How do we hear, speak, and make music?

Question 1

aphasia

Answer 1

Inability to speak or comprehend language despite the presence of normal comprehension and intact vocal mechanisms. Broca’s aphasia is the inability to speak fluently despite the presence of normal comprehension and intact vocal mechanisms. Wernicke’s aphasia is the inability to understand or to produce meaningful language even though the production of words is still intact.

Question 2

amplitude

Answer 2

Intensity of a stimulus; in audition, roughly equivalent to loudness, graphed by increasing the height of a sound wave.

Question 2

supplementary speech area

Answer 2

Speech-production region on the dorsal surface of the left frontal lobe.

Question 3

ossicles

Answer 3

Bones of the middle ear: malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup).

Question 4

cochlea

Answer 4

Inner-ear structure that contains the auditory receptor cells.

Question 5

frequency

Answer 5

Number of cycles that a wave completes in a given amount of time.

Question 6

hertz (Hz)

Answer 6

Measure of frequency (repetition rate) of a sound wave; 1 hertz is equal to 1 cycle per second.

Question 8

cochlear implant

Answer 8

Electronic device implanted surgically into the inner ear to transduce sound waves into neural activity and allow a deaf person to hear.

Question 9

echolocation

Answer 9

Ability to identify and locate an object by bouncing sound waves off the object.

Question 10

lateralization

Answer 10

Process whereby functions become localized primarily on one side of the brain.

Question 10

medial geniculate nucleus

Answer 10

Major thalamic region concerned with audition.

Question 11

primary auditory cortex (area A1)

Answer 11

Asymmetrical structures, found within Heschl’s gyrus in the temporal lobes, that receive input from the ventral region of the medial geniculate nucleus.

Question 12

tonotopic representation

Answer 12

Property of audition in which sound waves are processed in a systematic fashion from lower to higher frequencies.

Question 13

decibel (dB)

Answer 13

Unit for measuring the relative physical intensity of sounds.

Question 14

hair cell

Answer 14

Sensory neurons in the cochlea tipped by cilia; when stimulated by waves in the cochlear fluid, outer hair cells generate graded potentials in inner hair cells, which act as the auditory receptor cells.

Question 15

basilar membrane

Answer 15

Receptor surface in the cochlea that transduces sound waves into neural activity.

Question 17

amusia

Answer 17

Tone deafness - an inability to distinguish between musical notes.

Question 18

Broca’s area

Answer 18

Anterior speech area in the left hemisphere that functions with the motor cortex to produce the movements needed for speaking.

Question 19

prosody

Answer 19

Melodical tone of the spoken voice.

Question 20

insula

Answer 20

Located within the lateral fissure, multifunctional cortical tissue that contains regions related to language, to the perception of taste, and to the neural structures underlying social cognition.

Question 21

Wernicke’s area

Answer 21

Secondary auditory cortex (planum temporale) lying behind Heschl’s gyrus at the rear of the left temporal lobe that regulates language comprehension; also called posterior speech zone.

Question 22

sound wave

Answer 22

Undulating displacement of molecules caused by changing pressure.