chapter 15: language and our divided brain

Question 1

spatial cognition

Answer 1

the ability to navigate and to understand the spatial relationship between objects

Question 2

stuttering

Answer 2

the tendency of otherwise normal people to produce speech sounds only haltingly, tripping over certain syllables or unable to start vocalizing certain words

Question 3

Williams syndrome

Answer 3

a disorder characterized by impairments of spatial cognition and IQ, but superior linguistic abilities

Question 4

phoneme

Answer 4

a sound that is produced for language

Question 5

morpheme

Answer 5

the smallest grammatical unit of a language; a word or a meaningful part of a word

Question 6

sensitive or critical period

Answer 6

the period during development in which an organism can be permanently altered by a particular experience or treatment

Question 7

aphasia

Answer 7

an impairment in language understanding and/or production that is caused by brain injury

Question 8

paraphasia

Answer 8

a symptom of aphasia that is distinguished by the substitution of a word by a sound, an incorrect word, an unintended word, or a neologism (a meaningless word)

Question 9

agraphia

Answer 9

the inability to write

Question 10

alexia

Answer 10

the inability to read

Question 11

apraxia

Answer 11

an impairment in the ability to carry out complex sequential movements, even though there is no muscle paralysis

Question 12

Broca’s area

Answer 12

a region of the frontal lobe of the brain that is involved in the production of speech

Question 13

nonfluent or Broca’s aphasia

Answer 13

a language impairment characterized by difficulty with speech production but not with language comprehension; related to damage in Broca’s area

Question 14

hemiplegia

Answer 14

partial paralysis involving one side of the body

Question 15

hemiparesis

Answer 15

weakness of one side of the body

Question 16

Wernicke’s area

Answer 16

a region of the temporoparietal cortex in the brain that is involved in the perception and production of speech

Question 17

fluent aphasia or Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 17

a language impairment characterized by fluent, meaningless speech and little language comprehension; related to damage in Wernicke’s area

Question 18

anomia

Answer 18

the inability to name persons or objects readily

Question 19

global aphasia

Answer 19

the total loss of ability to understand language, or to speak, read, or write

Question 20

connectionist model of aphasia

Answer 20

a theory proposing that left-hemisphere language deficits result from disconnection between the brain regions in a language network, each of which serves a particular linguistic function; also called Wernicke-Geschwind model

Question 21

arcuate fasciculus

Answer 21

a fiber tract classically viewed as a connection between Wernicke’s and Broca’s speech areas

Question 22

conduction aphasia

Answer 22

an impairment in the ability to repeat words and sentences

Question 23

motor theory of language

Answer 23

the theory of speech mechanisms proposing that the left-hemisphere language zones are motor control systems that are concerned with both the precise production and the perception of the extremely complex movements that go into speech

Question 24

dyslexia

Answer 24

a reading disorder attributed to brain impairment; also called alexia

Question 25

deep dyslexia

Answer 25

acquired dyslexia in which the patient reads a word as another word that is semantically related

Question 26

surface dyslexia

Answer 26

acquired dyslexia in which the patient seems to attend only to the fine details of reading

Question 27

split-brain individual

Answer 27

an individual whose corpus callosum has been severed, halting communication between the right and left hemispheres

Question 28

contralateral

Answer 28

in anatomy, pertaining to a location on the opposite side of the body

Question 29

dichotic presentation

Answer 29

the simultaneous delivery of different stimuli to both the right and the left ears at the same time

Question 30

tachistoscope test

Answer 30

a test in which stimuli are very briefly presented to either the left or right visual half field

Question 31

planum temporale

Answer 31

an auditory region of the superior temporal cortex

Question 32

prosody

Answer 32

the perception of emotional tone-of-voice aspects of language

Question 33

astereognosis

Answer 33

the inability to recognize objects by touching and feeling them

Question 34

prosopagnosia or face blindness

Answer 34

a condition characterized by the inability to recognize faces

Question 35

fusiform gyrus

Answer 35

a region on the inferior surface of the cortex, at the junction of the temporal and occipital lobes, that has been associated with recognition of faces

Question 36

agnosia

Answer 36

the inability to recognize objects, despite being able to describe them in terms of form and color; may occur after localized brain damage

Question 37

recovery of function

Answer 37

the recovery of behavior capacity following brain damage from stroke or injury

Question 38

embryonic stem cell

Answer 38

a cell, derived from an embryo, that has the capacity to form any type of tissue

Question 39

lesion momentum

Answer 39

the phenomenon in which the brain is impaired more by a lesion that develops quickly than by a lesion that develops slowly

Question 40

constraint-induced movement therapy

Answer 40

a therapy for recovery of movement after stroke or injury in which the person’s unaffected limb is constrained while she is required to perform tasks with the affected limb

Question 41

concussion

Answer 41

minor brain injury, usually occurring when the brain is impacted by a blow

Question 42

chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)

Answer 42

results after many concussion, impairs cognitive abilities and creates abnormalities in the brain