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The Biological Perspective on Psychology

The Biological Perspective on Psychology. The Biological Perspective. Behaviour is dictated by Biology Certain parts of the brain perform different functions. Really? Prove it. The work of Paul Broca (1824-80).

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The Biological Perspective on Psychology

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  1. The Biological Perspective on Psychology

  2. The Biological Perspective • Behaviour is dictated by Biology • Certain parts of the brain perform different functions Really? Prove it

  3. The work of Paul Broca (1824-80) • First to discover that different functions are assigned to different parts of the brain. • Study brains of dead people = correlate their known traits to their brain anatomy = look for patterns • Saved hundreds of human brains in jars of formalin

  4. Broca’s Research Study • “Broca’s area- region of the frontal lobe that articulates language • Studied the brains of aphasic patients (persons with speech and language disorders resulting from brain injuries) • Lost the ability to speak after injury to the posterior inferior frontal gyrus • This was the first anatomical proof of the localization of brain function.

  5. Carl Wernicke (1848-1905) • Followed up on Broca’s work • Not all language deficits were the result of damage to Broca's area. • Damage to the left posterior, superior temporal gyrus(Wernicke’s area) resulted in deficits in language comprehension. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k8JwC1L9_k (7:44) ‘The Brain- Language & speech, broca’s and wernicke’s area’

  6. Gazzaniga & Sperri- Split Brain Research • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lmfxQ-HK7Y (10:42) ‘Early Split Brain Research- Gazzaniga’ • Split Brain article from Psychology Today • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfGwsAdS9Dc (10:11) ‘Severed Corpus Callosum’

  7. Sperri- Split Brain Study (1968) Summary of Sperri’s Study: • Split brain surgery can alleviate epileptic seizures • Cutting corpus callosum means that your two hemispheres cannot communicate with each • Your head essentially contains two independent brains

  8. Procedure • Right hemisphere- 3D form & drawing • Left hemisphere- written & verbal language

  9. Left visual field Right visual field

  10. Sperry (1968) Split brain study Results: visual test 1 • subject show image in one visual field • recognised if in that field before • not recognised if re-shown in other field • 2 hemispheres don’t communicate

  11. Sperry (1968) Split brain study Results: visual test 2 • RH subjects shown objects in each field • could describe object in R field • said no object in L field, or ‘just a flash' • able to respond non-verbally (pick up object with L hand) to object in L field

  12. Right hemisphere is non-verbal, but has 3D ability and can physically detect objects

  13. Results: visual / drawing test • 2 objects shown 1 in LVF (RH), 1 in RVF (LH) • Drew object with shielded L hand, reported they had drawn object in R field they could draw, with the left hand, the object (e.g. pen) that had been presented to their LVF. When asked to say what they had drawn they would name the object shown to their RVF (e.g. banana)!

  14. Sperry (1968) Split brain study Results: tactile test • objects in R hand => verbal description • object in L hand => only NV response • L hand unable to respond to stimulus in R hand

  15. Left hand could not respond to what the right hand felt Patients would feel one object with each hand When they felt an object with the right hand patients could name the object When they felt an object with the left hand patients could not name object (but could identify it non-verbally, by picking it out from a group)

  16. Sperry (1968) Split brain CONCLUSIONS • Split brain patients have a doubling of most areas of conscious awareness • Hemispheres appear unaware of each other • Think of two hemispheres liketwo people • Split brain people can do two tasks different, unrelated tasks at the same time- non-split brain people very slow in comparison

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