Brain and Language Flashcards

1
Q

What does contralateral mean?

A

The sensory input and motor control of one side of the body are linked to the opposite hemisphere e.g. right hand communicated with left hemisphere etc

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2
Q

Where does the left hemisphere get visual input from?

A

The right visual field

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3
Q

Where does the right hemisphere get visual input from?

A

The left visual field

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4
Q

In right handed people, which side of the brain is responsible for most language functions?

A

The left hemisphere

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5
Q

In left handed people, which side of the brain is responsivle for most language functions?

A

Right hemisphere dominance is only observed in 30% of left-handers - most could be left-dominance or it could be distributed

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6
Q

What could affect why only 30% of left-handers have right-dominated laguage processing?

A

They could have naturally been forced to use their right hand for lots of things like writing or throwing etc but right-handed people may be more lateralised.
It could also be genetic.

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7
Q

When is naming objects fastest and why?

A

If the object is presented to the RVF because RVF projects directly to the left hemisphere.

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8
Q

Why can split brain patients not name objects presented in the LVF?

A

Because the visual information is projected to the RH and would need to be shared to the LH to find the name, but cannot since the corpus callosum is severed.

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8
Q

Presenting words in which visual field increases increases performance in lexical decision tasks?

A

RVF - more correct, and quicker.

Longer word = longer processing

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9
Q

How are speech sounds affected by the contralateral brain?

A

Speech sounds are more left-lateralised and LH dominated so we will be better at understanding words and information coming into our right ear.

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10
Q

How is music affected by the contralateral brain?

A

Music is right-lateralised and RH dominated, so we will be better at understanding and recognising music coming into our left ear.

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11
Q

Where is the primary visual cortex?

A

Occipital lobe

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12
Q

Where is the auditory cortex?

A

Superior temporal gyrus

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13
Q

Where is Wernicke’s area located?

A

Left hemisphere - temporal lobe

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14
Q

Where is the angular gyrus?

A

Parietal lobe

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15
Q

Where is Broca’s area located?

A

Left hemisphere - frontal lobe

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16
Q

Where is the motor cortex located?

A

frontal lobe

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17
Q

What is the processing pathway of speech perception?

A

Primary auditory cortex, Wernicke’s area, STG

- Extracts sound identity/perception

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18
Q

What is pure word deafness?

A

Patients are able to hear and recognise environmental sounds but are not able to recognise spoken words.

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19
Q

What is the processing pathway for understanding spoken words?

A

Ventral route from auditory regions to the temporal pole - ventral route is involved in understanding meaningful sounds. It responds more strongly to intelligible speech than unintelligible speech

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20
Q

What is the processing pathway for sound repetition?

A

Involved in first and second language learning, engages the dorsal route, but does not necessarily activate meaning.

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21
Q

How is white matter affected in the adult network with development?

A

The white matter increases with development.

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22
Q

How is grey matter affected in the adult network with development?

A

The frontal grey matter first goes up then down. The peak going down is part of adolescence.

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23
Q

What is experience-expectant development?

A

Typical development shared by all members of the species

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24
Q

What is experience-specific development?

A

Individual-specific experiences

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25
Q

How does institutional neglect affect neural pathways?

A

Staying in the institutional means the children are creating less pathways as they are not surrounded by a lot of stimulation, unlike a family setting.

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26
Q

How does congenital blindness affect neural pathways?

A

The visual cortex can be repurposed to do other things like echolocation because the visual cortex isn’t innately determined to process visual stimuli.

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27
Q

What does it mean to be functionally illiterate?

A

May be able to read road signs because they can recognise shapes, but they cannot read text.

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28
Q

How many people are functionally illiterate in England?

A

5.1 million adults

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29
Q

How do we read different fonts?

A

When we learn to read, we abstract the specific visual form of the word to pick up the critical features that quickly allow you to recognise what it means.

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30
Q

Does reading require global or serial recognition?

A

Global - can read words with jumbled letters as long as the first and last letter are in the right place.

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31
Q

What is the orthographic form of a word?

A

Writing a word with the proper letters and form due to word recognition

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32
Q

What is the phonological form of a word?

A

Sounding out the word

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33
Q

Why is word recognition slower when presented in the LVF/RH?

A

The processing is more serial, and words are recognised by identifying letters and sharing them with the LH - this is why the number of letters in a word matters when words are presented in the LVF, and processing is slower for longer words.

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34
Q

What is the triangle model of reading?

A

Orthography, Phonology, and Semantics

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35
Q

Which parts of the triangle model do we use when reading non-words?

