Language Flashcards
Is language lateralized in the brain ?
Yes (eft hemisphere is dominant for speech in 90 percent of the population)
Language has a regular ____and ____
rhythm and cadence
People change the ____ of spoken words to indicate phrasing and to distinguish between assertions and questions
Pitch
What are the 3 components of prosody ?
Rhythm, emphasis, and tone of speech
People extract information about emotional state through _____.
Prosody
Prosody is a function of which hemisphere ?
Right hemisphere
True or false : people with left hemisphere damage can still understand prosody
True
True or false : newborns recognize the voice of their parents
True
True or false : Voice recognition is dependent of word comprehension.
False
Can people with left hemisphere damage recognize voices ?
Yes
What is Phonagnosia ?
A disorder where people have difficulty recognizing voices
Phonagnosia results from damage to which brain area ?
Right cerebral cortex (temporal lobe)
Understanding metaphors is linked to what hemisphere ?
Right hemisphere
What hemisphere is responsible for understand literal utterances ?
Left hemisphere
What are the 3 possible difficulties in aphasia ?
Understanding, repeating, or producing meaningful speech
Aphasia must NOT be caused by…
Simple sensory or motor deficits or by lack of motivation.
Do people with aphasia recognize when others attempt to communicate with them ?
The deficit (brain damage) must be relatively isolated, such that the patient must be capable of recognizing when others are attempting to communicate to be considered aphasia.
Damage to what artery may cause aphasia ?
Middle cerebral artery (damage after stroke)
Damage to the sensory association cortex causes difficulty in what aspect of aphasia ?
Understanding language
What are the types of sensory association cortex aphasia ?
Sensory, posterior, receptive, Wernicke’s, fluent
Damage to the frontal lobe causes deficits in…
Speaking and writing
Names for frontal lobe aphasia are :
Anterior, motor, expressive, Broca, non-fluent
What type of damage causes global aphasia ?
Massive damage
What type of aphasia causes no language ability at all ?
Global aphasia
What is the main symptom of anomic aphasia, common to all aphasias ?
Trouble knowing what word to use
Cortex responsible for knowledge of the appearence of an object
Visual association cortex
Cortex responsible for the knowledge of the sound of an object
Auditory association cortex
Cortex responsible for the knowledge of the texture of an object
Somatosensory association cortex
Cortex responsible for the knowledge of the movement of an object
Premotor cortex
Area linked to spoken word perception
Wernicke’s area
Area linked to language comprehension
Posterior language area
Impact of posterior language area damage
Speaking nonsense
4 roles of Broca’s area
- Word choice, 2. Sequencing, 3.Grammar, 4. Articulation
Neurons in the posterior language area activate the ensemble of neurons in the…
sensory association cortices
Sensory association cortices store the ____ of words
Representations/meanings
Damage to the posterior language area implies damage to ____’s area
Wernicke
Where is the posterior language area ?
At the junction of the temporal, occipital, and parietal lobes
What type of aphasia occurs from posterior language area damage ?
Transcortical Sensory Aphasia
What is transcortical sensory aphasia ?
Failure to comprehend the meaning of words and an inability to express thoughts with meaningful speech. Can still repeat.
True or false : reading AND writing is possible without understanding
True
How is speech impacted by receptive fluent aphasia ?
Fewer nouns and verbs; more conjunctions
What type of fluent aphasia does Byron have ?
Wernicke’s aphasia
How much did Byron’s reading and audition comprehension improve ?
language comprehension has largely come back, but auditory information processing is not coming back as fast
Can Byron still write or repeat words ?
Byron cannot spell or repeat words
Can you bypass the posterior language area ? What does it entail ?
It is possible to bypass the posterior language area : write, speak or hear without understanding what language means
What is conduction aphasia ?
An inability to repeat the exact words you hear. Language comprehension and expression are generally fine.
When asked to repeat a word, people with conduction aphasia may repeat a _____ word
Similar (ex. home for house)
When asked to repeat a nonsense word like ‘blaynge’, the person with conduction aphasia will…
Be unable to repeat it
What is the damage linked to conduction aphasia ?
The arcuate fasciculus: axons that interconnect Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area (lost connection between meaning and production)
_____’s area is where sounds are recognized as spoken words.
Wernicke
Wernicke’s area is part of the ____ association cortex in the ___temporal lobe.
Auditory association cortex in the left temporal lobe.
Area linked to hearing
Primary auditory cortex
Patients with Wernicke’s aphasia do not recognize sounds as _____
Words
What is pure word deafness ?
Disorder of auditory word recognition, an inability to comprehend or repeat spoken words.
Pure word deafness is the result of a damage to a small part of ____’s area
Wernicke
People with Pure Word Deafness can…
- Hear just fine.
- Interpret non-speech sounds (doorbell, phone, barking).
- Read and write.
- Read lips.
- Speak intelligently.
Wernicke’s aphasia results from damage to…
Wernicke’s area and the Posterior language area.
