higher order cognition. language and executive function Flashcards
defintion of langauge
Often equated to speech, but there’s more to it
A computational cognitive capacity that arises from functionally separable internal and external components
(speech perception, production, comprehension, repetition, reading, writing)
aphasia?
inability to produce and/or comprehend speech fluidity despite intact hearing and motor function
the human auditory system evolved from…
the competence in comprehension of sounds and gestures that were already exiting in primate ancestors
lateralization of lanaguage
what role do the left and right hemisphere play
In terms of its neural mechanisms, language is largely lateralized
The left hemisphere is dominant for speech and language function (in up to 90% of cases) production, comprehension
The right hemisphere also plays a role
(non-verbal and emotion comprehension, spatial relations, prosody ad rhythm )
Bilingualism/ multilingualism
the ability to speak two or more languages
A review of studies with patients suggests that there are common but also language- specific regions
paul broca what did he do
Paul Broca made the first link between language production and brain function
Patient Leborgne with a massive lesion in the left inferior frontal cortex
Patient also names Tan, because he could only produce this syllable
whats brocas aphasia
Also called non-fluent aphasia or expressive aphasia
Patients cannot speak fluently, often skip grammatical words and often get stuck while articulating
The ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words is not affected, while speech production is impaired
how is bbrocas aphasia assessed
Assessed by spontaneous speech, picture description or repetition tasks
whats a lesion
Lesions are mostly very deep and reach the basal ganglia, in particular, the head of the caudate nucleus
what are asks that activate the brocas area
Taks that activate Broca’s area include phonological monitoring, rhyming tasks, repetition, stem completion, grammatical and syntactic tasks, semantic tasks
whats meant by langauge production
The ability to produce meaningful language
whats meant by lanaguge comprehension
the ability to understand language
what did carl werncike do
Carl Wernicke made the first link between language comprehension and brain function
This, again was based on patient studies with lesions in certain areas of the brain
whats wernickes aphasia
Also called fluent aphasia or receptive aphasia
Patients cannot understand spoken language very well and often produce meaningful language
The ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words is impaired, while speech production is not affected
how is wernicked aphasia assessed
by word recognition task, following command tasks
role of the posterior temporal corex
Area mainly activated by sentence/word comprehension tasks
double dissociation
Broca’s and Wernicke aphasias constitute a double dissociation which demonstrates that there are separate systems in the brain that underpin either comprehension and production
However, pure cases of these neuropsychological conditions are extremely rare
when is the superior temporal cortex more active
when the brain processed auditory verbal information that when it processes nonverbal information
what is meant by languafe repition
Simply the ability to repeat sound, syllable, word, phrase, stanza or a whole pattern
Very important for language learning
We can repeat words even without understanding them
what should repition lead to
comprehension
deficits of language repition
Also called associative aphasia
Patients can understand and produce language fairly well but is unable to repeat non-words (made-up words with no meaning)
how do you assess conductions aphasia
Assessed with repetition tasks
role of the arcuate fasciculus
Major white matter tract buried in the inferior parietal lobe
Connect the Broca’s and Wernicke areas
Damage leads to conduction aphasia
executive function
Elementary cognitive abilities such s visual perception and, object recognition, attention subserve the function of posterior cerebral hemispheres
An executive system is designed to control (regulate, manage, supervise) these elementary systems
The prefrontal cortex
