Frontal Lobe and Phineus Gage

How did Gage’s accident affect him? Phineas Gage Movie

Cerebral Cortex and Language Aphasia: impairment of language, usually

caused by damage to the left hemisphere to the brain either in Broca’s or Wernicke’s area:

Broca’s Area: directs the muscle movements involved in speech Broca's Aphasia

Wernicke’s Area: involved in language comprehension Wernicke's Aphasia

Wernicke's Aphasia 2

Brain Reorganization

Plasticity: the brain’s capacity for modification as evident in brain reorganization following damage (especially in children) and in experiments on the effects of experience on brain development brain plasticity

The Divided Brain Corpus Callosum: large

bundle of neural fibers that allows the two sides of the brain to communicate. Carries messages between the two hemispheres.

Cutting it leads to split brains.

Specialization of the Cerebral Hemispheres

Left Hemisphere

Right Hemisphere

• Spontaneous speaking and writing

• Responses to complex commands• Word recognition

• Memory for words and numbers

• Sequences of movements

• Feelings of anxiety• Positive emotion

• Repetitive but not spontaneous speaking

• Responses to simple commands

• Facial recognition• Memory for shapes

and music• Spatial

interpretation• Emotional responsiveness

• Negative emotion

BACK

FRONT

RIGHT HEMISPHERE

LEFTHEMISPHER

Elinear (step by step) holistic (big

picture)sequential randomlogical intuitive

language non-verbalalgebra geometry

spatialfacial recognitionmusical

Left Brain? Right Brain? ONE BRAIN VERY WELL CONNECTED.

KEY NAMESUnit 2: Biological Bases of

Behavior

Discovered that a structure in the left frontal lobe controls language production.

This structure is now known as “Broca’s”

key name

Paul BROCA18

24-1

880

Discovered that a structure in the left temporal lobe controls language comprehension.

This structure is now known as “Wernicke’s”

key name

Carl WERNICKE18

48-1

905

1981 Nobel Prize Winner (medicine) for split-brain research

key name

Roger SPERRY19

13-1

994

Man With Two Brains

Split Brain Experiments

Quick experiment!You’ll need: 2 pens or pencils & a sheet of scratch paper

When a split brain patient is asked to point to a whole, normal picture of the face that was just seen in the left visual field, the patient will usually pick out the woman's picture by pointing with his/herHowever, if the patient is required to say

whether the picture was a man or a woman, the patient will SAY that the

picture was of a man. Therefore, depending on what the patient is

required to do, either the right or left hemisphere will dominate. In this case, when speech is not required, the right

hemisphere will dominate for recognition of faces.

Another type of experiment performed with split brain patients uses chimeric figures

left visual field sees the face of a

woman

information from the left visual

field is processed in the

right visual field sees the face of a man

information from the right visual field is processed in the

left hemisphere

right hemisphere

right hemisphere

left hemisphere

Can point at face of woman with __________ handleft

Can point at face of man with __________ handright

Can verbally describe the picture (Broca’s & Wernicke’s are in the left hem)

Brain PlasticityA hemispherectomy is a powerful

example of the brain’s ability to “rewire” itself

Memorize the Parts of the Brain