PSYC 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Transverse Temporal Gyrus, Blood Vessel, Medulla Oblongata

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Psychology 100- neuroscience ii: neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. A big issue in early brain studies was whether the brain consisted of discrete areas with specialized functions or was a single general processor (one big organ, like the liver). Proponents of the latter theory suggested that the brain was equipotential every bit of the brain does the same sort of thing in the same way without specialization. Another way to examine this question is to use various brain imaging techniques to see whether the entire brain activates when participants perform a task, or just certain areas activate for certain tasks. If different parts of the brain activate for different tasks, we know that brain function is more localized. If the entire brain activates for each different activity, we will know that it is more of an equipotential organ. The first and most powerful evidence for specialized areas, or localization, of function involved aphasia, the loss of the ability to speak.