Neurolinguistics Flashcards
How much does the brain weight?
3 lbs (1400 grams)
How many interlinked neurons are there?
10 billion
What is the definition of neurolinguistics?
This is how and where language processing takes place
What joins the left and right brain?
The Corpus Callosum
What is the cereal cortex characterized by?
The Sulci and Gyri folds
The Brain is ________
Lateralized
What side is language most in
The left Hemisphere
Math and Numbers is mostly controlled by which hemisphere?
Right hemisphere
For ____ handed people, language is (more/less) lateralized.
- left
2. less
The _____ hemisphere plays a role for comprehension and figuration.
right
What is a requirement for autopsy studies and why?
You much know the person beforehand in order to understand possible brain malformations.
Who is Paul Broca and what did he discover?
He is a 19th century neuroscientist who discovered the area of the brain responsible for Broca’s aphasia.
Where is Broca’s area located and what is it used for?
It’s part of the frontal lobe, relevant for speech production.
What is Wernicke’s Aphasia?
They can produce sentences but they do not have comprehension of what others are saying.
What is Broca’s aphasia?
When damage to this area occurs, they patient cannot speak but they can understand.
Where is Wernicke’s area located?
The Parietal lobe
When a person is reading, where is blood flowing?
It flows more heavily into the occipital lobe and the to angular gyrus.
How do PET scans work?
- Radio active glucose is injected into the blood stream when the brain then uses the glucose in different quantities depending on different events.
- The radioactive isotopes can be looked at using a PET scanning machine.
How do MRIs work?
They track (using magnets) the iron in your blood and therefore the blood flow to different areas of the brain (more concentrated iron means more blood in a certain area)
What does MEG stand for and what benefits does it give.
- Magnetoencephalography scan
- It provides millisecond by millisecond imaging, working the same way as MRIs.
What did the dichotic listening studies discovered for right-handed individuals?
When talking on the phone, there is a clearer and louder sound picked up when listening with your right ear.
Which ear is better at picking up melodies?
Left ear
What did the split brain studies discover?
If an object is placed in a person’s right hand, they are able to name it and understand what it is.
When the object is placed in the persons left hand, they know what it is but they cannot find the word for it.
What is the general definition of aphasia?
It is the loss of linguistic ability due to brain damage
How many people in North America have aphasia?
1 million
What is another name for Broca’s Aphasia?
Non-Fluent Aphasia
What are some characteristics of Broca’s Aphasia?
- They have slow halting speech
- They lack normal intonation
- They often have difficulty producing phonemic distinctions i.e. t vs θ
When reading, those with Broca’s aphasia can _____ but they cannot _____
They can read but they cannot write.
Which area of the brain is normally damaged with those who have non-fluent aphasia?
The frontal lobe, sometimes paired with damage to the motor cortex.
In regards to syntax, non-fluent aphasiacs often omit function words and affixes. This is know as?
Agrammaticism or telegraphic speech
Why do people revert to telegraphic speech?
It’s for ease of effort. Each word takes a lot of effort and they don’t want to expel that much energy.
Describe phonological dyslexia
This happens when people can only understand words that they have seen before.
They cannot relate sounds and letters together
What is acquired dyslexia?
This is dyslexia that is a result of brain damage
Describe surface dyslexia
This happens when all words need to be sounded out. When they cannot say words properly that are spelt strangely.
In the brain, Verbs are represented more in the _____ whereas nouns are more in the _____.
- Front
2. Back
