Localisation Of Function

The most primitive part of the brain responsible for breathing,heart rate and blood pressure

It’s the little brain -responsible for movement, balance and coordination Damage to it may cause vertigo and/or lost of ‘fine motor skills “such as writing

Is divided into two hemispheres ,each of which is divided into 4 lobes The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and vice versa in most actions (contralatralisation)

Make us move (voluntary) Located in the frontal lobe Both hemispheres have a motor cortex with the motor cortex on one side of the brain controlling the muscles on the opposite side of the body Regions are arranged logically next to one another

Detects touch and sensation Located in the parietal lobe Uses sensory information from the skin the cortex produces sensations of touch,pressure,pain and temperature ,localised to specific body region Both hemisphere have a somatosensory cortex and the cortex on one side of the brain receives sensory information from the opposite side of the body

Visual processing starts at the retina but it’s mainly done in the visual cortex ,located in the occipital lobe The left visual cortex processes info from the right visual field of each eye and the right visual cortex processes info from the left visual field of each eye Processing includes colour,shape and movement

Cochlea in the ear detects sound via very fine hairs Sound is converted to electrical impulses Via auditory nerve to the brain stem,where decoding begins To the thalamus which relay this Then to the auditory cortex to process the sounds heard so we understand It recognises it and respond appropriately Located in the temporal lobes

Brocas area Wernicke area

The area of speech production Broca did research with a patient called ‘tan’ as he understood spoken language but was unable to speak it or express his thoughts in writing

Broca studied 8 patients and he found lesions in the left hemisphere however those with the she range in the right hemisphere had no issues

An area of speech comprehension Wernicke patients with lesions in the area could speak the language but were unable to understand the language

Evidence for brain localisation

Collective term for a number of language disorders ,that vary considerably amongst people

Anywhere in the frontal cortex This means localisation of function is valid E.g Bruce Willis

Damage to Broca’s area can often result in halted ,fragmented speech that requires significant effort Speech comprehension is usually relatively intact

P: one strength of localisation of function is the case study of Sarah Scott E: evidence for this is after the stroke Sarah struggled to produce speech even though she understood it E: thus shows that brain localisation has RWA as it suggests that Broca’s area is responsible for speech production

P:furthermore,another strength of localisation of function is the case study of Sarah Scott E:evidence for this is 6 years after her stroke,her speech production improved and she got a job E:thus suggests a degree of brain plasticity or recovery ,or that areas have a specific function therefore this shows validity for brain localisation

P:one weakness of localisation of function is that aphasia is different in different people due to individual differences E:evidence for this is that damage to Broca’s area does not always lead to speech production difficulties,particularly if the damage is slow processing with brain localisation E:therefore it lacks validity as damage to the Broca’s area effects everyone differently

P:one weakness of localisation of function is original studies with patients with damage to brains,post morten ,after death E:evidence for this is that their conditions came from damage to a broad area so we are unable to say aphasia is caused by one specific area but rather damaged caused to the connection between the areas instead E:this means localisation functions theorised on this type of research lacks reliability

P:another weakness of localisation of function is that brain imagery has enabled much more specific detailing of brain functioning on living people E:evidence for this is that it shows different functions associated with each part E:this shows that language production is therefore more complex than Broca’s areas this shows that brain localisation lacks representation

Localisation of function is that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours,processes or activities.