Psychology and The Brain PDF

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE BRAIN One brain or two? ▪ Despite the fact that your brain is divided into two halves, and each is responsible for different functions, you have just one brain! Why two halves? ▪ One theory: 🢭 If one half is damaged, the other can take over. 🢭 Similar to other or...

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE BRAIN One brain or two? ▪ Despite the fact that your brain is divided into two halves, and each is responsible for different functions, you have just one brain! Why two halves? ▪ One theory: 🢭 If one half is damaged, the other can take over. 🢭 Similar to other organs (eyes, kidneys, lungs, etc.) ▪ When injured, a healthy hemisphere can often successfully take over the functions of the injured one. 🢭 More successful in children, whose brains are still learning their functions and can learn in great volumes The evidence... ▪ Infants who’ve had one hemisphere of the brain removed often show relatively normal physical and mental development ▪ A stroke at age 6 or 7 often does not severely impact language development, but in adults can mean a permanent loss of speech Check this out: Backwards Bike Two halves but not identical... ▪ Although each half of the brain has the same structures and similar functions, they are not equal. 🢭 We quickly develop dominance in one side or the other for particular functions (ie language at the left, and shape recognition at the right) Example... The long lost friend... ▪ A person with a normal brain sees someone they haven’t seen in a long time. ▪ Right Brain: 🢭 Responsible for face recognition ▪ Left Brain: 🢭 Responsible for language ▪ The person can say hello to their old friend an call them by name because the information was communicated between the two hemispheres by the CORPUS CALOSSUM STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN