The lobes of the brain
- Frontal lobe: planning, decision-making and personality; it contains the motor area (voluntary movement) and Broca's area (speech production).
- Parietal lobe: contains the somatosensory area, which processes touch, temperature and pain.
- Temporal lobe: contains the auditory area (hearing) and Wernicke's area (understanding language).
- Occipital lobe: contains the visual area.
- The cerebellum coordinates balance and movement.
Localisation of function and Penfield
- Localisation of function is the idea that particular areas of the brain have particular jobs.
- Penfield stimulated areas of the brains of patients during surgery for epilepsy. Stimulating the temporal lobe (the interpretive cortex) sometimes caused patients to experience vivid memories or feelings, supporting localisation.
Cognitive neuroscience
- Cognitive neuroscience studies how brain structures link to thinking, using scans such as CT, PET and fMRI.
- Tulving used PET scans while participants thought about episodic and semantic memories: different areas were active, with episodic memories linked more to the front of the brain and semantic memories to the back.
- Brain damage, such as a stroke or head injury, can affect movement (if the motor area is damaged) or behaviour and personality (if the frontal lobe is damaged).
Key terms
- Localisation of function
- The idea that brain areas have specific jobs.
- Motor area
- The part of the frontal lobe that controls voluntary movement.
- Broca's area
- The area of the frontal lobe involved in speech production.
- Wernicke's area
- The area of the temporal lobe involved in understanding language.
- Somatosensory area
- The part of the parietal lobe that processes touch.
- Cognitive neuroscience
- The study of how brain structures link to thinking.
- fMRI
- A brain scan showing activity through changes in blood flow.