L5 - 6 Flashcards
How old does a human have to be to speak:
a) 10 words
b) 50 words
c) 300 words
a) 10 words - 1 year
b) 50 words - 1 and a half year
c) 300 words - 2 years
How many words is the average adult vocab?
40k to 70k
Phonemes
Distinct sounds that make up words - AUDITORY PERCEPTION
Graphemes
Written symbols that represent spoken sounds - VISUAL PERCEPTION
Discourse
Higher order structure made of sentences e.g. debating
What conveys more info, vowels or consonants?
Consonants
Which side of the brain (cerebral hemisphere) processes, and detects the aspects of someone’s speech that conveys info about their personal disposition (personality, mood etc.)
Right
Language is separate to rest of auditory pathways, being developed automatically and on permanently (can’t choose to hear language as just noise). It is fast - recognize words when they are still being spoken (massively parallel)
Language is separate to rest of auditory pathways, being developed automatically and on permanently (can’t choose to hear language as just noise). It is fast - recognize words when they are still being spoken (massively parallel)
4 Phase of language processing
*Phases occur very rapidly to allow interpretation in under 1 second
Phase 1: Initially, auditory circuits process sound and phonological circuits identify as speech
Phase 2: Identify phrase and sentence structure
Phase 3: Calculate syntatic (rules for combining elements) and semantic (meaning) relationships
Phase 4: Resolve ambiguities using context and world knowledge
How is language processing measured/observed?
Use techniques with high temporal resolution as it occurs in under 1 second
e.g. EEG or MEG - these methods allow for identification of electrical events associated with language processing
EEG records event related potentials (ERP)
MEG records event related fields (ERF)
*FMRI is not fast enough
In phase 1 (identifying speech sounds), what structure:
a) is activated by any type of sound?
b) processes speech and non-speech sounds (categorizes sound)
c) Specific for speech - responds to words, not word-like sounds
d) Not specific for speech - responds to any sound?
a) Primary auditory cortex
b) Planum temporale (next to primary auditory cortex)
c) ASTG (Anterior superior temporal gyrus)
d) PSTG (posterior superior temporal gyrus)
Syntatic and semantic side of language is on left or right side of brain?
Left
Regions involved in syntax and semantics
1) Superior temporal gyrus BA22/42 (ant and post which is Wernicke’s area)
2) Superior temporal sulcus
3) Middle temporal gyrus
4) Inferior frontal gryus (BA 44/45 - includes Broca’s area and frontal operculum)
Interconnections of regions involved in syntax and semantics include?
1) Post sup temp gyrus to premotor cortex and BA44 (Arcuate fasiculus and sup. long. fasciculus)
2) Ant sup temp gyrus to BA45 via extreme fibre capsule system and uncinate fasciculus
Prosodic processing (Emotional and musical properties in speech- separate from semantics and syntax) is on left or right hemisphere of brain? What about tonal languages?
Right - mainly but not exclusively Tonal languages (E.g. pinyin)- using pitch for syntax, process pitch in left hemisphere.
All emotional and most linguistic prosodic processing involves what 3 areas?
Right STG, right inferior frontal operculum, frontal lobe and cerebellum
Wernickes area
It is involved in the comprehension or understanding of written and spoken language
Brocas area
Speech production (left hemisphere)
Do rats have a sense of addition and numerousity?
Yes
Why are word representations so completely distributed throughout the cortex?
- Cerebral cortex is multifunctional and one role is storage of semantic knowledge
- The words relate to the function of that region of the brain
- We think in language
T/F: Semantics, syntactic and integrative regions are easily separated
F – impossible to separate
Development of laterality - Adults with LH (left hemisphere) stroke exhibit permanent language disorders BUT Children with LH stroke?
Develop normal language abilities - if you lose LH early enough, then distrubted language system can persist on RH
- Both sides start off with bilateral language network that contracts back to LHS with age
- Areas of right cortex not involved in non-prosodic language becomes active when left language network lost
Visual Cortex of Congenitally Blind Adults Responds to Syntactic Movement – how?
fMRI showed brain region for vision is used for spoken language - syntactic movement
*Suggests broad functional capacity during development and input plays a role in determining functional specialization
What are the pertinent observations of language development?
