COMPREHENSIVE EXAM REVIEW 2026
FULL SOLUTION STUDY GUIDE
⩥ Motor area. Answer: Back of frontal lobe, involved in regulating
movement.
⩥ Somatosensory area. Answer: Front of both parietal lobes, processes
sensory information such as touch.
⩥ Parts of the brain: Visual area.. Answer: Occipital lobe, receives and
processes visual information.
⩥ Parts of the brain: Auditory area.. Answer: Temporal lobe, analyses
speech-based information.
⩥ Parts of the brain: Language areas.. Answer: Broca's area, frontal lobe
in the left hemisphere = speech production.
Wernicke's area, temporal lobe in the left hemisphere = language
comprehension.
⩥ Define plasticity.. Answer: Brain's tendency to change and adapt
(functionally and physically) as a result of experience and new learning.
, ⩥ What five things must be used to evaluate localisation of function?.
Answer: Brain scan evidence, neurological evidence, case study
evidence, Lashley's research and plasticity and the equipotentiality
theory.
⩥ Synaptic pruning.. Answer: As we age, rarely used connections are
deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened.
⩥ Axonal sprouting.. Answer: Undamaged axons grow new nerve
endings to reconnect neurons whose links were injured or severed.
⩥ Recruitment of homologous areas.. Answer: Regions on opposite
sides of the brain take on functions of damaged areas.
⩥ Functional recovery.. Answer: Form of plasticity. Following damage
through trauma, the brain's ability to redistribute/transfer functions
performed by damaged areas to other, undamaged areas.
⩥ Neural plasticity.. Answer: Describes the brain's tendency to change
and adapt - functionally and physically - resulting from experience and
new learning.
⩥ What is the central nervous system (CNS)?. Answer: Consists of brain
and spinal cord; origin of all complex commands and decisions.