topic 4 - the impact of neurological damage

Question 1

what does neurological damage refer to?

Answer 1

neurological damage refers to any kind of damage to parts of the nervous system, that includes the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Question 2

what would happen if parts of your central nervous system were damaged?

Answer 2

if it is damaged then messages that would be normally passed around the nervous system might be interrupted.

Question 3

what would happen if a large part of the brain is damaged?

Answer 3

if this happens specific neurons which would usually have a specific function such as serotonin and uplifting our mood would no longer work. The normal functions of the brain might not be possible , this can impact on how a person thinks or behaves.

Question 4

what would happen if our brain was damaged on a smaller scale?

Answer 4

when this happens, very few neurons in a large network will be damaged and don’t work properly. The normal functions of the brain might not be possible , this can impact on how a person thinks or behaves.

Question 5

what are two conditions which is affected by brain damage since the brain cannot process information properly?

Answer 5

visual agnosia and prosopagnosia, as well as damage to the pre-frontal cortex in the brain?

Question 6

what is visual agnosia?

Answer 6

visual agnosia is a problem in the way the brain processes sensory information which means that the brain is unable to make sense of the information. This results in the person suffering from the condition to not be able to recognise something that id presented to them. Visual agnosia is a disorder in which a person can see perfectly well but they cannot understand what they are seeing.

Question 7

give an example of visual agnosia.

Answer 7

any object + they cannot say what it is.

Question 8

what causes visual agnosia?

Answer 8

it may be caused by damage to the parietal lobe, since the parietal lobe is important for perception and this is a perception disorder.

Question 9

what are symptoms of visual agnosia?

Answer 9

in visual agnosia the person can see the object in front of them but their brain cannot make sense of the information. symptoms are : CNP

Colour of object is may not be recognisable

Naming the object may not happen

Places they are familiar with, they may not remember

Question 10

what does the term ‘agnosia’ mean?

Answer 10

it is the inability to interpret sensations and recognise things.

Question 11

what is prosopagnosia?

Answer 11

prosopagnosia also known as ‘face-blindness’ means that the person is unable to recognise faces even when they can be seen. The eyes can send information to the brain about the face but the brain is unable to recognise who the face belongs to.

Question 12

give an example of prosopagnosia.

Answer 12

a person + cannot recognise them even if they are close to them i.e. family members or children.

Question 13

what causes prosopagnosia?

Answer 13

it may be caused by damage to the back of the brain near the back of the temporal lobe, next to the occipital lobe known as the fusiform face area (FFA)

Question 14

what is the fusiform face area (FFA)?

Answer 14

it is part of the temporal lobe, close to the occipital lobe that is thought to help in face recognition.

Question 15

what are the symptoms of prosopagnosia?

Answer 15

symptoms are: ISFM

identifying people from their faces is difficult

see all faces ‘the same’ and cannot tell faces apart

forgetting faces of people they know very well

matching up faces with pictures of face is troublesome.

Question 16

what does damage to the prefrontal cortex do to our behaviour?

Answer 16

the pre-frontal cortex controls our impulses and it is part of the brain which will stop us from doing something when we experience surges of emotions such as anger etc. It is part of the brain which helps us keep our emotions balanced so we don’t get too emotional no matter what emotion we are feeling. So if this area is damaged then people may become aggressive and impulsive.

Question 17

where is the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 17

it is at the very front of the frontal lobe, right after the forehead.

Question 18

what does Adrian Raine et al’s (1997) study explain about our pre-frontal cortex?

Answer 18

In Raine’s study, she studied the brains of murders and compared these to a similar group of people who had not committed murder. He found that there were differences in the pre-frontal cortex of the two groups. Murders had less activity in their pre-frontal cortex which meant that they were more impulsive and maybe more aggressive. This has been an explanation for why some people are more prone to violent and impulsive behaviour than others.