Localisation

• Somatosensory cortex

  -responsible for receiving and processing sensory information from across the body such as touch, temperature and pain. This is then carried t the brain via neural pathways to the spinal cord.

  >located in the parietal lobe, behind the primary motor cortex

  +when damaged: causes membranes or tingling sensations in certain parts of the body
• Motor cortex

  -involved in the planning, control and execution of voluntary movements. Both hemispheres have a motor cortex with each one controlling muscles on the opposite side of the body.

  >located int the frontal lobe

  +when damaged: causes problems with the loss of coordination and movement in areas of the body.
• visual cortex

  -processes auditory/sound information.

  >located in the temporal lobe

  +when damaged: causes impairments with recognising sounds.
• Broca’s area


  -responsible for speech production.

  >located in the left frontal lobe

  +when damaged: Broca’s aphasia = difficulty producing speech, slow speech, only able to produce short and meaningful sentences which take a lot of effort. lacks fluency.
• Wernicke’s area

  -responsible for understanding language.

  >located in the left temporal lobe.

  +when damage: Wernicke’s aphasia = severe difficulty understanding speech. produces nonsense words “neologisms”.
• frontal lobes

  -responsible for higher cognitive functions such as memory and processing emotions.

  >located directly behind the forehead

  +when damaged: causes personality changes, difficulty concentrating + planning, impulsivity.
• parietal lobes

  -responsible for processing sensory information relating to touch, temperature and pain.

  >located near the top and centre of the cerebral cortex.

  +when damaged: causes numbness and visual-spatial deficits - struggle to find way around new or familiar places.
• occipital lobes

  -responsible for processing visual information.

  >located at the very back of your skull.

  +when damaged: causes difficulty with locating objects in the environment, visual impairments.
• temporal lobes

  -responsible for processing auditory information.

  >located behind the ears, base of the skull.

  +when damaged: causes difficulty understanding unspoken words, difficulty selecting words, difficulty retaining and learning new information, difficulty with identification or categorisation of objects.