Lecture 22 (4/28)

Question 1

Damage in the area of the Sylvian fissure

Answer 1

Damage to this area almost always causes aphasia

What does that mean for processing language?

• Only the perisylvian region of the left hemisphere is specialized in processing different aspects of language
• True in the vast majority of people (96-98%) for right-handed individuals

Question 2

Broca’s Area

Answer 2

Involved in speech production and syntactic information

Question 3

Wernicke’s Area

Answer 3

Specializes in processing language comprehension and integrating syntactic and semantic info

Located in the posterior portion of the superior temporal gyrus

Question 4

Superior Temporal Gyrus

Answer 4

Posterior portion is Wernicke’s area (language comprehension)

The anterior portion has been shown to be involved in morphosyntactic processing

Question 5

Middle Temporal Gyrus

Answer 5

Lies outside perisylvian region

Sometimes when its damaged patients experiences anomic aphasia

• Suggests that this region must be involved in processing lexical items
• It is also involved in semantic processing

Question 6

Inferior Temporal Gyrus

Answer 6

Also processes lexical items, specifically proper nouns and common nouns

Question 7

Middle and Inferior Temporal Gryi

Answer 7

The anterior and middle portions of these gyro are responsible for proper and common nouns

Question 8

Pole

Answer 8

Term that refers to the farthest point - example temporal pole

Damage to the temporal pole typically causes an impairment in the ability to process proper nouns

Question 9

Issues with Prosody

Answer 9

Patients with damage to areas 44 & 45 exhibit issues with prosody

Damage to the basal ganglia often associated with issues with intonation and speech timing
-this doesn’t mean that intonation and speech timing are located in the basal

Patients with damage to the left hemisphere have problems with speech timing
-This doesn’t mean that intonation and speech timing are located in the basal ganglia

Question 10

If reading a phrase, what is the first part of the body/brain that reacts?

Answer 10

Without the visual cortex, the eyes can’t see

It all begins with the primary visual cortex

What’s next? Where does the brain recognize that the object seen is linguistic info and not simply an object?

All aspects of language processing passes through Wernicke’s area

Pathway summary:
Visual Cortex
Wernicke’s area

Question 11

If you want to read aloud, which areas of the brain are involved?

Answer 11

Visual Cortex

Wernicke’s

Broca’s

Motor cortex

Question 12

If someone needs to listen, comprehend, and then repeat?

Answer 12

Primary auditory cortex

Wernicke’s area

Broca’s area

Primary motor cortex