Ch. 10 - Brain & Language Flashcards
The study of the biological and neural foundations of language is called
Neurolinguistics
True or false: The brain is the most complex organ of the body
True
The surface of the brain is the
Cortex
The brain is composed of a left and a right
Cerebral hemisphere
The left and right hemispheres of the brain are joined by the
Corpus Callosum
The corpus callosum is
a network of more than 200 million fibers that allows the two hemispheres to communicate with each other
In general the right side of your body is linked to which hemisphere?
The left
In general the left side of your body is linked to which hemisphere?
The right
The idea that different human cognitive abilities and behaviors are localized in specific parts of the brain
The theory of localization
The practice of determining personality traits, intellectual capacities, and other matters by examining the “bumps” on the skull
Phrenology
Neurological term for any language disorder that results from acquired brain damage caused by disease or trauma
Aphasia
Area 1 is known as ________ Area.
Area 2 is known as ________ Area.
- Broca’s Area
- Wernicke’s Area
A French surgeon in the 1860s who proposed that language is localized in the left hemisphere of the brain, more specifically in the front part of the left hemisphere
Paul Broca
German neurologist in the 1870s who described another variety of aphasia when the patients have lesions in the left temporal lobe
Carl Wernicke
The term used to refer to the localization of function to one hemisphere of the brain
Lateralization
Language is lateralized to the ____ hemisphere.
Left
Most _____ do NOT show total language loss.
Aphasics
Aphasia characterized by:
- labored speech
- certain kids of word-finding difficulties
- primarily affects a person’s ability to form sentences with the rules of syntax
- language produced is often agrammatic (lacks articles, prepositions, pronouns, aux verbs, and other function words)
- typically omit inflections such as past-tense suffix -ed
- may have difficulty understanding complex sentences in which comprehension depends on syntactic structure
(ex: “Yes, sure. Me go, er, uh, PT. Speech.. two times.. read.. ripe.. rike.. uh write.. practice.. get.. ting.. better.
Broca’s Aphasia
(sometimes called agrammatic aphasia)
Language lacking articles, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, and other function words.
Agrammatic
Aphasia characterized by:
- fluent speech with good intonation
- largely adheres to the rules of syntax
- semantically incoherent
- tend to talk a lot
- often produce jargon and nonsense words
(ex: “I felt worse because I can no longer keep in mind from the mind of the minds to keep me from mind and up to the ear which can be to find among ourselves”)
Wernicke’s Aphasia
This sentence is an example of which aphasia?
Me? Yes sir. I’m a male demaploze on my own. I still know my tubaboys what for I have that’s gone hell and some of them go.
Wernicke’s Aphasia.
This sentence is an example of which form of aphasia?
Why, yes…Thursday uh…uh…uh…no…Friday…Bar…ba…ra…wife…and oh car…drive…purpike…you know… rest…and tv.
Broca’s Aphasia.
The linguistic deficits exhibited by people with Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasias point to a _______ organization of language in the brain.
Modular
The term ______ refers to reading disorders.
Dyslexia
People who’s reading ability is impaired due to brain damage.
Aquired dyslexics
What do the stimulus and response words below have in common?
Example of aquired dyslexics word substitutions:
Stimulus Response 1. Response 2
act. play. play
applaud. laugh. cheers
example. answer. sum
heal. pain. medicine
south. west. east
The responses are semantically related to the stimulus.
Content words
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Function words
a word that does not always have a clear lexical meaning but has a grammatical function
Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, auxiliaries, complementizers, pronouns.
Elaborate on the below table.
Stimulus. Response Stimulus. Response
witch. witch. which. no!
hour. time. our. no!
eye. eyes. I. no!
hymn. bible. him. no!
wood. wood. would. no!
- A study conducted on an aquired dyslexic with agrammatic aphasia
- he was able to read and respond to content words (nouns and verbs) but not function words
- suggests that content and function words are stored in different places
- couldn’t read content words but could read same-sounding nouns and verbs, though with semantic mistakes
The difficulty encountered from time to time in retrieving a particular word or expression from the mental lexicon.
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
A form of aphasia in which patients have word finding difficulties.
Anomia
True or false?
Deaf signers with damage to the left hemisphere show aphasia for sign language similar to the language breakdwon in hearing aphasics, even though sign language is a visual-spatial language.
True
True or false?
Deaf patients with legions in Broca or Wernicke’s areas show the same deficits as found in hearing patients.
True
True or False
Deaf patients with lesions in Broca or Wernicke’s areas who show deficits in sign language are also lacking in the ability to control their arms and hands, suggesting that the areas controlling language also control some motor functions.
False
True or false
The left hemisphere is just utlized for hearing and speech, sign language is stored in the right hemisphere.
False
Brain of a living patient with ______ aphasia.
Damage in left frontal region, caused by a stroke.
Broca’s Aphasia
Brain of a living patient with ______ aphasia.
Damage to left posterior temporal and lower parietal region.
Wernicke’s aphasia.
An extreme measure used to help people suffer from severe epilepsy in which a surgeon severs the corpus callosum.
Split-Brain Surgery
Elaborate on:
In people who have undergone split brain surgery.
- the two hemispheres appear to be independent
- messages sent to the brain result in different responses, depending on which side recieves the message
Give an example of post-split-brain surgery and it’s findings.
