BRAIN
Tan: Broca's aphasia, could only say tan, biopsy on his brain showed large
lesion in frontal area (posterior inferior frontal gyrus) - later scanned with
fMRI and found that the damage extended beyond the area identified by
Broca
Peterson et al: brains were scanned whilst doing different tasks, found
that Wernicke's area was active while listening to nouns and Broca's area
was active when silently repeating nouns
Lashley: conducted research on rat's brains, removed between 10 and
50% of the cortex in rats that were learning a maze - concluded there was
no single area for memory, every part of the brain was involved in laying
down memories, process of learning required every part of the cortex
Phineas Gage: damage to left frontal lobe, brain damage affected his
personality, suggests frontal lobe may be responsible for regulating mood
Maguire et al: studied brains of London taxi drivers, they had more volume
of grey matter in their posterior hippocampus (associated with
navigational skills) than the control group, the longer they were a taxi
driver the bigger structural difference, memory recall test called 'The
Knowledge' had altered their brain structure
Lazar et al: used MRI scans to demonstrate how experienced meditators
had a thicker cortex than non-meditators, particularly in areas related to
attention and sensory processing
Danelli: two-and-a-half-year-old boy had large tumour removed that took
most of his left hemisphere away, by the age of 5 his language ability was
reported as normal for his ages, supports idea that a child's brain
constantly adapts
Ramachandran & Hirstein: 60-80% of amputees experience phantom limb
syndrome, still experience sensations due to cortical reorganisation in
somatosensory area - maladaptive consequence of plasticity
Hubel & Wiesel: sewed one eye of a kitten shut and analysed brain's
cortical responses, area of visual cortex associated with shut eye was still
active and processed information from the open eye
Gabby Giffords: former US politician, survived assassination attempt from
being shot in the head at point blank range, placed into a medically
induced coma, after this she made lots of progress within months and,
aided by rehab, she could walk with supervision - she had perfect control
of her left arm and leg and could write with left hand (controlled by right
hemisphere) - her progress placed her in the top 5% of people recovering
from serious brain injury
Tan: Broca's aphasia, could only say tan, biopsy on his brain showed large
lesion in frontal area (posterior inferior frontal gyrus) - later scanned with
fMRI and found that the damage extended beyond the area identified by
Broca
Peterson et al: brains were scanned whilst doing different tasks, found
that Wernicke's area was active while listening to nouns and Broca's area
was active when silently repeating nouns
Lashley: conducted research on rat's brains, removed between 10 and
50% of the cortex in rats that were learning a maze - concluded there was
no single area for memory, every part of the brain was involved in laying
down memories, process of learning required every part of the cortex
Phineas Gage: damage to left frontal lobe, brain damage affected his
personality, suggests frontal lobe may be responsible for regulating mood
Maguire et al: studied brains of London taxi drivers, they had more volume
of grey matter in their posterior hippocampus (associated with
navigational skills) than the control group, the longer they were a taxi
driver the bigger structural difference, memory recall test called 'The
Knowledge' had altered their brain structure
Lazar et al: used MRI scans to demonstrate how experienced meditators
had a thicker cortex than non-meditators, particularly in areas related to
attention and sensory processing
Danelli: two-and-a-half-year-old boy had large tumour removed that took
most of his left hemisphere away, by the age of 5 his language ability was
reported as normal for his ages, supports idea that a child's brain
constantly adapts
Ramachandran & Hirstein: 60-80% of amputees experience phantom limb
syndrome, still experience sensations due to cortical reorganisation in
somatosensory area - maladaptive consequence of plasticity
Hubel & Wiesel: sewed one eye of a kitten shut and analysed brain's
cortical responses, area of visual cortex associated with shut eye was still
active and processed information from the open eye
Gabby Giffords: former US politician, survived assassination attempt from
being shot in the head at point blank range, placed into a medically
induced coma, after this she made lots of progress within months and,
aided by rehab, she could walk with supervision - she had perfect control
of her left arm and leg and could write with left hand (controlled by right
hemisphere) - her progress placed her in the top 5% of people recovering
from serious brain injury
