Localisation of Function

• Localisation of function


  the idea that certain functions (e.g. language, memory, etc.) have certain locations or areas within the brain
• Areas of the Brain

  Label

  A) Motor Cortex

  B) Somatosensory Cortex

  C) Auditory Cortex

  D) Visual Cortex

  
• Motor Cortex

  • frontal lobe
  • involved in regulating movement - voluntary movement
  • by sending signals to the muscles
• Somatosensory Cortex

  • parietal lobe
  • receives incoming sensory information
  • different areas of cortex receive info from different areas of the body
• Visual Cortex

  • occipital lobe
  • receives and processes visual information
  • LVF - right hemisphere
  • RVF - left hemisphere
• Auditory Cortex

  • temporal lobe
  • analyses speech based information
• Language Centres of The Brain

  • Broca's area
  • Wernicke's area
  • restricted to the left side of the brain
• Broca's Area

  • responsible for speech production
  • damage to this area causes Broca's aphasia - slow speech
  • patient 'tan' - could only say the word tan
• Wernicke's area

  • language comprehension - understanding words
  • damage causes Wernicke's aphasia - fluent language but meaningless sentences
  • 'neologisms' - nonsense words
• Hemisphere's of the brain

  • main part of the brain - cerebrum - split in two
  • two hemispheres of the brain - left and right
• Strengths of Localisation of function

  • evidence from neurosurgery - damage to areas of the brain have been proven to cause mental disorders
  • evidence from brain scans - Petersen et al. (1988) - wernicke during listening task and broca during reading task
• Limitations of Localisation of function

  • holistic view - Lashley (1950) - removed parts of rats brains whilst they were trying to learn a route of a maze - found that no area was more important
  • unique case study evidence - phineas gage