A

Orthography and phonology

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36
Q

What is the VWFA?

A

Visual Word Form Area

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37
Q

What words does the fusiform gyrus respond to? (4)

A
  • words more than false fonts of consonant strings
  • upper and lower case equally
  • real words more than non-words sounding the same
  • orthographic identity of the word
38
Q

Which area responds equally to both left and right visual field presentation?

A

Visual Word Form Area in the left hemisphere

39
Q

Where is the meaning of a word processed?

A

left hemisphere

40
Q

What did Dehaene and Cohen 2011 find about the VWFA?

A

The response of the VWFA to letters and words becomes specialised the more the experience one has with reading. Can also be argued that through experience, the brain adapts an area originally dedicated to visual object/face processing to letter recognition and reading e.g.blind Braille readers.

41
Q

Why might the VWFA also be involved in sounds, picture and object naming, as well as reading?

A

Automatic links between nodes are established with learning, so sounds also activate VWFA.
VWFA is located in the mapping from vision to meaning (ventral route) and connects to sound processing regions.

42
Q

Which processing network does sounding out non-words involve?

A

Dorsal (phonological) route

43
Q

Which processing network does reading words silently involve?

A

Dorsal (phonological) route

44
Q

Which processing network does reading words out loud involve?

A

Both dorsal (phonological) and ventral (semantic) route.

45
Q

What does developmental dyslexia involve?

A
  • difficulty in learning to read below standard appropriate age
  • no apparent issue with spoken language
  • hereditary component
  • phonological impairment decomposing words into individual sounds
46
Q

How is developmental Dyslexia a phonological impairment if spoken language is fine?

A

Earlier phonological deficits prior to schooling do not show until the child starts reading when they need to decompose the words into individuals sounds.

47
Q

Which deficits do dyslexic children experience when phonological awareness is impaired?

A

non-word repetition, naming pictures, phonological working memory, rhyming

48
Q

Which parts of the processing network are disrupted in the child’s dyslexic brain?

A
  • Deactivation in reading network (particularly phonological route)
  • Often overactivation in left inferior frontal gyrus
  • Differential grey and white matter volume
49
Q

How can dyslexics reach good levels of reading?

A
  • Adults may develop compensatory strategies & networks to read
  • Adult dyslexics show overactivation of right Broca’s area (language network re-organisation)
50
Q

What are the symptoms of acquired phonological dyslexia?

A
  • Fine visual lexicon and comprehension, but can’t pronounce unfamiliar words
  • STM for speech sounds and manipulation sounds (phonological buffer)
  • Impaired grapheme-to-phoneme conversion in reading or writing
51
Q

What are the similarities between acquired phonological dyslexia and developmental dyslexia?

A

Patients have trouble with mapping letters to sounds in non-words.

52
Q

What cognitive theories are there of conceptual representations?

A
  • Hierarchically structured models
  • Prototype models
  • Embodied concepts
53
Q

Explain embodied concepts.

A

Grounding concepts in body actions and perception - perceptual stimulations and actions it affords

54
Q

Which part of the motor strip controls the use of the hands?

A

Around the middle

55
Q

Which part of the motor cortex controls the legs?

A

The top

56
Q

Which part of the motor strip controls mouth movements?

A

The bottom

57
Q

How do we split living and non-living things into categories?

A

Living things tend to be known for their sensory-perceptual properties e.g. shape. Non-living things tend to have more functional properties (actions and uses)

58
Q

What is semantic dementia?

A

A progressive, degenerative disease which particularly affects anterior temporal regions

59
Q

Which type of impairments are caused by damage to the anterior temporal lobe?

A

Non-category specific semantic impairments.

60
Q

What deficits are caused by semantic dementia?

A
  • Impairment in recognition and understanding of words and objects
  • Independent of whether objects are cued by smell, sound, visual shape, or touch
  • Spoken and written words
  • Not category-specific, not restricted to a feature type
61
Q

What is relatively preserved in semantic dementia?

A
  • Grammar
  • Articulation
  • Episodic memory for events
  • Spatial and geographical knowledge
  • Executive control
62
Q

What is lost first in semantic dementia?

A

Features of objects - if a picture is taken away from the patient, their drawings lose distinctive features and become more generic.

63
Q

What else affects retention or loss of meanings?

A
  • Familiarity/frequency

- Age of acquisiton

64
Q

What is the hub-and-spoke model?

A

Temporal pole forms a modality-independent hub where features of meaning are brought together - multimodal integration

65
Q

What can multimodal integration not explain about semantic dementia?

