as a result.

Question 17

How does the visual cortex work?

Answer 17

it receives information from both eyes through the optic nerves, and a different area on the temporal lobe.

Question 18

What cortex works the same as the visual one?

Answer 18

The auditory cortex.

Question 19

What is the auditory cortex?

Answer 19

The area of the cerebral cortex concerned with hearing.

Question 20

How does the auditory cortex work?

Answer 20

It receives information from the ears, so damage to this part of the brain produces hearing loss.

Question 21

What is the main thing that distinguishes human beings from animals?

Answer 21

The way we use language.

Question 22

On what side of the brain do humans have specific to language?

Answer 22

Humans have specialised areas on the left hemisphere which are devoted to language processing.

Question 23

What is Broca’s area?

Answer 23

An area on the frontal lobe which deals with speech production.

Question 24

What happens to people with damage to Broca’s area?

Answer 24

They can understand what is said to them, but have problems saying things themselves. (Motor aphasia).

Question 25

What is Wernicke’s area?

Answer 25

An area on the temporal lobe which deals with understanding speech.

Question 26

What happens with people with damage to Wernicke’s area?

Answer 26

People with damage to this area can speak perfectly well, but they have problems understanding what other people are saying to them. (Wernicke’s aphasia).

Question 27

What is the angular gyrus?

Answer 27

An area at the back of the parietal lobe, which receives information about written language from the visual cortex, and interprets it being like speech.

Question 28

What happens with people with damage to their angular gyrus?

Answer 28

People who have suffered injury to this area can experience difficulties in reading. (Acquired dyslexia).

Question 29

What is a picture representing all these different areas on the brain?

Answer 29

Question 30

What is Penfield’s interpretive cortex study’s aim?

Answer 30

To investigate the workings of the conscious mind.

Question 31

What is the study design of Penfield’s interpretive cortex study?

Answer 31

Clinical case studies - an investigation of brain function in a number of patients who were undergoing open brain surgery.

Question 32

What was the method of Penfield’s interpretive cortex study?

Answer 32

Some types of brain surgery require the patient to be conscious, so the surgeon can be confident that any actions occur in the right place. This is painless because the brain has no sense receptors. In this study, the surgeon probed different areas of the cortex using gentle electrical stimulation, and asked the patients to say what they experienced.

Question 33

What were the results of Penfield’s interpretive cortex study?

Answer 33

The results were qualitative.
Stimulation of the temporal lobe made one patient report that he could hear a piano playing and could even identify the song. When a different place was stimulated, the patient reported a clear memory. As a control, the surgeon informed this patient that he was about to stimulate again, but did not activate the electrode. After a pause, the patient reported nothing.
A female, patient reported hearing an orchestra, playing a particular tune when the temporal lobe was stimulated. The music stopped when the electrode was removed, and came back when the same place was stimulated again. This was repeated several times, always with the same result. The patient herself could hear the tune, so clearly that she believed that a gramophone was being turned on in the operating theatre at these times, and still insisted this was true some days after the operation.
A boy heard his mother telling his brother that he had got his coat on backwards. When the same area on the temporal lobe was stimulated again, he had the same conversation, even after some lapse of time.
In earlier research, Penfield had stimulated the visual cortex, and found that people saw images, such as balloons floating into the sky. He had also found the stimulation of the motor and sensory areas produced movements or the sensation of being touched from these and other cases -for example, Wernicke’s area is also in the temporal lobe – Penfield was able to conclude that the temporal lobe is active in interpreting meaning.

Question 34

What was the conclusion found from Penfield’s interpretive cortex study?

Answer 34

Penfield concluded that there was evidence for localisation of function in the cerebral cortex.

Question 35

What is the localisation of function?

Answer 35

The idea that some psychological functions are controlled from particular places in the brain.

Question 36

What are some advantages of Penfield’s interpretive cortex study?

Answer 36

• The study shows how certain areas of the cerebral cortex may be involved in particular functions of the brain. The study investigated living brains instead of just looking for damage and dead brains during post-mortems.
• The study showed that even complex memories, such as conversations are stored in the brain.

Question 37

What are some disadvantages of Penfield’s interpretive cortex study?

Answer 37

• The patients were having brain surgery because they were severely epileptic. Therefore, they may not have been typical of the general population.
• The findings were different for each individual, so it is hard to make generalisations, for example about memory storage.
• People may have found it difficult to put some of their experiences into words.