Localisation

• what is localisation?

  the theory that different area of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, processes or activities
• what is the opposite holistic view to localisation?

  all parts of the brain are involved I processing thought and action
• what is the structure of the brain?

  - the brain is divided into 2 symmetrical halves called hemispheres- the left hemisphere and right hemisphere have some different functions - this is called lateralisation - in general, the left side of the body is controlled by the right side of the brain and vice versa - the outer layer of the brain is the cerebral cortex - (grey matter) - plays a key role in memory, attention, perception, consciousness, language, thought
• what are the 4 lobes in the brain?

  - frontal lobe- parietal lobe- temporal lobe- occipital lobe
• what is the function of the frontals lobe?

  - control of voluntary movement called the motor area/ cortex (at back of frontal lobes)- other functions including : attention, planning, motivation, problem solving
• what is the function of the parietal lobes?

  - front of parietal lobes are called somatosensory area- processes sensory information from skin e.g. touch, heat, pressure- separated from the motor area by the central sulcus
• what are the bumps and dips in the brain called?

  - gyri/ gyrus = bumps in brain- sulci/ sulcus = dips in the brain
• what does Brocas area do?

  - in left frontal lobe- responsible for speech production - damage results in Brocas aphasia, speech is slow, laborious and lacks fluency
• what does Wernickes area do?

  - in left temporal lobe-responsible for language comprehension- damage results in wernickes aphasia, speech is fluent but meaningless- often produce neologisms (nonsense words)§
• what is supporting evidence for brain localisation?

  - brain scan - look at which part of the brain is active during different tasks -- but can only see brain at snapshot in time - neurosurgical evidence - removing / destroying certain parts of the brain to control aspects of behaviour - case study evidence - Phineas gage was more aggressive due to damage to frontal lobes - shows how damaging a certain part of the brain affects behaviour -- difficult to generalise
• what is evidence against localisation?

  - plasticity - the brains ability to recover after trauma suggests parts of the brain can take over the role of the damaged part - Lashleys research on rats - destroyed cortex after learning to find where in the brain it occurs - suggest higher cognitive function e.g. learning are not localised but distributed in a holistic way throughout the brain