Localisation and Lateralisation

what is localisation of functions?
what have recent neuroimaging studies find?

the idea that certain functions eg language have certain locations within the brain. recent neuroimaging studies and earlier case studies support this

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what is hemispheric lateralisation?

the fact that 2 halves if the brain are functionally different and that each hemisphere has functional specialisations

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what can be said phineas gage in this case?

iron bar through head, change in personality, loss of inhibition and anger, supporting localisation of brain functions as his frontal lobe was damaged, which is responsible for cognitive processes (-he went through rehabilitation which brought some if his

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what is the motor area? give all info on it
what psychologists found info on it

responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body, it is located in the frontal lobe. Hitzing + Fritsch discovered that diff. muscles are coordinated by diff areas of motor cortex by electrically stimulating motor area of d

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counting w. previous card

-resulting in muscular coordination in diff areas of the body depending on where the probe was inserted. regions of motor area are logically arranged ie region that controls finger movement next to region that controls the hand movement. (in both hemisp

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what is the somatosensory area?
what psychologist talked about it?

both hemispheres receive incoming sensory info from the skin to produce sensations related to pain, ;pressure, temperature, etc located in the parietal lobe. diff parts if S area receive messages from diff. locations. Robertson found this area of-

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-the brain is highly adaptable ie braille readers gave larger areas in the S for their fingers compared to normal sighted ppl.

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what its the visual area?

this receives and processes info, visual area contains diff parts that process diff types of info including colour, shape and movement located in the occipital lobe, info from right hand side rival field is processed in left hemisphere and vice versa

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what is the auditory area?

responsible for analysing and processing acoustic info located in temporal lobe, info from left ear goes primarily to right hemisphere and vice versa (both hemisphere). A contains diff parts and the primary A area is involved in processing simple-

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-features of sound including volume, tempo and pitch

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what is Broca's area?

found in the left frontal lobe, thought to be involved in language production, found after trying to treat patient tan who could understand spoken language but was unable to produce any coherent words and could only say 'tan'-

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-Borca conducted post mortem examination of Tan's brain, discovered tan had a lesson in the left frontal lobe concluding that area was responsible for speech code production. ppl w this damage in this area experience Broca's aphasia, which is-

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-slow, inarticulate speech [-Dronkers et al did MRI scan on Tan and found many other areas that could've contributed to the failure in speech production]

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what is Wernicke's area?

found I the left temporal lobe, thought to be involved in language processing/ comprehension. ie wernickes patients were able to speak but unable to comprehend it (wernicke's aphasia), concluded that language involves a separate-

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-motor and sensory regions [-Saygin et al found some patients displayed symptoms of wernicke's aphasia w/o damage in this area, suggesting that language comprehension is more complex than originally thought. furthermore, some evidence-

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-shows some left handed ppl process language in the right hemisphere]

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-label picture of brain with all areas for revision, w/o looking at notes [BTW ONLY MY CLASS NOTES HAVE THE BRAIN, NOT MY PRE-READING NOTES]-

-

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name the evaluations of this sector

-functions are not localised to certain areas of the brain. Lashley proposed the equipotentiality theory, that the basic motor/sensory functions are localised but higher mental functions aren't as other intact areas of the cortex could take over-

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-responsibilities of of specific cognitive functions (ie thinking, processing) after an injury
+loads of case studies from Broca, Wernicke, Phineas Gage [-dronkers et al, saygin et al]-look above

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-psychologists suggest that it is more important to focus on how brain regions communicate with each other rather than specific brain regions. Wernicke said although diff areas of brain are independent, they must interact with each other-

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-to function, ie a man lost his ability to read after damage between visual cortex and wernicmes area (Dejerine) suggesting interactions between diff areas prodcue complex behaviours therefore damage between any 2 points can result in-

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-impairments to localised brain regions [-biologically reductionist theories in nature and try to reduce complex human behaviour/ cognitive processes to one region therefore more understanding of brain is needed.

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-localisation fails to take into account individual differences, Herasty found women have proportionally larger Broca's and Wernicke's areas than men which helps explain why women tend to have a greater ease of language use, therefore-

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-this shows a beta bias (research only on males is said to be applied to women) as there are differences between women and men but they're ignored, variations of patterns and size of areas need to be observed during language activities for more research.

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what is the extended info of hemispheric lateralisation?

