Introduction to Neurolinguistics and Aphasias

Question 1

The neuron has three primary functions - which three?

Answer 1

The function of a neuron is:
take in information
Make ‘’decisions’’ about the info received
Transmit this info to other neurons by changes in their activity levels

Question 2

What is cerebral dominance?

Answer 2

Although the two hemispheres work together, are connected and share information (through commissures), each hemisphere appears to be specialized for specific functions.
Left hemisphere:
Language, math, logic
Right hemisphere:
Spatial abilities, face recognition, visual imagery, music

Question 3

Which two views of brain organisation are there?

Answer 3

The holistic approach and the localisationist approach. Localisaitonists, like Broca and Wernicke, claimed that different locations of the brain are specialised for a specific function (like, speech production). Holists believe that localizationalists falsely compartmentalize language abilities and postulate that language is supported by larger areas of the brain.

Question 4

What does Hughlings Jackson say about the organisation of the brain? That behaviours (such as language) are…..

Answer 4

He also introduced the idea that behaviors (such as language) are constellations of activities each of which can depend on distinct neural activities. Today, we believe the brain is composed of networks which do have specialisation but they are dispersed around the brain. While a brain lesion may produce a bizarre symptom it does not mean that the impaired area is only specialized for this function.

Question 5

Compare the globalist and localizationist view of brain organisation

Answer 5

Neither were completely right. A complex ability is not accomplished by a single part of the brain = globalists are right! However, simple processes that are recruited to exercise abilities such as those described by phrenologists are localized = localizationists are right! The wrong thing to ask is ‘’where’’ in the brain something is located; it is more correct to ask rather what kind of computations in the brain form the basis of processing linguistic representations.

Question 6

Pick the three correct anwers.

There are three possible neurobiological mechanisms for linguistic computation:
A) Concatenation
B) Recursion
C) Regression
D) Constituency

Answer 6

There are three possible neurobiological mechanisms for linguistic computation:
A) Concatenation
B) Recursion
C) Regression
D) Constituency

Question 7

————- is a general term for an acquired language-related impairment

Answer 7

Aphasia is a general term for an acquired language-related impairment

Question 8

A couple comes to you (you’re a doctor btw, let’s say neurologist) and the man says his wife has a strange way of speaking. What kind of tests would you conduct to determine if his wife has an aphasia?

(Probably not important to know)

Answer 8

Aphasia batteries:
Boston diagnostic aphasia exam (BDAE);
Western aphasia battery (WAB);
Porch index of communicative ability (PICA)

Question 9

A patient comes to you and performs the cookie theft task. Their description is as follows:

Woman…take table…a woman-no! Son..um..cookies..uh…girl…cookies..um…oh, mmm um…yeah….oh…oh…br…m…water…water!…OK…

Which symptoms can you see (give examples)? What kind of aphasia is this? What are common characteristics of this aphasia?

Answer 9

→ it’s agrammatical: verbs need company, they need to agree (tense, person, ‘woman take table’)
→ disfluencies; ‘’um’’ ‘’mmmmm’’ ‘hm’ → the person is really struggling
→ semantic paraphasia: instead of saying apple you say pear (you say something related to the thing you are actually saying; table instead of counter maybe)
Broca’s aphasia,
Main symptoms:
agrammatism ‘lack of grammar’
non-fluent; omission of grammatical markers
open/closed class distinction
spared comprehension
poor repetition
poor naming (anomia; cannot retrieve word from mental lexicon); cricumlocutions (they say things around: ‘’that thing that opens doors)
writing is affected (adjacent regions get affected; Broca’s legion is on the left hemisphere so the right side of the body is affected)
patients with the smallest lesions are the most depressed as they are aware of their problem and often depressed

Question 10

You read the description of the cookie theft by a patient:
“OK there the dishes\…the the the water is overflowing, I’m sorry, it’s on the floor, she is um, she’s not, she’s washing and drying the dishes. There’s somebodythere’s a little child coo-cookie.”
This patients has:
A) Wernicke’s aphasia
B) Transconductive aphasia
C) Conduction aphasia
D) Broca’s aphasia

Answer 10

You read the description of the cookie theft by a patient:
“OK there the dishes\…the the the water is overflowing, I’m sorry, it’s on the floor, she is um, she’s not, she’s washing and drying the dishes. There’s somebodythere’s a little child coo-cookie.”
This patients has:
A) Wernicke’s aphasia
B) Transconductive aphasia
C) Conduction aphasia
D) Broca’s aphasia

Question 11

One or more possible answers.

