NEURO: Language

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

It is a system for representing and communicating information about the world using symbols and rules.

There are natural languages and ‘formal’ languages. Formal languages (such as computer languages) are finite systems and have rules for combination.

There are also human languages and animal languages. They are either closed/finite or generative, and they are capable of representing abstract concepts.

Question 2

How have language groups evolved?

Answer 2

Language groups are a group of languages that have evolved from a common ancestral language, and as a result, have a common root word so that their vocabulary is relatively similar.

Question 3

What are the five functional components of language?

Answer 3

1. Articulation
2. Phonology
3. Meaning (semantics)
4. Syntax
5. Comprehension

Question 4

Expand on articulation as a functional component of language.

Answer 4

It is the movement of the tongue, lips and jaw to modify a sound wave.

Question 5

How do we classify the sounds that make up words?

Answer 5

Place of articulation:
-labial, alveolar, palatal

Manner of articulation:

• voiced vs unvoiced
• fricative, plosive etc.

Question 6

Expand on phonology as a component of language.

Answer 6

It is the sound combination from which the syllables and words of a language are built up.

Question 7

How are different sounds from different languages represented?

Answer 7

through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) because the writing systems of different countries/languages are different from one another

Question 8

Phomenes

Answer 8

the basic units of sound in language

Question 9

Expand on meaning (semantics) as a functional component of language.

Answer 9

This is the representation in the long-term memory of concepts and the relations between them.
It’s when actions, objects and properties get converted into verbs, nouns and adjectives (etc.).

It is largely independent of grammar. The mapping between the concepts and symbols in generally arbitrary (though nb onomatopoeia - e.g. hiss).

Question 10

Expand on syntax as a functional component of language.

Answer 10

This is the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. It relies on grammatical markers and word order.

In English, the word order SVO (subject, verb, object) is paramount to assigning roles. Other markers rely on ‘markers’ of word role.

Question 11

Expand on comprehension as a functional component of language.

Answer 11

It is the ability to represent the meaning of words or sentences spoken or written by another person. It Entails knowledge of articulation, phonology, meaning and SYNTAX, in addition to:

• context
• pitch
• stress
• prosody

Question 12

What are some different parts of the brain involved in the cerebral comprehension of language?

Answer 12

Left hemisphere network of cortical regions and white matter connections

• Broca’s Area
• Fasciculus Arcuatus
• Auditory Cortex
• Wernicke’s Area

Question 13

Which brain region does articulation and phonology of language depend on?

Answer 13

inferior parts of the motor homunculus (i.e. the tongue, mouth, larynx, etc.). of the somatosensory cortex, corresponding to the anterior portions of Broca’s area

Question 14

Which brain region does meaning (semantics) of language depend on?

Answer 14

highly dependent on the left and right temporal lobes because there are dense interconnections between the temporal poles with widespread regions of association cortex
-‘ modality independent representations’

Question 15

Which brain region does SYNTAX depend on?

Answer 15

left inferior frontal gyrus

Question 16

Which brain region does comprehension of language depend on?

Answer 16

It is dependant on:

• the primary auditory cortex
• temporal poles
• left inferior frontal gyrus
• arcuate fasciculus
• left posterior superior
• temporal gyrus

Question 17

Changes in language after brain damage due to…

Answer 17

stroke

neurodegeneration

Question 18

What are some examples of brain damage (language-related) that a stroke can lead to?

Answer 18

• Broca’s aphasia
• Wernicke’s aphasia
• Conduction aphasia
• Adynamic aphasia

Question 19

Describe Broca’s aphasia.

Answer 19

Difficulty with articulation and phonology
Follows damage to Broca’s area
SPEECH: halting, fragmented, distorted, agrammatic
COMPREHENSION: preserved for words, reduced for sentences

TYPICAL PATHOLOGIES: middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction, haemorrhagic stroke

Question 20

Describe Wernicke’s aphasia.

Answer 20

It is also known as ‘receptive aphasia’ or ‘sensory aphasia’. It follows damage to the posterior regions of the language network.

SPEECH: fluent, often with meaningless phonological strings

TYPICAL PATHOLOGIES: penetrating brain injury, cerebral haemorrhage

Question 21

Describe conduction aphasia.

Answer 21

It follows damage to the posterior perisylvian regions and the underlying white matter and results in difficulty with repetition.

SPEECH CHARACTERISTICS: mild fluency and comprehension difficulties
TEST: single word and sentence repetition

TYPICAL PATHOLOGIES: lacunar stroke

Question 22

Describe dynamic aphasia.

Answer 22

This is the rarest aphasia. It follows damage to the anterior left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45), and results in difficulty planning, initiating or maintaining speech.

SPEECH CHARACTERISTICS: reduced, fragmentary, echoic, perseverative speech
TEST: high vs. low constraint sentence completion

TYPICAL PATHOLOGIES: left anterior cerebral artery (MCA) infarction

Question 23

We can see changes in people’s language after their brains are damaged.

What are some examples of brain damage (language-related) that neurodegeneration can lead to?

Answer 23

• non-fluent progressive aphasia
• fluent progressive aphasia
• logopenic progressive aphasia

Question 24

Describe non-fluent progressive aphasia.

Answer 24

It results in slow, distorted, agrammatic speech production. It begins with subtle changes - it follows a progressive course.
The patient will experience phonological and grammatical errors in spontaneous speech. However, single-word comprehension is well preserved.

TYPICAL PATHOLOGIES: primary tauopathy [FTD-Tau]

Question 25

Describe fluent progressive aphasia.

Answer 25

It results in a normal-sounding speech rate, but the production of empty content. It begins with subtle word-finding changes.

The ability to use generic words and pronouns in spontaneous speech is retained, but there are profound single word comprehension difficulties.

LOCATION OF PATHOLOGY: anterior temporal regions
TYPICAL PATHOLOGIES: TDP-43 proteinopathy [FTG-TDP]

Question 26

Describe logopenic progressive aphasia.

Answer 26

It begins with subtle word-finding changes, and progresses to the poverty of speech output.

You get occasional errors in syntax and phonology, and you also get poor sentence repetition.

The pathology involves the posterior perisylvian region.
TYPICAL PATHOLOGY: Alzheimer’s disease