2 hemispheres are connected through nerve fibres called corpus callosum facilitate inter hemispheric communication (left+right hemisphere can talk to each other)

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what is split brain research? who did research into this and what did they find?

individuals who have their corpus callosum cut through surgery. Sperry and Gazzaniga investigated hemispheric lateralisation on split brain patients
A- research was to examine the extent of which 2-

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-hemispheres are specialised for certain functions
M- image/word was presented on patients left visual field (processed by right hemisphere) and vice versa. when info presented 1 hemisphere in split brain person, info is jot transferred to other-

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-hemisphere [try to remember the diagram, look at notes if needed of the research]
R- S+G split it into 3 tasks; describe what you see, tactile test (object placed in hand and had to describe what they felt or select similar object),-

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-drawing task. describe what you see task R- right visual field (processed by left H): patient could describe what they saw, superiority of LH in language production.
LVF (PBRH)- patient could not describe what was shown-

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-/nothing was there.
Tactice test R- object in right hand (PBLH)- patient could verbally describe what they felt or selected a similar object
OILH (PBRH)- patient could not describer what they felt-

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-,only made guesses, but could identify a similar object
Drawing tasks- Picture in right visual field (PBLH)- right hand would attempt to draw pic but it wasn't clear as left hand, superiority of RH in visual tasks-

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PPTLV (PBRH)- left hand would consistently draw clearer/better pics then right hand although all pp were right- handed, superiority of RH in visual/motor tasks
C- key diff between 2 Hs; 1) LH is dominant in terms-

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-of speech and language, 2)RH is dominant in terms of visual/motor tasks.

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name the evaluations

+increases neural processing capacity (the ability to preform multiple tasks simultaneously), Rogers et al found in a domestic chicken, brain lateralisation is associated w an enhanced ability to preform 2 tasks ie finding food and being vigilant-

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-of predators. using 1 H leaves the other 1 free of use for other functions [research done on chickens, research into split brain research isn't as common now as surgery isn't done]
-only idiographic approach

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-lateralisation changes w age, Szaflarki et al found language became more lateralised to LH w an increase in age in children and adolescents but after 25 lateralisation decreased w age each decade, raising q if 1 H is dominant over the other-

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-and if dominate changes over age)
-language may not be restricted ti LH, Turk et al discovered damage to LH but developed capacity to speak in RH, eventually leading to ability to speak about info presented to either side of brain-

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-suggesting lateralisation is not fixed and the brain can adapt following damage to brain regions.

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what is plasticity and give other info on it?

the brains ability to change and adapt because of experience. research shows that brain continues to create new neural pathways/ alter old ones duet experiences.

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what is functional recovery? give all info on it

transfer if functions from a damaged area to other undamaged areas of the brain after trauma. it does this through neural unmasking where the dominant synapses (which have not received enough input to be activate) open connections-

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-to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain. this allows new connections in the brain ti be activated, recovering any damage occurring in specific regions.

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name the evaluations

+R.S Kuhn et al found an increase in grey matter after he asked PP to play video games every day for 30 mins for 2 months/ Davidson showed permanent change in brain after he compared buddhists monks who mediated frequently to-

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-students who did none, buddhists had greater activation of gamma waves which coordinate neural activity), this shows plasticity's effect on the brain
+R.S Maguire et al found posterior hippocampal-

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-volume of London taxi drivers' brains was positively correlated w their time as a taxi driver and showed signif. diff between taxi drivers brains and those of controls which shows brain can show a permentnat change to frequent exposure to a-

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-particular task. [-plasticity of brain is limited ue maguires research is biologically reductionist and only examined 1 biological factor (size of hippocampus) in relation to spatial memory therefore approach fails to take into account-

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-cognitive processes in spatial navigation or a holistic approach may be better to understand complex human behaviour]
+R.S Taijiri et al found a stem cell provided to rats after brain trauma showed a clear development of-

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-neuron like cells in the area of the injury, demonstrating ability of brain to create new connections using neuron manufactured by stem cells.
-possible for functions; recovery to deteriorate with age-

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-Elbert et al concluded that the capacity for neural reorganisation is much greater in children than adults, meaning neural regeneration us less effective in older brains, which can explain why adults find it difficult to adapt to change/ find it-

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-more demanding, therefore individual differences must be considered.
+application of finding to the field of neurorehabilitation, understanding processes of functional recovery and plasticity led to development of-

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-NR which uses motor therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain to counter negative effects and deficits in motor/cogntive functions following an accident, showing positive application pf research in this area to help improve-

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-cognitive functions of ppl suffering from injuries

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Localisation and Lateralisation

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