Brain Facts:
Brain Damage
| Topic | Discussion | Resource |
| Brain Damage —Broca’s Area |
Patients with lesions in Broca’s area can sometimes speak, but the speech is labored and halting. This region controls grammar and vocalization. | Susan A. Greenfield The Human Mind Explained p.24 |
| Brain Damage —Frontal Lobe |
Frontal lobe damage affects movement since this area contains the pre-motor and motor cortices. | Susan A. Greenfield The Human Mind Explained p.24 |
| Brain Damage —Occipital Lobe |
Injury in the V5 visual (occipital) region, which is thought to play a part in the perception of motion, causes some odd symptoms. For instance, following a stroke there, a patient might see the world only as a series of static images. | Susan A. Greenfield The Human Mind Explained p.24 |
| Brain Damage —Parietal Lobe |
Damage to the parietal lobe of the cortex interferes with perception of touch and pain, as well as some visual functions and the knowledge of where the body is in space. | Susan A. Greenfield The Human Mind Explained p.24 |
Brain Damage |
Prefrontal lobe damage—alters the ability of people to execute plans and can make them inconsiderate. It can also pacify them. |
Susan A. Greenfield |
| Brain Damage —Temporal Lobe |
A range of symptoms is evident in patients with damage to the temporal lobe. The right temporal lobe is involved in controlling spatial tasks, and damage to a specific part of it can render someone unable to recognize faces, even those of close family members. A farmer with damage to much the same area could recognize his family, but lost the ability to recognize his sheep. Damage to other parts of the temporal lobes can result in dramatic hallucinations or a loss of memory for any subsequent event. | Susan A. Greenfield The Human Mind Explained p.24 |
| Brain Damage —Wernicke’s Region |
People with damage to Wernicke’s region, an area in the left temporal lobe, can speak fluently but make no sense. A typical reply to a question about a vacation might run:”Oh, yes, we have done it, could be different, but nevertheless done. Go, go, gone, and however successful it still fails. The area deals with sense and comprehension of language. | Susan A. Greenfield The Human Mind Explained p.24 |
Violent Crime |
Experts estimate that about one out of every four violent criminals in prison has diminished brain function of some kind or another, whether retardation or physical damage. It is very common for an autopsy of a convicted killer to show extensive frontal lobe damage from concussion. |
Zack Lynch |
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