Lateralization and Specialty Areas
Lateralization of Function Although the two cerebral hemispheres cooperate with each other, they do not perform identical functions. Some functions are LATERALIZED – located primarily on one side of the brain
Left Hemisphere Participates in the analysis (breaking things down in to pieces) of information Extracts the elements that make up the whole experience. Serial events- elements occur one after the other…the pieces! Think about math class, part to whole- the left hemisphere looks at the parts
Left Hemisphere Talking Reading Writing Logic Number skills
Left Brained Activity Describe Mr. Cohen, write it down Explain why is this a left brained activity
Right Hemisphere Specialized for synthesis (putting things together) it is good at putting isolated elements together to perceive things as a whole
Right Hemisphere Read Maps 3D Construct complex objects Creative Artistic skill
Right Brained Activity Draw a picture of Mr. Cohen. Explain why this is a right brained activity.
Are you left or right brained? Complete the Wagner Preference Inventory to find out your hemispheric preference. What can you do with this information?
Process Overload What happens when you have to process too much info at once?
Specialty Areas Broca’s Area In the frontal lobes, the Broca’s Area controls language expression, directs the muscle movements involved in speech Wernicke’s area Found in the left temporal lobe, the Wernicke’s Area controls language reception. This area is involved in language comprehension and expression.
Sensory Cortex This cortical area receives information from the skin senses. Create a correlation Between the amount of sensitivity of a body Part and size of the cortical (brain) area.
Primary Motor Cortex Location-Parietal Lobe The motor cortex sends messages out to the body Right hemisphere controls the lefts side of the body and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Create a correlation between the amount of cortical area for a body part and amount of movement of a body party.
Why has there been so much recent focus on concussions? What is a concussion?
Research on Gage lead to a better understanding of the function of the Phineas Gage Research on Gage lead to a better understanding of the function of the frontal lobe
Prefrontal Cortex Deficits Slowing of thoughts and behaviour Loss of spontaneity Changes in emotional reactions Inappropriateness, jocular, disinhibited. Loss of self-awareness Deficiencies in foresight and planning