Localisation of function

• Motor area


  • Back of frontal lobe
  • Controls voluntary movement in the opposite side of the body
  • Regions arranged in a logical order
  • Damage - loss of control over fine movements
  • Both hemispheres
• Somatosensory area


  • Front of both parietal lobes
  • Where sensory info from the skin is represented
  • Amount of area devoted to body part denotes its sensitivity
  • Both hemispheres
• Visual area


  • Occipital lobe
  • Each eye sends info from right visual field to left visual cortex and vice versa
  • Damage - blindness
  • Both hemispheres
• Auditory area


  • Temporal lobes
  • Analyses speech-base info
  • Damage - hearing loss
  • Both hemispheres
• Broca's area


  • Left frontal lobe
  • Speech production and articulation
  • Damage - Broca's aphasia; slow speech lacking in fluency
  • Left hemisphere
• Wernicke's area


  • Left temporal lobe
  • Language understanding
  • Damage - Wernicke's aphasia; nonsense words (neologisms)
  • Left hemisphere