Wernicke’s aphasia is a combination of ___ aphasia and _____ deafness
Transcortical sensory aphasia and pure word deafness.
Wernicke’s aphasia is characterized by 3 aspects :
Fluent speech, poor comprehension, poor repetition
The defining feature of both Wernicke’s aphasia and transcortical sensory aphasia is…
Poor language comprehension causing meaningless speech
People with Wernicke or transcortical sensory aphasia use more _____content/function words
Function words
True or false : people with Wernicke or transcortical sensory aphasia still use prosody
True
Receptive aphasias (like Wernicke and transcortical sensory) are characterized by…
An inability to understand words that are heard, read, or signed
Fluent aphasias (such as Wernicke and transcortical sensory) are characterized by…
The ability to speak fluently without conveying much meaning
Key difference between Wernicke and transcortical sensory aphasia
People with TSA repeat what is said to them, so they clearly recognize spoken words,.
Spoken word recognition and word comprehension abilities are interwoven in and around ____ area.
Wernicke’s
Damage to the visual word-form area (VWFA) in _____ disrupts the ability to perceive written words.
Visual association cortex
The visual word-form area is in the ____ of the _____hemisphere
Fusiform gyrus of the left hemisphere
face perception is more dominant in the _____ gyrus of the ____hemisphere.
Fusiform gyrus of the right hemisphere.
Why can’t people with damage to the VMFA (visual word-form area) read ?
They have pure alexia or pure-word blindness : inability to recognize words.
True or false : people with VMFA damage can still write
True
Can a person with damaged V1 in left hemisphere but intact VWFA still read ?
Only in the left peripheral vision, because the information from the left visual field gets treated on the right of the brain, which sends it to the VFWA through the corpus callosum.
Can a person with damaged V1 in the left hemisphere AND corpus callosum damage, but intact VMFA still read ?
No
The VMFA receives information from the ___ visual field
Left
What sends information from the left visual field to the VMFA ?
The corpus callosum
Damage to the corpus callosum prevents information from travelling across the ___ and ___
Posterior right hemisphere and left hemisphere
What happens when a person with damage to the V1 in the left hemisphere AND corpus callosum damage, but intact VMFA tries to read ?
The visual information from the left visual field gets analyzed by the right hemisphere, but not sent to the VMFA. The information on the right visual field does not get analyzed by the left hemisphere as it is damaged.
What type of damage causes pure alexia ?
Damaged V1 in the left hemisphere AND corpus callosum damage
What is dyslexia ?
Difficulty reading
What 2 processes are required in reading ?
Direct recognition of whole words and sounding out words letter by letter
What is sight-reading?
Whole word recognition
What is phonetic or sound reading ?
Recognition of words by sounding out strings of letters
The visual ____ area is critical for perceiving written words as a whole and differentiating them.
Visual word form area (VWFA)
Surface dyslexia
An inability to recognize whole words, while retaining the ability to read phonetically.
_____ words are difficult for these people to read, because sounding them out doesn’t work
Irregularly spelled words
Reading disorder in which a person can read familiar words but has difficulty reading unfamiliar words or non-words.
Phonological dyslexia
In phonological dyslexia, you can only recognize words by sight so words that you don’t have in your ____ are hard to read.
Mental dictionary
True or false : dyslexia is largely hereditary
True
Developmental dyslexia is a type of ____ dyslexia
Phonological
People with developmental dyslexia have great difficulty learning to _____
Read
People with this type of dyslexia have trouble with grammar and spelling and have a hard time distinguishing the order of sound sequences.
Phonological dyslexia
Some stroke patients have very specific deficits in their ability to extract meaning from written words even though they can read out loud. What is this called ?
Direct dyslexia
Direct dyslexia is typically seen with larger deficits, like transcortical sensory aphasia where there is limited language _____
Comprehension
The most important type of cue for object recognition
Cues that remain relatively constant when objects are viewed from different angles
The primary task of the visual system
Object recognition
The most reliable cues of object recognition
Where lines meet at vertices, forming junctions with particular shapes, such as L, T, and X
Taking out all the corners makes information ____easier/harder to understand
Harder
Erasing middle makes it _____easier/harder to understand.
Easier
Broca’s aphasia is damage to the ___ of the brain
Front left inferior frontal lobe
What is Broca’s aphasia on the 3 dimensions of aphasia ?
Non-fluent, good comprehension, no repetition
Are people with aphasia aware of their difficulty expressing themselves ?
Yes
3 semi-distinct issues of Broca’s aphasia
- Articulation problems
- agrammatism : use of grammar
- anomia : use of the right word
Where do articulation problems arise in the brain ?
Motor frontal cortex
People with agrammatism use more ___function/content words
Content
True or false : people with agrammatism cannot derive meaning from the grammar of sentences
True
What is circumlocution ?
Strategy by which people with anomia find alternative ways to say something when they are unable to think of most appropriate word.
What happens in a severe case of anomic aphasia ?
People cannot communicate and show little recovery.
