The Role of the Lesion Method in the Understanding of Healthy Brain Functions

Understanding the relationship between brain and behaviour has been of great phenomenon in the field of neuropsychology yet a compound one. Studying the effects of brain functions on human behaviour requires us to operate with methods that allow us to dissect different aspects of mental functions. This paper therefore addresses one of the ways of assessing brain functions in human and non-human animals; the lesion method (in Banich, 2004).

The basic concept of the lesion method is to determine a correlation between a lesion in a certain region of the brain and occurring behaviours. The lesion method strategy thus involves ablating or destroying a proportion of the brain in order to understand the functional nature of that specific brain part and its effects on behaviour (in Carlson, 2006). A lesion refers to the structural change or damage of brain tissues which may be directly related to a certain aspect of a mental function thus leading to a decline in brain functioning. The existence of lesions in humans can occur in several different ways such as strokes, tumours, traumatic brain injuries, accidents etc and it is these patients that have provided us with a valuable insight into the effects of brain lesions on human behaviour and the nature of neurologically intact individuals (in Carlson, 2006).

In general, research agrees on the idea that different aspects of behaviour are mediated by distinctive parts of the brain; a concept referred to as localization of function (in Banich, 2004). With the brain consisting of various components each providing support for different mental processes the principle of localization of function poses that certain regions of the brain are circumscribed to specific locations (in Banich, 2004)....

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... contributed to our understanding of the brain not only allowing us to uncover the nature of lesion deficits in brain damaged patients but also allowing us to investigate brain functions in neurologically intact individuals. Intact individuals have also aided and our understanding of the different neuroanatomical structures of the brain and how mental processes operate.

Works Cited

Banich M.T. (2004). Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology (2nd Ed.).Boston: Houghton Mifflin CO.

Boddy., J. (1978). Brain systems and Psychological Concepts. Sutton Surrey. By John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Carlson. R.N. (2006). Foundations of Behavioural Neuroscience.(8th ed.). Allyn & Bacon. Pearson Education, Inc.

Passer, M., Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremner, A., Sutherland, E., & Vliek, M. (2009). Psychology; Science of Mind and Behaviour. (European Edition). New York.