Outline what is meant by Localisation of function in the brain. Are Essay

Outline what is meant by Localisation of function in the brain. Are all psychological processes localised - Essay Example Paul Broca, a French doctor is probably one of the fundamental key players in the discovery of the localization of functions in the brain (Glassman 45). Working at an insane asylum at Bicetre in 1861, Broca met a patient who was not able to speak coherently after a head trauma that later led him to conduct an autopsy on the man’s brain and successfully demonstrated that what the man suffered from was due to some damage on a specific part of his brain (Glassman 45, Santrock 48, Serendip). From this point, further studies were conducted and until today, are progressing not only to satisfy the curiosity in man but most importantly, to help cure patients suffering from brain malfunctions. Considering divisions in the brain, early anatomists assumed that specific parts of the brain perform specific functions (Glassman 50) and true enough, recent studies established such assumptions. Among the famous contributors to the study of the functions of the brain is a German physician named Franz Joseph Gall who theorized that the bumps and depressions in the skull had something to do with personality and intelligence (Santrock 48, Serendip, Sabatini). ... Divided into two hemispheres, the right hemisphere of the cortex was found to be responsible to the control of the left side of the body while the left hemisphere controls its opposite (Glassman 50, Feldman 79, Santrock 100). Plotnik (p. 74, 2005) and Feldman (82, 2008) describe the cortex as a thin layer of cells covering the forebrain which amazingly, still is divided into four lobes having more specific functions. He further discusses the frontal lobe as responsible for the accomplishment of the use of voluntary muscles, translating and executing emotions, behaving in an accepted manner, controlling actions and character and being attentive (p. 75). This, he said was proven by a case involving Phineas Gage, a foreman in Vermont in 1848 who met an accident at work, surviving from a 3.5 feet long, 1.25 inches thick and 13 pound-rod that crossed his head entering his frontal lobe and crashing his eye. After the surgery, the foreman exhibited drastic changes in his personality from be ing friendly to impatient. His decision making was also affected leading him to making promises he was not able to keep (Plotnik 75). This event is just one of the many cases that has furthered and established the assumption of being attentive and the acquisition of social rules and moral behaviors (Plotnik 76) which is very essential to a psychologist’s understanding and managing of patients. Other important parts of the brain that need to be magnified in the field of psychology are the hypothalamus and amygdala. The hypothalamus is formed by groups of neuron cell bodies that affect a person’s sexual behavior, temperature regulation, sleeping, eating, drinking, aggression and the expression of emotion (Passer & Smith 99).