Chapter 2: Brain and Language

Question 1

aphasia

Answer 1

Language loss or disorder following brain damage.

Question 2

cortex

Answer 2

The approximately ten billion neurons that form the outside surface of the brain; also referred to as gray matter.

Question 3

corpus callosum

Answer 3

The nerve fibers connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres.

Question 4

contralateral

Answer 4

Refers to neural signals that travel between one side of the body (left/right) and the opposite cerebral hemisphere (right/left).

Question 5

Broca’s area

Answer 5

A front part of the left hemisphere of the brain, damage to which causes agrammatism or Broca’s aphasia. Also called Broca’s region.

Question 6

Wernicke’s area

Answer 6

The back (posterior) part of the left brain that if damaged causes a specific type of aphasia. Also called Wernicke’s region.

Question 7

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 7

Language disorder usually resulting from damage to Broca’s region in which the patient has difficulty with certain aspects of syntax, especially functional categories. See Broca’s area.

Question 8

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 8

The type of aphasia resulting from damage to Wernicke’s area.

Question 9

nonsense words

Answer 9

A permissible phonological form without meaning, e.g., slithy.

Question 10

specific language impairment (SLI)

Answer 10

Difficulty in acquiring language faced by certain

children with no other cognitive deficits.

Question 11

critical-age hypothesis

Answer 11

The theory that states that there is a window of time between early childhood and puberty for learning a first language, and beyond which first language acquisition is almost always incomplete.

Question 12

critical period

Answer 12

The time between early childhood and puberty during which a child can acquire a native language easily, swiftly, and without external intervention. After this period, the acquisition of the grammar is difficult and, for some individuals, never fully achieved.

Question 13

lateralization

Answer 13

Terms used to refer to cognitive functions localized to one or the other hemisphere of the brain.

Question 14

neurolinguistics

Answer 14

The branch of linguistics concerned with the brain mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and use of human language; the study of the neurobiology of language.

Question 15

modular

Answer 15

ex: language is independent of other cognitive systems

with which it interacts