What are the causes and effects of a neuranatomic lesion?

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What are the causes and effects of a neuranatomic lesion?

In: Biology

Anonymous 0 Comments

This is an extremely broad question. A lesion in the brain just means that there is some area of the brain that is not working properly, and this can be caused by a number of different things, such as traumatic injuries, stroke, tumors, brain surgery (intended and unintended), and disorders like multiple sclerosis, among many others.

The effects of the lesion depend entirely on what part of the brain is affected. For example, a lesion in one area of the brain related to the production of speech (called Broca’s area) can cause people to be unable to speak but still able to understand language spoken to them, while a lesion in an area of the brain related to processing language (called Wernicke’s areas) can cause people to be able to speak but not be able to understand what is said to them. Lesions in the hippocampi (plural of hippocampus) can cause problems forming new memories. Lesions in the occipital lobe can cause problems seeing. And on and on. The main way that the functions of different brain areas was determined was by looking at patients with brain lesions and correlating the lesion to the problem the patient was experiencing. We are still learning what some areas of the brain are for.