-While acquisition is natural and it happens over a prolonged period, there are critical early periods where different rule-sets and conventions can be learnt
- Language is interesting because it allows us to arbitrarily associate symbols with meanings
- Numbers are interesting because they are only abstract - they have an application, we can map numbers with real things e.g. 3 people
- Language is interesting because it allows us to arbitrarily associate symbols with meanings
- Numbers are interesting because they are only abstract - they have an application, we can map numbers with real things e.g. 3 people
Distance effect in Chimp
They are better at distinguishing between numbers when differences are large rather than when they are small - 2 and 6 are easier to distinguish than 2 and 3. AKA distance effect - the bigger the gap, the easier to detect
Magnitude effect in Chimps
A chimp has more trouble working out which is bigger if both numbers are large: 2 and 3 are easier to decide about than 6 and 7
Cardinality - what is it? do humans have this uniquely?
Sense that 3 is somehow more than 2 - which is bigger
No
Ordinal - what is it? do humans have this uniquely?
Sense that 3 is after 2 - it reshapes our virtual number line *This might be what humans have uniquely
What is enough to give you the foundation of maths?
- Ordinality
- Addition and subtraction
T/F - Brain cells do not respond to a particular number - there is a bad topographic representation of number
F
How does the human brain work?
Promiscuous interfaces -Numerosity engenders maths by interfacting with language, spatial cognition, pure abstraction, working memory etc. It is when info from one part of brain can go to another part of the brain
What if you have no numerical concepts in your language?
A number of relatively isolated human cultures have very little use for numerical sense or succession beyond the first few natural numbers and “many” so they weren’t interested in learning it because it was never part of their culture.
Lesions in the left inferior parietal cortex (lesions here cause number problems) can lead to what syndrome?
Gerstmann’s syndrome
- Acalculia
- Associating words with nubers 6 = six
- Comparing magnitutde problems
- Writing problem
- Distinguishing left and right
- Distinguishing fingers
*The inferior parietal lobe is the intersection of language, visual attention and numerical representation networks
Loss of angular gyrus (parietal lobe) leads to loss of add/sub/div/mul due to affect on language
Multiplication- as it is a route learnt LANGUAGE task
Loss of inferior parietal sulcus leads to loss of add/sub/div/mul?
Subtraction
Can animals count?
RAT STUDY: Rats can only get reward when pressing a lever x amount of times. With repeated trials, they improve but never to the point of replicating the required number with precision, especially as the count got larger
Rats can be trained to push:
- LEFT lever when l light flashes/horn sounds 2 times
- RIGHT lever when light flashes/horn sounds 4 times
Can animals count?
RAT STUDY: Rats can only get reward when pressing a lever x amount of times. With repeated trials, they improve but never to the point of replicating the required number with precision, especially as the count got larger
Rats can be trained to push:
- LEFT lever when light flashes/horn sounds 2 times
- RIGHT lever when light flashes/horn sounds 4 times
CHIMP STUDY
- They know that half an apple is more like a half glass of milk than it is like a full glass
- They know that a quarter apple plus a half glass of milk is ¾ rather than 4/4
2 piles of chocolate: (suggests they are good at estimating quantity - only 70% correct for dif of 1)
LEFT: 4 in a pile, 3 in a pile
RIGHT: 5 in a pile, 1 in a pile
A chimp will choose the tray on the left over that on the right - suggests that it identifies 4+3 as being more chocolate than 5+1.
CHIMP STUDY
- They know that half an apple is more like a half glass of milk than it is like a full glass
- They know that a quarter apple plus a half glass of milk is ¾ rather than 4/4
2 piles of chocolate: (suggests they are good at estimating quantity - only 70% correct for dif of 1)
LEFT: 4 in a pile, 3 in a pile
RIGHT: 5 in a pile, 1 in a pile
A chimp will choose the tray on the left over that on the right - suggests that it identifies 4+3 as being more chocolate than 5+1.
Vowels tell you a lot about a person - rather than the meaning of the word
Vowels tell you a lot about a person - rather than the meaning of the word
