Language and Cognition

Question 1

What are the different concepts of cognition?

Answer 1

• perception
• attention
• memory and learning
• emotion and social cognition
• symbolic representations (language etc.)
• reasoning and problem solving

Question 2

How is perception generated by the brain?

Answer 2

Primary areas receive unprocessed sensory modality data (hearing, vision, touch) and process it through association areas and sub-cortical components to determine the perceptual qualities of the modality.

Modal qualities from the higher-order cortex are integrated with themselves and information from other sensory modalities to allow for things such as appreciation of music, detection of danger, and anticipation of other people’s behaviour.

For recognition the secondary visual processing cortex is utilised here.

Question 3

Describe the steps of multi-sensory integration for motor output

Answer 3

1. sensory information about the environment and body project to the primary cortical areas (visual, somatosensory, auditory)
2. information is passed to sensory association areas in parietal lobe and temporal lobe for integration
3. information is then shared with supplementary motor cortex (processes information about intent with other frontal lobe areas) and pre-motor and motor cortices to incorporate sensory input into planned integrated motor events

Question 4

What does the integration of sensory and non-sensory information do in the brain?

Answer 4

Integrates outside information with information/memory/emotion of what you know. It aids perception in different contexts when the sensory input is the same

Question 5

What is synaesthesia?

Answer 5

The mixing of sensory perceptions from their corresponding domains (eg. hearing colours).

Most common is colour-graphemic synaesthesia where particular black and white shapes are perceived in colour (eg. certain numbers are associated with a specific colour)

Question 6

Describe the interpretation and integration of language

Answer 6

1. speaking and hearing words:
   * Broca’s area (speaking): located just anterior to the primary motor cortex
   * Wernike’s area (hearing): located just posterior to the auditory cortex
2. speaking written words
   * 3 processes: read, understanding the words, say written words
   * visual information from the visual cortex is first passed to Wernike’s area (comprehension) through the angular gyrus then passed to Broca’s area through the arcuate fasciculus directly
3. hearing, understanding and repeating spoken word
   * afferent information arrives at the auditory cortex and then goes to Wernike’s area (comprehension)
   * it is passed to Broca’s next for sentence construction and structure
   * Broca’s area then stimulates the motor cortex to control the lips and tongue and repeat the wordW

Question 7

What is the clinical relevance of the arcuate fasciculus?

Answer 7

Damage to the arcuate fasciculus results in a particular type of aphasia where the individual has a reduced ability to repeat spoken words.

Question 8

Describe Wernike’s aphasia

Answer 8

Speech flows normally but comes out as nonsensical (can be wrong/invented words) because the patient has reduced comprehension of speech. Patient is unaware and unconcerned of their impairment.

Malfunction in hearing and understanding words.

Question 9

Describe Broca’s aphasia

Answer 9

Difficulty speaking - often stuttering to find the right word. Jumbled sentences. Patient is aware that they don’t make sense.

Can be known as non-fluent or motor apahsia. No problem in responding to spoken/written words

Question 10

Describe the effect of right brain damage in conjunction with Broca’s/Wernike’s aphasia

Answer 10

Monotonic and robotic speech patterns because the right side of the brain is responsible for producing the emotional content of language

Question 11

What is split brain and how does this affect comprehension and cognition

Answer 11

Split brain is when the corpus callosum has been cut between 2 cerebral hemispheres, usually as a treatment for epilepsy.

Patients cannot verbally identify objects by touch with their left hand (because it will be processed by the right brain and without the corpus callosum it cannot communicate with the left brain to enter Wernike’s or Broca’s area), however if the hands were switched, the patient would be able to.

This is the same for identifying objects in the left visual field (the patient cannot do so).