A
  • Processes involved in semantic decisions

- Context-dependent language use

66
Q

What is semantic control?

A

processes that are not automatic and require more effort and attention to detail

67
Q

What does the LIFG do in Broca’s area?

A

Involved in retrieving, selecting, and maintaining semantic information. Typically acts in concert with PMTG (posterior middle temporal gyrus)

68
Q

What are convergence zones?

A

different regions of the brain that receive features from neighbouring areas and carry out semantic processing in contexts

69
Q

How does context affect sentence comprehension?

A

Words are interpreted in a completely different way so we have to combine the concepts to come up with a single referent for the phrase.

70
Q

Which parts of the brain are involved in sentence comprehension?

A

LIFG and posterior temporal gyrus

71
Q

What steps does the dorsal pathway take during sentence production?

A
  • Find the words
  • Put them together in a motor plan
  • Pronounce them
72
Q

What do neuroimages of sentence processing show?

A

LIFG and PMTG showed stronger responses to harder cases than easy ones.
A lot of the temporal lobe is being activated and big chunks of the prefrontal cortex.

73
Q

What is telegraphic speech?

A

Simplified formation of sentences, function words are omitted. Common errors in tense, number, and gender.

74
Q

What tests are used to test disorders in sentence processing?

A
  • Cookie theft task
75
Q

What is agrammatism?

A

LIFG damage:

  • affects the ability to convert thought into sentences
  • particularly affects the ability to construct a sentence around the action/verb
76
Q

What can damage to Broca’s area cause?

A
  • Production is very halted and difficult
  • Affects the ability to convert thoughts into sentences
  • Unlikely to put together who is doing what to whom
77
Q

What does Broca’s aphasia cause?

A

Problems with producing.

They are quite good at comprehending.

78
Q

Are active or passive sentences harder to understand with Broca’s aphasia?

A

Passive - Patients cannot guess the correct meaning from the order of the words because it is not the case that the first noun is the agent, so it requires much more processing to understand.

79
Q

What are reversible sentences?

A

Those in which the two nouns are equally likely to be agents or patients of the action.

80
Q

How do reversible sentences affect sentence comprehension?

A

Those with damage cannot infer who is doing what to whom and they cannot use semantic knowledge to infer this. It also affects typical adults as the reading times of these sentences are much higher than non-reversible cases.

81
Q

What kind of prepositions do patients with Broca’s aphasia struggle with?

A

Those which indicate grammatical regions e.g. ‘of’ or ‘under’

82
Q

Patients with agrammatism have problem with…

A
  • Relationships between words and verb retrieval
  • Function words like ‘is’, ‘by’, ‘the’, ‘of’
  • Infelctional endings like ‘-ed’, ‘-ing’, ‘-s’
83
Q

Agrammatic patients base their understanding on…

A
  • The meanings of individual words
  • General Knowledge
  • Simple word order assumptions
84
Q

Which pathway does sentence comprehension involve?

A

Both dorsal and ventral - you need LIFG and PMTG that control regions to be working together to do the context-dependent interpretation of words.

85
Q

How do congenitally deaf individuals’ brains adapt to comprehend sentences?

A

LH regions assume different roles depending on the nature of the input - auditory cortex is seen in sign comprehension and production along with visual areas

86
Q

How do congenitally deaf individuals’ brains adapt to produce sentences?

A

There is more posterior temporal and parietal engagement - producing signs requires different coordinated motor plans than speaking

87
Q

Which parts of the brain are active when reading Braille in the blind?

A

Visual cortex, fusiform gyrus and parietal cortex

88
Q

How is the brain adapted for congenitally blind people to read Braille?

A

The occipital cortex is being activated for reading tactile information and it changes depending on the age you get to.

89
Q

Explain the listening network in the blind.

A

Listening to words also activates posterior visual areas, despite an intact auditory cortex.
There are associations of word sounds to word forms in occipital areas in congenitally blind people.

90
Q

Why is there a word form in occipital regions in the blind?

A

It’s a consequence of learning to read.

91
Q

Where can the ability to use visual and auditory cortex for other functions occur?

A

Only in sensory cortex - not in the main/frontal bits of the brain

92
Q

What skills do we evaluate dyslexia on? (5)

A
  • Oral language skills
  • Reading
  • Spelling
  • Writing
  • Background Knowledge
93
Q

How do we evaluate language impairments after a Stroke?

A
  • Being asked to complete a sentence or common phrase e.g. ‘How are ___’?
  • Given cue words and asked to name what is being described