A patient described the cookie theft picture. Their description:
The girl and the boy want the /pitcher/and girl wipe the…can’t say it..I can’t say it…Girl and boy watch the cookie /shar/ and …girl paint the…
Their description has the following symptoms:
A) Neologisms
B) Disfluencies
C) Semantic paraphasia
D) Problems with lexical retreival

Answer 11

A patient described the cookie theft picture. Their description:
The girl and the boy want the /pitcher/and girl wipe the…can’t say it..I can’t say it…Girl and boy watch the cookie /shar/ and …girl paint the…
Their description has the following symptoms:
A) Neologisms
B) Disfluencies
C) Semantic paraphasia
D) Problems with lexical retreival

Question 12

A patient was asked to name the object in front of them ( a clock). Their syntax and comprehension is otherwise okay. Their answer was as follows:
‘’Of course, I know that. It’s the thing you use for counting, for telling the time, you know, one of those, it’s a …[examiner: but doesn’t it have a name?]. Why of course it does. I just can’t think of it. Let me look at my notebook.”
This patient has —————.

Answer 12

anomic aphasia

Question 13

A patient comes to the hospital and is asked if they know why they are here. They have no difficulty reading and relatively okay writing. They patient does not seem to be aware of their deficit. When asked the question, their answer was:
“Is this some of the work that we work as we did before? … All right … From when wine I’m here. What’s wrond with me because I … was myself until the taenz took something about the time between me and my regular time in that time and they took the time in that time here and that’s when the time took around here and saw me arund in it it’s started with me no time and then I bekan work of nothing else that’s the way the doctor find me that way…”
What type of aphasia do you think they have? What symptoms do you see in their response? How would you know they aren’t someone suffering a psychotic break or formal thought disorder (like shizophrenia)?

Answer 13

This is Wernicke’s aphasia, in which speech is fluent but their comprehension is mostly impaired. In their answer, there is no content, there is some perseveration (repetition), neologism (from when wine i’m here). We could test them for lesions with an MRI machine.

Question 14

A patient comes in and presents with the following language-related symptoms:
* Fluent, effortless but incomprehensible speech
* Intact syntax
* Problem with the selection of nouns
* Many neologisms (you hear them say they were lane for a meeting)

What form of aphasia are they likely to have?

Answer 14

Jargonophasia

Question 15

————— aphasia is caused by a disruption in the fiber pathways connecting Wernicke and Broca’s area.

Answer 15

Conduction aphasia

Question 16

The main symptoms of conduction aphasia include…

Answer 16

Symptoms:
Major problems with repetition (you hear and understand, but cannot travel to the production area)
Patient produce phonemic paraphasias : ‘’television’’ → ‘’veletision’’
They generate successive approximations to words
Sentences are usually short and often unrelated
They often perform overwriting (no spaces between words)
It shows why production and comprehension should communicate with each other
The patient knows what s/he wants to say but cannot say it. Patients are aware and frustrated

Question 17

A patient came in. They recently suffered from a massive left hemisphere stroke and are experiencing right-side paralysis and severe impariments in comprehenson, production reading and writing. They likely have ——————.

Answer 17

Global aphasia (never permanent)

Question 18

There are two types of transcortical aphasias. Transcortical ————- aphasia occurs as a result of lesions in superior anterior regions of frontal lobe (extra-sylvian areas, around Broca’s area). Symptoms include disturbance of spontaneous speech (only short sentences of 1-3 words) while repetition is preserved). Transcortical —————— aphasia, on the other hand, occurs as a result of lesions isolated to posterior regions (usually right around Wernicke’s area). Symptoms include:
Relatively preserved repetition
Fluent, grammatical speech
Disturbance in single-word comprehension
Semantic paraphasia

Answer 18

There are two types of transcortical aphasias. Transcortical motor aphasia occurs as a result of lesions in superior anterior regions of frontal lobe (extra-sylvian areas, around Broca’s area). Symptoms include disturbance of spontaneous speech (only short sentences of 1-3 words) while repetition is preserved). Transcortical sensoryaphasia, on the other hand, occurs as a result of lesions isolated to posterior regions (usually right around Wernicke’s area). Symptoms include:
Relatively preserved repetition
Fluent, grammatical speech
Disturbance in single-word comprehension
Semantic paraphasia

