Brain and Behaviour Flashcards
What is a phoneme?
smallest unit of speech sound that signals a difference in meaning (humans produce over 100)
What is a morpheme?
smallest units of meaning in a language
- Typically, one syllable
- Morphemes are combined into words
What is syntax?
rules and principles that govern the way in which morphemes can be combined to communicate meaning in a language
How does language develop with age?
1-3 months: Infant distinguishes speech from non-speech sounds (prefers phonemes)
4-6 months: Babbling sounds begin (phonemes from all languages). Vocalises in response to sound
7-11 months: Babbling phonemes narrow to local cultural phonemes. Child moves tongue with vocalisation. Child begins to imitate some phonemes and discriminate words
12 months: FIRST WORDS – one-word simple words
12-18 months: Child begins to use single words to express whole phrases
18-24 months: 50-100 words, first rudimentary sentences (little/no use of articles). “Telegraphic” speech
2-4 years: Vocabulary increases rapidly. Longer sentences often grammatically incorrect. Child expresses concepts with words and uses language to describe imaginary objects/ideas
4-5 years: Child has learned basic grammatical rules for combining nouns, adjectives conjunctions and verbs into meaningful sentences
Humans acquire language best before the age of 5. What is this period known as?
Critical period of language acquisition
Describe the hemispheric specialisation of language dominance
95% of right-handed people have left-hemispheric dominance for language
- 8% of left-handed people have right-hemispheric dominance for language (majority of all-handed people have left-hemispheric dominance)
* 19.8% of left-handed people have bi-lateral language functions
What are the characteristics of Broca’s aphasia?
- Non-fluent speech
- Impaired repetition
- Poor ability to produce syntactically correct sentences
- Intact comprehension – they KNOW they are saying it wrong
What are the characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia?
- Fluent meaningless speech
- Paraphasias – errors in producing specific words:
> Semantic paraphasias – substituting words similar in meaning – “barn” for “house”
> Phonemic paraphasias – substituting words similar in sound – “house” for “mouse” - Neologisms – non-words – e.g. “galump”
- Poor repetition
- Impairment in writing
What does the arcuate fasciculus do?
transmits information from Wernicke’s area to Broca’s area
- Modern findings show that rather than there being one connecting tract (Arcuate Fasciculus) relevant to language function, there are many (i.e. uncinate fasciculus)
What do impairments in the arcuate fasciculus result in?
- Difficulty speaking repeated words
- Retain comprehension
- Retain spontaneous conversation
What can lesions in aphasia associated conditions be caused by?
- stroke
- traumatic brain injury
- neurodegenerative conditions e.g Parkinson’s
What is transient aphasia associated with?
TIA or migraine
What is dysexecutive disorder?
disruption of executive function closely related to frontal lobe damage ( often cannot carry out tasks that require judgement or planning)
- e.g Phineas Gage
What are some executive functions?
plan, focus attention, remember instructions, juggle multiple tasks
What are the behavioural and emotional aspects of dysexecutive syndrome?
- hypoactivity
- lack of drive
- apathetic
- poor initiation of tasks
- emotional bluntness
- theory of mind difficulties
- reduced empathy
- hyperactivity
- impulsive
- disinhibited
- perservative
- emotional dysregulation
- socially inappropriate
- rude, crass, prone to swearing
