The Brain and Localisation

corpus callosum

a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain

cereberum

largest part of the brain; responsible for voluntary muscular activity

cerebral cortex

outer layer of the cerebrum

four lobes of the brain

temporal, parietal, occipital, frontal

Frontal lobe

A

Parietal lobe

B

Temporal lobe

C

Occipital lobe

D

motor cortex

controls voluntary movements in opposite sides of the body

somatosensory cortex

tactile sensation (touch, heat, pressure)

visual cortex

visual information

auditory cortex

sound information

broca's area

language production

wernicke's area

language comprehension

broca's aphasia

lack of fluent speech

wernicke's aphasia

producing nonsense words

location of motor cortex

back of frontal lobe

location of somatosensory cortex

front of parietal lobes

location of visual cortex

occipital lobe

location of auditory cortex

temporal lobes

location of broca's area

left frontal lobe

location of wernicke's area

left temporal lobe

frontal lobe

thinking, memory, behaviour, movement

occipital lobe

sight

temporal lobe

hearing, learning, feelings

parietal lobe

touch, language

where did phineas gage's injury take place?

frontal lobe

what happened to phineas gage's personality?

he became filled with rage and irritable

petersen et al

used brain scans to demonstrate that Wernicke's area was active during a listening task, whereas Broca's area was active during a reading task

tulving et al

used brain scans to demonstrate that episodic and semantic memories are localised to the frontal lobe

dronkers et al

used MRI scan on Tan's brain to confirm Broca's findings

dronkers et al's findings

although there was a lesion found in Broca's area, they found other evidence to suggest other areas may have also contributed to speech production failure

lashley

removed areas of the cortex in rats whilst they were learning a maze

lashley's findings

no area of the rats' cortex were proven to be more important than other areas

what do lashley's findings suggest?

higher, complex cognitive processes (learning) are not localised to one area and is more widely distributed (more holistic)

weakness of lashley's research

animal research should not be extrapolated to humans because humans are more complex and have free will