Damage to the Brain

Phineas Gage

Lost frontal lobe, for the rest of his life made bad decisions (alcoholic)

Non-regenerative

Interneurons

Wernicke’s Area

lang area for comprehension

Broca’s Area

lang area for speech/ sign production

Aphasia

damage to lang centers (can’t understand lang)

Apraxia

Can understand lang, but cannot form speech

Agnosia

Inability to recognize objects through sight (see, but cannot understand)

Prosopognosia

Cannot recognize faces, even those of loved ones

Aquired Psychopathy

Obtained damage to frontal lobe, cannot tell right from wrong (evident in many serial killers due to childhood brain trauma)

Lesion

Damage to brain tissue

Brain injuries

help scientists see the functions of the brain, otherwise would be unethical to replicate

Epilepsy

Repeated seizures from brain signals, split brain sometimes medically done to relieve

Gabrielle Giffords

shot in the back of the head, difficulty speaking, seeing with peripheral, and right side paralyzed

CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)

repeated blows to the head/ concussions, leads to variety of brain issues

Lateralization

distinct functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain

Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzonia

scientists who established lateralization

Left Brain

logic/ math/ order

Right Brain

Creativity

Corpus Callosum

band of neural fibers that connect brain hemispheres and allow for communication

Split Brain

medically split the corpus callosum

lesioning

destroying parts of the brain to diminish issues (ex. epilepsy)

Brain Plasticity

the brains ability to modify. reorganize (ex. loss function in occipital lobe, so that space now used for hearing)