A03

• * research to support from peterson?

  • scanned p brain in fmri scanner whilst they did 2 different tasks
  • one was listening & one was reading task
  • found wernickes active during listening task & brocas active during reading task
  • are 2 different areas that specialise in different aspects of lang mastery
  • empirical evidence for different areas of brain having different functions
  • brocas - speech production
  • wernickes - understanding language
• * evidence to support from phineas gage?

  • suffered brain damage after metal rod went through his head during explosion
  • made full recovery but behaviour changed
  • damaged his amygdala (frontal lobe) so became aggressive & bad tempered
  • he only had damage to one area & only thing that changed was control he had over his emotions - amygdala specialised in emotion regulation
• X contradictory evidence from lashley?

  • removed areas of brain (cortex) in rats that were learning maze
  • removed different parts of brain in all different rats
  • timed how long it took to complete maze
  • was no difference in time taken regardless of which part of brain had been removed
  • not 1 area for intelligence in brains of rats as performance was similar
  • went onto suggest equipotential theory
  • idea that when different parts of brain damaged other areas compensate & take over function
• X evidence to contradict from danelli?

  • conducted case study of boy e.b lost his left hemisphere as a child
  • recovered language abilities by 17
  • certain areas of brain not strictly localised & can adapt in response to damage - brain plasticity
  • different areas of brain can adapt & take on different functions
  • questions cortical specialisation