Association area

Association areas can be located in the four lobes of the brain. They are primarily involved in processing and integrating information from the senses and relate to higher mental abilities.

Association Area of The Frontal Lobe
Association areas of the frontal lobes pay an executive role in thinking, feeling and behaviour because it is an 'end point' for much of the sensory information received and processed in the other lobes.

Key Processes include:

·Planning and thinking  ·Expression of personality ·Control and expression of emotion

Damage to the frontal lobe's association areas can cause impairment to mental abilities such as judging, planning and using initiative. The case study conducted on Phineas Gage, showed a dramatic change of personality after an accident damaged his frontal lobes.

Association Area of the Parietal Lobe
Key Processes include:

·Spatial awareness (sensing the body's position in space) ·Paying visual attention to stimuli ·Spatial reasoning (determining where an object is located in space)

Damage to the right parietal lobe only can cause Neglect Syndrome where a patient acts as if the left side of their world does not exist.

Association Area of the Occipital Lobe
Association areas of the occipital lobes interact with other lobes to integrate visual information with information from memory, language and sounds so we can interpret a visual stimulus.

Key Processes include:

·Enables memory retention of visual images ·Enables one to think visually

Association Area of the Temporal Lobe
Association areas of the temporal lobe interact with other lobes to complete processes related to memory.

Key Processes include:

·Determining appropriate emotional responses to sensory information and memories ·Memory of facts ·Procedural memories (how to do things) ·Episodic memories (personal experiences such as birthdays) ·Memories of faces to enable facial recognition of familiar people

People with partial or total memory loss often have damage to the temporal lobe association areas.