Localisation of function

• Visual centre


  • Location: Occipital lobe - bilaterally
  • Function: Visual processing begins in the retina, sends electrical impulses to the thalamus and then to the visual cortex. Contains different areas for different visual info such as shape and colour. Contralateral brain function.
• Auditory centre


  • Location: Temporal lobe - superior temporal plane - bilaterally
  • Function: Processes auditory information for basic and high function hearing. Unilateral damage will result in slight hearing loss and bilateral damage results in cortical deafness.
• Motor cortex


  • Location: Rear of the frontal lobe - Precentral gyrus - bilaterally
  • Function: Motor cortex on one side of the body controls opposite side. Different parts control different parts of the body. Arranged logically next to each other.
• Somatosensory cortex


  • Location: Parietal lobe - postcentral gyrus
  • Function: Processes sensory information related to touch from the skin. Produces sensations of touch, pleasure, pain and temperature and then localises to body region. Opposite sides.
• Broca's area


  • Location: Posterior part of frontal lobe - only left hemisphere
  • Function: Controls production of speech. Comes from the study of patient 'Tan' who had damage to this area and was able to understand spoken language but not speak.
• Wernicke's area


  • Location: Posterior part of temporal lobe - only left hemisphere
  • Function: Controls the understanding of language. Associated with meaning, closer to auditory cortex and visual cortex, as these are used more for understanding speech.
• Communication may be more important than localisation - Not all brain functions are localised and instead connections and processing in between areas in the brain lead to cognitive functions. Sometimes damage between these connections is more damaging than damage to the areas themselves.
• Equipotentiality - Only basic motor functions are localised in separate brains of the brain, but higher mental functions are not localised. Higher functions which are not localised are empathy consciousness and cognitive reasoning.
• Individual differences - Cannot be generalised to everyone as there are individual differences between people. In studies (Bavelier) found that there is a large variation in areas of brain activity across participants, there are also differences between sizes with gender.
• Locations and functions of:


  • Visual centre
  • Auditory centre
  • Motor cortex
  • Somatosensory cortex
  • Broca's area
  • Wernicke's area