A-Level Psychology: The Brain

The brain half of biopsychology carries some of the most technical content in the A-level, and its questions demand knowing which area does what, what the split-brain studies actually showed, and what each scanning method can and cannot reveal. This quiz covers the full sweep.

The localisation questions map the cortex: motor, somatosensory (parietal, with representation proportional to sensitivity), visual (occipital, with cortical blindness following bilateral damage) and auditory (temporal) areas, plus the language centres — Broca's area with expressive aphasia and Wernicke's with its receptive counterpart — the pairing exam questions test relentlessly.

The lateralisation questions centre on Sperry's split-brain research, tested through its actual findings: information shown to the right hemisphere cannot be named (speech lives on the left), yet the left hand can select the object — the dissociation that made hemispheric specialisation concrete.

Plasticity is covered through the mechanisms of functional recovery — axonal sprouting and recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite hemisphere. The methods questions compare fMRI, EEG, ERPs and post-mortem examination by their genuine trade-offs, including why ERPs' statistical averaging beats raw EEG for isolating specific responses, and what post-mortem work historically contributed (Broca's own mapping).

Biological rhythms complete the set: circadian rhythms, the suprachiasmatic nucleus as master clock, and the endogenous pacemaker versus exogenous zeitgeber distinction. Every explanation names area, function and evidence together — the triple that top-band biopsychology answers are built from.

• Locate motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language areas and their deficits
• Explain Broca's vs Wernicke's aphasia
• Interpret Sperry's split-brain findings and what they show about lateralisation
• Compare fMRI, EEG, ERPs and post-mortem methods by their trade-offs
• Define circadian rhythms, the SCN, endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers

Covers the compulsory Biopsychology content of A-level Psychology: localisation of function, hemispheric lateralisation and split-brain research, plasticity and functional recovery, ways of studying the brain, and biological rhythms.