neuropsychology

• cerebrum is the largest part of the brain where processing happens
• cortex is the outer layer of the brain
• frontal lobe is at the front of the brain and is responsible for decision making and impulse control
• the temporal lobes are on the sides of the brain and helps with hearing and understanding sounds
• the parietal lobe is on the top of the brain and controls perception and also recognise faces
• not being able to recognise faces is called prosopagnosia
• the occipital lobe is at the back of the brain and helps us see and process visual information
• the cerebellum is at the bottom of the brain next to the brainstem and controls our motor skills
• lateralisation of the brain is that each hemisphere has different roles
• corpus colossum is a thick layer of nerve fibres that connect the right and left hemisphere
• left hemisphere controls language, control of right hand, speech and logic
• right hemisphere controls control of left hand, left visual field, creativity and musical ability
• brocas area controls the production of speech
• brocas area is in the left hemisphere of the brain
• central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord
• the spinal cord can activate the peripheral nervous system which makes the body do the actions the brain is telling it to
• neurotransmitters are chemicals released from neurons
• synaptic transmission is the process by which neurotransmitters are released by a neuron, move across the synaptic gap and then taken up by another neuron
• axon is the long structure that connects the cell body of a neuron to the terminal button at the end of the cell
• receptors are sites on neurons designed to absorb neurotransmitter molecules
• synapse is the gap between two neurons that allow neurotransmitters to pass from one cell to another
• visual agnosia is the inability to recognise anything that can be seen
• prosopagnosia is the inability to recognise faces
• the prefrontal cortex is at the front of the frontal lobe and affects behaviour
• the fusiform face area is part of the temporal lobe that is thought to help in face recognition
• damage to the prefrontal cortex can cause impulsive behaviour, aggression and poor decision making
• in 1848 phineas gage had an iron rod fired through his head when working on a railway line
• damasio et al the return of phineas gage
• damasio wanted to build a model of gage’s head to work out how the iron rod passed through
• damasio et al used a 3d computer representation and identified any injured parts of the brain
• it was mainly just the frontal lobe that was damaged in gage’s brain
• white matter is brain and spinal cord tissue
• conclusions of phineas gage was that frontal lobes are important for decision making, impulse control and emotional responses
• a strength of phineas gage is that researchers could use modern-day technology
• another strength of phineas gage is that we can now make predictions about what behaviour changes to expect if someone has damaged their frontal lobe
• a weakness is that reports were from 150 years ago meaning they may lack accuracy
• a weakness of phineas gage is that there may be problems generalising the information as the damage is individual to him
• sperry’s 1968 hemisphere disconnection
• sample of sperry was people with epilepsy who had their corpus colosseum cut to reduce seizures
• 11 participants in split brain