Chp 8: Language Flashcards
What is Language?
includes the notion that the combination of sounds are guided by rules and apply to other sensory modalities – gestures, touches, and visual images
The word comes from langue, Anglo- French word for “tongue”, referring to language as use of sound combinations for communication
Components of Language (7)
- phonemes
- morphemes
- lexicon
- syntax
- semantics
- prosody
- discourse
phonemes
Fundamental language sounds
morphemes
Smallest meaningful units of
words (undoing)
lexicon
collect of all the words in a language
like dictionary
syntax
rules of grammar
semantics
Meaning of words and sentences
Prosody
Vocal intonations
Varying:
- Stress, pitch, rhythm
Discourse
Stringing sentences together to form a meaningful narrative
Components of Language - Production (5)
- Air is exhaled from lungs
- drives oscillations of vocal folds/vocal chords
- located in larynx. also referred to as the voice box
Sound energy from larynx, filtered by vocal tract, produce final sound output
Oscillations:
- 100 Hz – men
- 150 – 250 Hz - women
- 500 Hz – children
Core Language Skills (4)
- Categories
- Labelling categories
- Sequencing behaviours
- Mimic
Categories (3)
- Designation of certain qualities to specific concepts
- Example: Plant category or animal category
- Makes it easier to perceive and retrieve information
Labelling categories
Attachment of words to different concepts
Sequencing behaviours
In humans, this would be ordering vocalizations and hand movements that are used in language
Mimic (3)
Infants
- Prefer to listen to speech
- Can make sounds used in all languages
Mirror neurons in the frontal cortex may help children mimic sounds they hear
Broca aphasia background (4)
- Disorders of production
- Important to remember that patients may present unique symptoms that may not fit neatly into classification schemes
- may not represent the classical presentation of Broca’s aphasia
- should consider generalizations as a starting point for considering the brain and language
Broca Aphasia Features (9)
- Non-fluent aphasia
- expressive aphasia (meaningful)
- comprehension is good
- speech production is poor
- telegraphic speech
- include content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives)
- omit function words (articles, pronouns, conjunctions)
- pause to search for words, repeat “overlearned” things, difficulty repeating words
- anomia: difficulty “finding” words
Cerebral Vascular Accident (Stroke) (2) types
Interruptions of blood flow to the brain
- Hemorrhagic Stroke (more rare)
- Ischemic Stroke
Infarct (stroke)
the region the tissue is destroyed
Hemorrhagic Stroke
hemorrhage/blood leaks into brain tissues
Ischemic Stroke
Clot stops blood supply to an area of the brain
Core Warning Signs of Stroke
Approximately 25-50% of people who experience a stroke will present aphasia as a primary symptom
Hand gestures (3)
Important to communication
e.g. increasing no. of studies look at teach gesture
Increasing comprehension in material
Neural rehabilitation
Constraint-induced aphasia therapy
If they want to communicate, must force them to use oral communication
Vs. Multimodal communication
= Suggest they are equally efficacious
Examining a genetic basis for an Inherited Speech and Language Disorder (5)
- KE family
- Severe speech disorder in about half of the family
- Deficit in sequencing articulation patterns
- Genetic mutation of the gene FOXP2 – a gene for language?
- Brain abnormalities
(Sensory areas has an increase in size and function
Motor production areas has a decrease)
What does the FOXP2 do? (4)
When is expressed in the brain, is a transcription factor
- Element control whether other genes are turned on
- Regulate expression of more than 300 genes
- song-learning
- ultrasonic vocalisation
- singing
Wernicke aphasia (6)
Fluent aphasia
- comprehension is poor
- speech production is good
- memories of sounds that make up words
- Mixture of clarity and gibberish, undisturbed by sound of own or other’s speech
- correct words in incorrect sequence, incorrect word similar to correct word
Wernicke’s area
Back half of superior temporal gyrus
Broca’s area
inferior frontal gyrus
Connection Between Broca’s
and Wernicke’s Areas
Arcuate fasciculus: Bundle of fibres that connect the 2 areas
Wernicke-Geschwind Model of Language Processing
Arcuate fasciculus
- “bow-shaped bundle”
- white matter tract between Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area
Conduction Aphasia (5)
What happens if the 2 regions are disconnected?
- speech is fluent
- comprehension is good
- little difficulty expressing their own thoughts,
- difficulty repeating words (can’t get forwarded to Broca’s)
- Repetition substitutes/omits words, cannot repeat function, nonsense words, polysyllabic words, paraphasic errors
Repeating a spoken word: process (5)
- Auditory Cortex
- Wernicke’s Area
- to repeat the need
- Arcuate fasciculus
- Broca’s area
- Motor cortex
- move mouth, lips, efferent, afferent signals
Rebecca: reading after stroke
Alexia: without reading
Affects the left angular gyrus
- Spatial cognition
- Lang
- Memory
- Numbers
Repeating a written word: process (6)
- Primary visual cortex
- have to look at the word
- angular gyrus
- information to be deconstructed, and connect them to the auditory
- Wernicke’s area
- for comprehension
- Arcuate fascicles
- Broca’s area
- Motor cortex
Learning to write after brain injury (Rebecca)
Agraphia: without writing, lost ability
Damage: left parietal lobe, inability to rmb how to spell words
