8. Language Flashcards
Pars opercularis
BA 44
Broca’s area
Found to be damaged in px by broca 1861 with language deficit
Paul Broca
1861
Studied a px with language deficits
Post more, examinations revealed damage to LEFT HEMISPHERE in the pars opercularis, insula, lower motor cortex
Semantics
Meaning of words
Syntax
How words fit grammatically into sentences
Language rules
Morphology
How words are constructed
Ie plural rules etc
Phonology
Sounds that make up words
Blood supply of language areas
Middle cerebral artery
Most common causes of aphasias
Ischaemia
Embolism
Thrombosis
Haemorrhage
Features of brocas aphasia (non fluent)
Effortful, slow, halting speech
Disturbed speech timing (dysprosody)
Telegraphic speech (loss of function words)
Missing bound morphemes (keep content words but NO GRAMMAR)
Phonomic paraphrasia (incorrect sounds)
Spared comprehension
Caplan and hildebrandt
1988
Studies using active and passive sentences with pictures to see if patients could match them up
Boy ate apple
Boy was eaten by Apple
Patients don’t understand the difference here because don’t understand the grammar
Monkey and elephant example, patients use world knowledge to interpret the most likely event and select the correct picture
Brocas aphasia is not a production deficit
Karl Wernicke
1874
Stoke patient could speak and hear but could not comprehend spoken or written language
Postmortem showed lesions in the left posterior parietal/temporal regions
Concluded this area is involved in comprehension
Characteristics of fluent (wernickes aphasia)
Word salad phonemic paraphrasia- wrong sounds semantic paraphrasia- wrong words that sound similar Poor comprehension Neologisms (made up words) Intonation and grammar are preserved
Connection between language areas
Arcuate fasiculus
Damage here can cause conduction aphasia
Impaired repetition
Penfield
Unknown year
Described the sensory and motor homonculus in epilepsy operations
He wanted to know which areas were important not to damage
Rasmussen and Milner
1975
Brain stimulation studies causing speech arrest were mapped
Matched broca and wernickes areas
Winner and Gardner
1977
Looked and left and right brain damaged px (left = brocas) with normal controls
“He had a heavy heart”
Shown pictures
People with right hemisphere damage could not interpret the alternate meaning of the phrase
Kutas and Hillyard
1980
ERP responses to different semantics
Increased P400 when sentences are unusual or there is unexpected semantics- indicated extra processing to make sense
Reduced P400 when words are familiar and common. Also when double meaning words are placed in a sentence which helps to identify the correct meaning
P600 involved with incorrect grammar
Binder et al
2009
Meta analysis of 100 fMRI studies
Summarises the results of brain activation in language
In line with other findings involving temporal and parietal and frontal areas, including brocas and wernickes areas
Posner and raichle
1994
fMRI studies
Passive viewing - occipital areas
Listening- along lateral fissure
Speaking- brocas
Generating associations- broca and wernickes areas, complex cortical areas
Support for language specific areas
Rasmussen and Milner 1975- stimulation studies mapped into areas
Penfield- epilepsy operations and homonculus
Binder et al 2009- meta analysis of 100 fMRIs
Posner and Raichle 1994- fMRIs, of listening, speaking and associations with brain areas