When a person closes there eyes and a pencil is placed in their left hand, they can use the pencil appropriately but cannot name it because they need their left brain to speak.
If it’s in their right hand they can name it.
The ______ brain is better at:
- pattern matching tasks
- recognizing faces
- spatial tasks
Right
*got this one wrong on chapter 10 test*
The _____ brain is better at:
- language
- rhythmic perception
- temporal-order judgements
- arithmetic calculations
Left
“The right hemisphere as well as the left hemisphere can emote, and while the left can tell you why, the right cannot”
Michael Gazzaniga
Psychologist
An experimental technique that uses auditory signals to observe the behavior of the individual hemispheres of the human brain.
Dichotic listening
When using dichotic listening subjects are more frequently correct
(1) in reporting linguistic stimuli in the ____ ear
(2) reporting nonverbal stimuli in the ___ ear
(1) right
(2) left
True or false
Dichotic listening experiements also prove that the left hemisphere is superior for processing all sounds, not just linguistic sounds
False
Stimuli on the same side that is processed more robustly
Ipsilateral
Electrical signals emitted from the brain in response to different stimuli.
Event-related potentials (ERPs)
“If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn’t”
Lyall Watson
True or false
Linguistic studies have found that the way the brain is organized for language and grammar in adults is already reflected in the brains of newborn and infants, even before they enter the period where language develops.
True
True or false
ERP studies have found that infants brains respond to sounds even when sleeping, showing that the response is automatic and does not require the attention of the infant.
True
While the left hemisphere is predisposed to specialize in language there is evidence of considerable ________ in the system during the early stages of language development.
Plasticity
True or false
Under no circumstances can the right hemisphere take over the language learning for the left hemisphere.
False
Under certain cirmcumstances it can
When one hemisphere of the brain is surgically removed
Hemispherectomy
When children undergo a left hemispherectomy they can typically
Retain a linguistic system that is virtually indistinguishable from that of normal children
Brain plasticity decreases as we age and if an adult undergoes a left hemispherectomy they are likely to
Suffer severe loss of language function
There is evidence that the (1)______ hemisphere plays a role in language learning. Children who undergo a (2)_____ hemispheroctomy before 2 years of age do not develop language, despite having a (3) _____ hemisphere.
(1) right
(2) right
(3) left
The hypothethis that asserts that language is biologically based and that the ability to learn a native language develops within a fixed period.
Critical age hypothesis
The critical period
The period when children learn native like grammar and language. From birth to middle childhood (about 5-7)
Small child in the 70s who was confined to a small room, experienced minimal human contact, and was the subject of many ongoing language studies
Genie
True or false
After a couple years of working with researchers Genie was able to communicate effectively, like other kids her age
False
At the age of fifteen (and beyond) Genie could communicate like a 2 or 3 year old child.
Somebody who has a generally low IQ, lacks the ability to take care of or perform basic tasks for themselves, but has brilliant language abilitites.
Linguistic savant
Ex. Christopher who has a nonverbal IQ between 60 and 70, lives in an institution, but his linguistic competence is as complex as any native speaker. He can also recieve written texts in 15 - 20 languages and translate them quickly with few errors into english.
Children suffer from _____ when they do not have brain lesions, but they have difficulties aquiring language or are much slower than the average child.
Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
True or false
No language disorders are genetic.
False, there is evidence that a lot of language disorders are inheritable.
Some aphasic patients when asked to read a list of words substitute other words for those printed. In some cases those words are similar. What do the two words have in common and how do they differ:
What does this reveal about how our brains store language?
Group 1
Printed Spoken
liberty freedom
canary. parrot
abroad. overseas
large. long
short. small
tall. long
Group 2
Printed Spoken
decide. decision
conceal concealment
portray portrait
bathe. bath
speak. discussion
remember. memory
Group 1
The words are in the same syntactic category but are not phonologically related.
Group 2
The subbed words are derivations of the stimulus word, and switches them from verbs to nouns.
This reveals that words can be stored modularly and linked by semantic class or syntactic category.
This phrase is an example of which aphasia?
“Goodnight and in the pansy i can’t say but into a flipdoor you can see it.”
Wernicke’s Aphasia
This phrase is an example of which aphasia:
“well . . . sunset . . . uh. . . horses nine, no uh, two, tails want swish.”
Broca’s aphasia
This phrase is an example of which aphasia:
“oh . . if I could I would, and a sick old man disflined a sinter, minter”
Wernicke’s aphasia
This phrase is an example of which aphasia:
“words . .. words . . . words . . . two, four, six, eight . . blaze am he.”
Broca’s aphasia
Key characteristics of Broca’s aphasia
- halting speech
- not fluent
- sensical
- aware of and frustrated by aphasia
- slow speech because they’re trying to produce good speech
- can comprehend simple sentences
Key characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia
- fluent
- jargon aphasia
- nonsensical and largely incoherent
- usually not aware (or we are unsure) of aphasia
- talk excessively
- difficulty understanding and reading
When a person always experiences tip of the tongue phenomenon and can never know the word they’re thinking of
Anomic aphasia
Aphasics can typically access (1)_____ words but not (2) ______ words.
(1) content but not (2) function
From Ch 10 Test - got it wrong
True or false
The brain is neurologically equipped for language rather than speech
True
From Ch 10 Test - got it wrong
True or false
Wernicke’s aphasias are often unable to find the right word.
True
