Specificfunctions belong to specific areas of brain
Pre-19th century theory
Holistic theory; all parts of brain involved in thought and action
Suggests if a part broken, nothing function at all
Post-19th theory
Localisation theory; Broca & Wernicke, specific parts for specific roles
Damaged part would only affect damaged function
Brain hemispheres
Left hemisphere controls right body
Right hemisphere controls left body
Lateralisation
One hemisphere dominates functions
Grey matter
Cerebral cortex – outer layer of brain, grey colour
Broca's area
Frontal lobe, left hemisphere, related to speech production
Lesions in right hemisphere do not have speech deficit
1861 – patient couldn't say anything but 'Tan'
Lesion found in left hemisphere
Wernicke's area
Temporal lobe, comprehension of language
Overlaps into motor regions and sensory regions – vocals and process stimuli for meaning
Both Broca's and Wernicke'sareas work together to create coherent conversation
Frontal lobe
Motor cortex – voluntary movement [send signal to muscles of body]
Damage = struggle with coordination and movement control
Parietal lobe
Somatosensory cortex – represents sensory info from skinreceptors
The amount on a body part denotes sensitivity e.g. face and hands
Occipital lobe
Visual cortex – processes visual info
AO1
Localisation vs holistic – post 19th vs pre-19th
Hemispheres & cerebralcortex – lateralisation and cerebral cortex, 'grey matter'
Motor, somatosensory, visual and auditorycentres – frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes
Language area of brain – Broca and Wernicke's areas
AO3 strength - brain scan
Petersen 1988 – Wernicke active listening, Broca active reading; Tulving1994 –semantic and episodic in PFC
Broca for speech production, Wernicke for lang comprehension
brain scan as objective measurement of activity, support localisation - sound scientific evidence therefore high validity
AO3 strength - neurosurgical evidence
Dougherty 2002 – OCD patients successful response to cingulotomy [lesion of cingulate gyrus] post-32 weeks
modern procedure reduces compulsive acts due to removing areas influencing it
localised symptoms and behaviours associated w/ serious mental disorders
AO3 limitation - holisticanimal studies
Lashley 1950 – rats with a partially removed cortex learn a maze
holistic distribution of higher cognitive functions – learning required every part of cortex
learning is too complex to be localised and requires involvement of whole brain
AO3 counter to limitation
caution needed for drawing conclusions from animal studies and applying to humans – human cortexmore developed than animals; therefore, low generalisability