‘All that is psychological is first physiological’ Session 2: Localisation of Brain Function

What were the there principles of the biological level of analysis?

1. There are biological correlates of behaviour 2. Animal research can provide insight into behaviour 3. Human behaviour is, to some extent, genetically based

 Explain  Explain one study of localisation of function of the brain Explain: Explain: give a detailed account including reasons or causes

 When a behaviour is localised in the brain, it is possible to trace the origin of a behaviour to a specific part of the brain  Studies in localisation of function led to the desire to map out the brain’s functions  Though localisation does not explain all human behaviour, the mapping out of the brain was an important step forward in brain research

Iron rod blew threw his skull and he turned into a jerk Shows that behavior has a physiological basis (his personality changed) Shows there are biological correlates of behavior (after his frontal lobe was damaged he lost his ability to restrain himself)

 Amnesia: the inability to learn new information or retrieve information that has already been stored in memory.

Retrograde Amnesia failure to recall memories that have been stored before a trauma Retrograde Amnesia failure to recall memories that have been stored before a trauma Anterograde Amnesia failure to store new memories after a trauma Anterograde Amnesia failure to store new memories after a trauma

 Important in the formation and storage of memories  Case studies of patients with hippocampal damage have shown that they can no longer form new explicit memories

 Important because it provided evidence that there are different memory systems in the brain  Milner (1957) was first to report case of H.M. and memory function after H.M.

 Suffered from epileptic seizures after he fell of his bike aged seven  It was assumed his seizures were related to his accident  He became increasingly incapacitated  When he was 27, a neurosurgeon performed experimental surgery to stop the seizures  Tissue from the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, was removed

 After the operation H.M. suffered from amnesia  He could recall information acquired in early life, but was unable to form new memories  H.M. suffered from anterograde amnesia (failure to store memories that happened AFTER a trauma)  He was unable to remember the faces of new people he met  He could carry out normal conversations, but would not remember people he met after the operation  He could read and re-read the same magazine without realising that he had read them before

 Did an MRI scan* of H.M.’s brain  Brain imaging was used because it allowed researchers to get a precise image of the brain damage  They were then able to identify where the damage was i.e. the removal of the hippocampus *MRI-Magnetic resonance imaging- a type of brain scanning technique

 Only his memory was affected by the removal of the hippocampus  His personality remained unchanged and there was no general intellectual impairment  Suggests hippocampus is not involved in other behavioural processes

 The hippocampus plays a critical role in converting memories of experiences from short- term to long-term memory  H.M. retained memories of what happened BEFORE the surgery.  Indicates that hippocampus is responsible for storing new explicit memories  H.M. could learn a few new procedural memories which indicates that procedural memories are not stored via the hippocampus

 The fact that H.M. (and other people with amnesia) had deficits in one part of the memory but not in others is evidence that the brain has several memory systems and that these are supported by distinct brain regions  Shows that memory processes are much more complex than originally believed  Although hippocampus is very important in the storage of new memories it is not the only part of the brain involved in the process  Other parts of brain must be responsible for storage of procedural memories etc.

 In his mid-forties suffered from a brain infection which damaged parts of his brain  Left with a memory span of only a few seconds  Most devastating case of amnesia ever recorded  Suffers from anterograde and retrograde amnesia

 Wearing’s episodic and some of his semantic memory are lost  He also cannot transfer new information into long term memory  Wearing can still play the piano and conduct music (procedural memories)  He also still demonstrates affection for his wife suggesting his emotional memory is intact  This is evidence of a distributed memory system i.e. different parts of the brain are involved in different parts of memory

Explain one study of localisation of function of the brain (8 marks) This should include: ◦ Definition of localisation of function of brain ◦ Description of one study (H.M.) ◦ Detailed explanation of what study tells us about brain