Question 19

When the watershead region around Broca’s, Wernicke’s and arcuate fasciculus area is damaged, this leads to ———————– ————– aphasia. Symptoms include: (name them)

Answer 19

Mixed transcortical aphasia. evere speaking and comprehension problems, but preserved repetition
Patients struggle to produce propositional language [‘today is a beautiful day → one proposition, ‘’I am going for a walk → second proposition; Today is a beautiful day so I’m going for a walk → creating meaning by combining two propositions; creating logical and meaningful sentences) or to understand what is being said to them
They can repeat long, complex utterances or finish a song once they what the first part

Question 20

——————————————— results from the destruction of primary auditory cortixes. Symptoms include: an inability to comprehend the meaning of speech, but in most cases still retaining ability to speak, read and write and auditory halucinations. Patients with this condition can still detect sounds and are aware of their deficit.

Answer 20

Pure word deafness results from the destruction of primary auditory cortixes. Symptoms include: an inability to comprehend the meaning of speech, but in most cases still retaining ability to speak, read and write and auditory halucinations. Patients with this condition can still detect sounds and are aware of their deficit.

Question 21

Pure word blindness (also alexia) typically results from a lesion in the left —————– gyrus and the ——– lobe. Patients can speak, spell and write without difficulty but cannot recognise words (/have great difficulties).

Answer 21

left angular gyrus and occipital lobe

Question 22

One or more possible answers

Agrammatism is mainly defined as a functional deficit involving relative impairment in the use of:
A) Free morphemes
D) Function words
C) Bound morphemes
E) Content words

Answer 22

Agrammatism is mainly defined as a functional deficit involving relative impairment in the use of:
A) Free morphemes
D) Function words
C) Bound morphemes
E) Content words

Agrammatic sentences are short and ill-formed due to the frequent ommision (and, to some extent, inappropriate substitution) of obligatory gramamtical elements. Symptoms also include:
restriction in available vocabulary.
Speech is slow, effortful and there are articulatory difficulties.
The speaker relies chiefly on high information words (nouns, main verbs) to convey message.
There is frequent deletion of the article before nouns;
Few pronouns are used.
Verbs are uninflected, appearing either as the verb stem or in the –ing form.

Question 23

Agrammatism can be understood as a disorder of sentence production in which aphasics patients typically delete grammatical formatives (auxiliaries, pronouns, determiners, inflections, …).
Discuss this senteces - do you agree? Disagree? What does research show?

Answer 23

Beginning in the 1970s comprehension was found to be compromised when it depended on inflectional morphemes, so it is not only production that is impaired. Aggramatics in particular have Difficulties in assigning thematic roles in reversible passives (the girl was chased by the boy), object relative clauses (the boy who the girl chased is fat), object clefts (it was the boy who the girl chased). ‘Who chased who’ - agrammatical patients will not understand/have great difficulties with them. Thus, comprehension is also affected in specific strucutres (passives, object relative clauses and object clefts).

Question 24

One or more possible answers

Comprehension of patients with agrammatism is affected in the following structures:
A) Object relative clauses
B) Subject clefts
C) Passives
D) Subject relative clauses

Answer 24

Comprehension of patients with agrammatism is affected in the following structures:
A) Object relative clauses
B) Subject clefts
C) Passives
D) Subject relative clauses

Question 25

At first, some people believed that people with agrammatism lose all syntactic ability and that symptoms are a manifestation of a cenral distruption of the syntactic parsing component of the language system combined with an articulatory deficit that affects speech output. Later, others showed that agrammatics can make grammaticality judgements. Further research showed that this is somewhat true but not in all cases. They compared the sucess of grammaticality judgements of agrammatics between these two sentences:
The girl was chased by the boy. x
The ball was chased by the dog. yes

-> why were they succesful for the second but not the first?

