Human communication Flashcards
What is the dominant hemisphere for the majority of the population?
Left hemisphere
What is the function of the non-dominant hemisphere for lanaguage?
Understanding the prosody (non-literal meaning of speech)
What is the function of the dominant hemisphere for language?
understand the literal meaning of words
What is prosody?
The way in which humans convey non-literal meaning through their language (cadence, rythm, emotion, emphasis, tone)
Where is the recognition of voices located?
in the non-dominant hemisphere
What is phonagnosia?
difficulty in recognizing voices
What causes phonagnosia?
damage to the right superior temporal cortex
Which side of the brain is included in the comprehension of metaphores?
The non-dominant side
What are the two generic types of aphasia?
- deficits of speaking
- deficits of understanding
What causes aphasias associated with deficits of speaking?
- damage to the frontal lobe
What causes aphasias associated with deficits of understanding?
sensory association cortex
What types of aphasia are associated with deficits in understanding language?
- posterior aphasia
- sensory aphasia
- receptive aphasia
- wernicke’s aphasia
- fluent aphasia
What types of aphasia are associated with deficits in speaking?
- anterior aphasia
- motor aphasia
- expressive aphasia
- broca’s aphasia
- non-fluent aphasia
Where does the word-to-thought/though-to-word process occur?
posterior language area
What is the function of Wernicke’s area?
Spoken word perception
What is the function of Broca’s area?
- word choice
- sequencing
- grammar
- articulation
- speech production
What causes transcortical sensory aphasia?
damage to the posterior language area
What are the symptoms of transcortical sensory aphasia?
- failure to comprehend the meaning of words and an inability to express thoughts with meaningful speech
- word perception/speaking can be fine
Where are located the strokes that cause the majority of language deficiencies?
left hemisphere
What characterizes conduction aphasia?
Inability to repeat the exact words that were heard
What brain structure is responsible to hear?
primary auditory cortex
What causes conduction aphasia?
damge to the arcuate fasciculus (axons that connect wernicke’s and Broca’s areas
What area of the brain is responsible for recognizing words?
wernicke’s area
What area of the brain is responsible for the COMPREHENSION of words?
posterior language area
Where is Wernicke’s area situated?
in the auditory association cortex, on the left temporal lobe
What characterizes pure word deafness?
Inability to comprehend or repeat spoken word, but perfect hearing abilities, ability to recognize other types of sounds as well as a capacity to comprehend written language and speak intellegibly
What causes pure word deafness?
damage to Wernicke’s area
What causes Wernicke’s aphasia?
damage to wernicke’s area AND the posterior language area
What is the defining feature of Wernicke’s aphasia?
poor language comprehension (cannot speak or understand words)
How is the speech of a person with Wernicke’s aphasia characterized?
- fluent
- completely meaningless
- prosody
What disorders is Wernicke’s aphasia a compound of?
- pure word deafness
- transcortical sensory aphasia
What is the difference between Wernicke’s aphasia and transcortical sensory aphasia?
patients with wernicke’s aphasia are completely incapable of repeating words that are said to them, as they do not recognize words at all. Patients with transcortical sensory aphasia do not know what the words mean, but they are able to repeat them.
What is the relation between Wernicke’s aphasia and transcortical sensory aphasia?
- damage to the same area of the brain (could not differentiate them with a brain scan)
What are the symptoms of Broca’s aphasia?
- inability to express themselves
- inability to repeat
- Articulation issues (slow/awkward/meaningless speech
- agrammatism
- anomia
What causes pure alexia?
- damage to the visual word form area
Where is situated the word-form visual area?
- fusiform gyrus of the left hemisphere
What are the characteristics of pure alexia?
inability to recognize written words, but are still able to understand spoken words, express themselves and write
