PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Inferior Frontal Gyrus, Frontal Lobe, Prefrontal Cortex

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jill L Atkinson

Document Summary

Describe how the structure of the central nervous system influences behaviour: discuss the evidence supporting localization of function versus equipotential (aphasia, brain imaging studies of language) Localization of function follows that particular areas of the brain have specialized functions. Whereas the equipotential theory of the brain is that the entire brain functions to complete every act (ie. like the liver all parts of equal). Evidence to support the localization theory was found in aphasia patients patients who had lost the ability to speak due to damage to specific portions of their left lobes. This indicates that particular areas are responsible for speech understanding and communication. Brocas aphasia is damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus and results in the inability to speak but the patient still understand words. Wernickes aphasia is damage to the left hemisphere close to the posterior side. It results in the inability of patients to understand language resulting in non sensical (albeit full formed) sentences.