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 (removed from the AQA specification from September 2025, but still in OCR's environmental psychology option) 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

Practice material written by Zestly on the brain, following the AQA A-level Psychology (7182) topic list as an example: localisation of function, hemispheric lateralisation and split-brain research, plasticity and functional recovery, and ways of studying the brain. Biological rhythms are also included: AQA removed them from first teaching in September 2025, but they still appear on other boards, for example in OCR's environmental psychology option.

Sample question

In the context of language localisation, which specific brain area is associated with the production of speech, and what is the primary consequence of damage to this region?

See the answer

Broca's area; expressive aphasia

Broca's area is located in the posterior frontal lobe and is responsible for speech production. Damage leads to Broca's aphasia, also known as expressive aphasia, characterised by slow, laborious speech. Wernicke's area is involved in language comprehension.

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