Answer 25

The two structures are the same but how come they agrammatics can interpret the second one but not the first one? They rely on their knowledge of the world, and pragmatism. Patients use to interpret the animate noun as the agent and the inanimate as the theme/patient.
When you have sentences of both animate, people suggested that they rely on heuristic or linear account of aggramatism (the first noun is the agent)

Question 26

Explain the trace deletion hypothesis (Grodzinsky)

This was her mentor so it’s likely to be on the exam

Answer 26

This theory states that agrammatic patients are unable to maintain the grammatical link between the trace and the moved constituent. THEN… The patients implement a cognitive strategy assigning the moved NP a role by virtue of its serial position in the surface string. The boy was kissed by the girl.
Boy -> S of sentence, patient, girl -> agent, was kissed → the theme (What is being done). The government binding theory states that at the deep level, the passive voice the theme/patient move to the front; when they move they leave a trace behind which is why we know how to interpret them; the boy moves to the front but it leaves the trace ‘’hey, I’m from the end of the sentence’’ which is how they can take the case (Deklico je pobožala mama; accusative comes from the deep structure). Movement is a very important factor/operation because a lot of words move around. What Grodzinsky said is that agrammatics do not have traces, they lost their traces. If you lose the trace, you have this noun phrase ‘the boy’ floating around, you do not know what it is (in English, you don’t know because you do not have this accusative case that explicitly shows the trace). Aggramatic patients are unable to maintain the grammatical link between the trace and the moved constituent. Because ‘the boy’ is just floating around, you just say aha, this is the first noun we saw so it has to be the agent (because there is no trace)
Grodzinsky proposed that the role of Broca’s area in sentence perception is to support syntactic movement.
The boy(i) who the girl chased (ti). → very poor
The boy(i) who (ti) chases the girl. → you have a trace here but the trace is at the same position, before the verb and before the other noun so if you miss it it’s not a big deal. Broca’s aphasics know how to assign semantic roles to NPs when NPs are in the ‘’right place’’ (local to the verb). However, when NPs are moved, their interpretation depends on traces. Broca’s aphasics’ syntactic representations do not have these traces. Therefore, they apply an Agent-first strategy to moved constituents. i.e., they take the first NP to describe the Agent.

Question 27

An experiment on 5 agrammatic aphasics using a sentence-picture paradigm had the following conditions:
1) [The dog]i that [the cat] chased ti followed [the rat]
2) [The dog] chased [the cat]i that [the rat] followedti.
3) [The dog]i that ti chased [the cat] followed [the rat].
4) [The dog] chased [the cat]i that ti followed [the rat]

Results show that patients had difficulty with the first two sentences, but not the last two. Explain the results using the Trace deletion hypothesis (Grodzinsky)

Answer 27

In 1 and 2, the subject was moved (couldn’t know that the dog is the theme of chase, so they end up with 2 noun phrases and have no reason to tell the two apart, the trace was missing). The trace is missing in all 4 structures but if you take the linear strategy, you get it right in 3 and 4 becasue you don’t end up with 2 noun phrases that just float around

Question 28

What are some issues with the trace deletion hypothesis (Grodzinsky)

Answer 28

They are not always supported by the data (of various languages, more synthetic languages do not agree with this)
Variability among patients (a huge problem anyway; with loss accounts it is not possible that some patients don’t lose it and others do)
Nature of strategy (the cogntiive strategy he described is very vague, not very clear)
Another thing: if you don’t have a trace, adopt to your strategy (agent is always first) aggramatics would have it wrong 100% of the time (they would always say the boy chased the girl, but it is around 50% which means it’s not a rule). If you always adopt this strategy the data would show this, you would expect 0% correctness but it’s never 0%.

Question 29

Many have tried to explain agrammatism. One wave of theories stated that they do not lose everything but that the issue lies in processing. As such, people with agrammatism have two choices:
* Speak more slowly
* Adopt elliptical syntactic strucutres
What is the problem with these theories?

Answer 29

The problem with these accounts at first was that they were considered quite extreme (do the patients really conciously decide to adopt one of the two strategies because of their impairment; not likely) and they also did not provide a framework within which patients can be distinguished.

Question 30

Discuss the findings of the experiment presented in the paper Derivation by prefixation in Slovenian: Two aphasia case studies
(Carlo Semenza, Luisa Girelli, Martin Spacal, Jan Kobal and Anton Mesec (2002)

I can’t put pictures here

Answer 30

For both patiens:
Word boundaries a crucial point for errors
Prefixes were spared, substituted or selectively omitted
Prefixed were never distorted phonologically
Data that further supports findings…
The initial phonemes in nonprefixed words not preserved more than the other phonemes.
The second prefix preserved as well