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Neuroscience > Week 10: Language > Flashcards

Week 10: Language Flashcards

1
Q

What is language?

A

▪Sharing of ideas through symbols
▪Cultural evolution
▪Not just speech
▪Subject to (grammatical) rules
▪Unique to humans?

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2
Q

Can chimpanzees be taught language?

A

▪ Attempts to teach speech/sounds (Gua and Viki projects) unsuccessful
▪ Larynx higher and closer to mouth
▪ Restricts possible range of sounds
▪ Gestures may be used in a more sophisticated way
Study in Twycross zoo indicates they imitate and learn from each other

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3
Q

Can they be taught sign language?

A
  • Washoe (1965-2007): wild chimpanzee captured for use in the US space program
  • First chimpanzee to learn ASL
    • Taught some to her son
    • Combined signs into novel combinations in response to her environment when there wasn’t an equivalent known sign e.g. signing “water” and “bird” upon seeing a swan
  • Whether these are truly combined for a single meaning or consecutive is contentious (e.g. did they mix the words to creatively say swan? Or did he just see a bird and water?)
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4
Q

How many signs Washoe

A

Learn ~350 sign

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5
Q

Interpretations on Washoe and mates

A
  • Emotion/empathy
    • When she was told about one of the keepers taking time off work for a personal loss, Washoe signed “cry” by running a finger down her cheek (chimpanzees do not produce tears)
    • Self-awareness
    • When presented with a mirror and asked what she could see, she responded “me, Washoe”

However has not been replicated successfully…

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6
Q

Most of our understanding about language (speech) comes from observing brain injuries…

A

E.g. Broca & Tan, his patient

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7
Q

Lateralisation: What side is language? For what percentage of people?

A

▪ Language is (mostly) lateralised

▪ Left is dominant for speech in 90% of population

▪ Right side dominant in 27% of left-handed people and 15% ambidextrous but only 4% righthanded people

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8
Q

A combination of hemispheres

A

▪ The opposite (usually right) plays an important role in speech and language

▪ Perception, memories, etc

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9
Q

Split brain recap

A

▪ Surgical cutting of the corpus callosum

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10
Q

Communication

A

▪ Language production requires multiple factors
▪ Something to communicate
* Perception, Memory, Story
▪ Sensory input(s)
▪ Muscular movement
➢ So multiple brain regions implicated

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11
Q

Broca’s area

A

Important to language production

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12
Q

Wernicke’s area

A

Important in language comprehension

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13
Q

Angular gyrus

A
  • Angular gyrus - helps interpret sounds & visual cues
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14
Q

Language: primary motor cortex

A

Also fine motor skills

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15
Q

Auditory and visual cortex

A

sends info to the Wernickes area to help with comprehension

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16
Q

Wernicke-Geschwind model:

A

Wernicke-Geschwind model involves these areas:
- Primary auditory cortex (1stly signals here sent to Wernicke’s)
- Arcuate fasiculus then sends signal to Broca’s area
- Primary motor cortex next to generate response

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17
Q

Wernicke-Geschwind model: (video notes)

A
  • Highly localised language in left hemisphere
    • Motor theory of lateralisation theory: left hemisphere controls fine movements such as those required to produce speech
    • Broca’s area - links to motor functions associated with speech production (damage = impaired speech)
      Wernicke’s area - responsible for the understanding of language (damage = impaired ability to understand language)
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18
Q

Wernicke-Geschwind model involves these areas: When reading aloud

A
  • info sent to primary visual cortex
    - Then to angular gyrus for auditory signal
    - Wernicke’s area next for comprehension
    (then it follows the same path already outlined:)
    - Primary auditory cortex (1stly signals here sent to Wernicke’s)
    - Arcuate fasiculus then sends signal to Broca’s area
    Primary motor cortex next to generate response
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19
Q

Facial movement

A

▪ Cranial nerve:
▪ V (trigeminal),
▪ VII (facial),
▪ VIII (vestibulocochlear),
▪ IX (glossopharyngeal),
▪ X (vagus), and
▪ XII (hypoglossal)

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20
Q

Describing consonants: Voicing

A

(vibration = it is voiced., e.g. ‘z’)

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21
Q

Place of articulation

A

involves a constriction of air flow (bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal)

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22
Q

Manner of articulation

A

involves how the airflow is constricted (stop, fricative)

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23
Q

Language comprehension

A

▪ The brain works like a dictionary (the words are first sensed)
▪ Audio and visual

 ▪ Memories associated with words are activated (via posterior language area)  ▪ Language also includes more complex, abstract meaning like metaphors
24
Q

Metaphors

A

▪ Comprehension likely involves more of right hemisphere

“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”

	* Experimental research suggests right superior temporal cortex 

	* Transcranial magnetic stimulation impaired ability to infer meaning of novel metaphors  * Supported by fMRI studies
25
Bilingualism
▪Majority of people in the world are bilingual or multilingual ▪Different languages are processed by different areas of the brain (tested on bilingual people just about to undergo surgery) * Some overlapping * Primary or secondary language specific regions
26
Benefits of bilingualism
- Learning language in childhood easier due to plasticity - Higher density of neurones when learning language - Can delay the onset of dementia/ altzimers Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - involved in problem solving & executive function
27
Voice recognition: Prosody
(prosodic cues) ▪ Intonation and emphasis to convey meaning
28
Voice recognition
▪Speech conveys information beyond the meaning of the words ▪E.g., age and gender ▪Specific voices of individuals
29
Phonoagnosia
can't recognise voices Accent, intonation, etc
30
Aphasia
▪ Loss or impairment of language comprehension or production ▪ Difficulties in language function not always attributable to impairment of the speech or writing production apparatus (muscles of the tongue and throat, or peripheral sensory loss) ▪ Also damage to brain centres moderating language functions
31
Forms of Aphasia: Broca's
* Non-fluent (where as the rest of the types are fluent) * "content" words are still used (e.g., nouns, verbs) * "function" words are more difficult (e.g., a, the, in) - Can use phrases such as 'yes' and 'no' - Can use curse words (often due to frustration) - Can use non-language emotional expression They may also represent the language contribution of the right hemisphere
32
Conduction aphasia
Cannot repeat words, particularly non-words
33
Wernicke’s aphasia
Fluent but cannot understand
34
Anomic aphasia
Patients can't name specific objects (but can use other words to describe objects)
35
Broca 1861-1865: Patient Tan
* Cavity left frontal lobe filled with fluid * Patient can comprehend but not express speech * Speech is associated with left hemisphere
36
Broca’s or non-fluent aphasia: damage to what region?
▪ Damage to the inferior left frontal lobe and underlying subcortical white matter ▪ Comprehension of speech is intact ▪ Speech is slow, non fluent, costs effort
37
Other aspects of broca's aphasia
- Left frontal lobe: usually right sided hemiplegia (total paralysis limbs and trunk usually due to stroke) - Spiralises of function Damage to motor central areas of the left hemisphere results in extreme motor impairment: poor writing
38
Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Test: (example of Broca's aphasia
‘kid…kk…can…candy…cookie….candy… well I don’t know but it’s writ…easy does it… slam….early…fall…men…many no…girl. Dishes…soap…soap…water… water… falling pah that’s all..dish..that’s all. Cookies..can…candy..cookies cookies..he…down..That’s all. Girl..slipping water..water..and it hurts..
39
3 speech deficits of Broca's
Agrammatism Anomia Articulation problems
40
Agrammatism
difficulty in use of grammatical constructions (e.g.,-ed, have) but also word order to decode sentence
41
Anomia
Word-finding difficulties (function words)
42
Articulation problems
Mispronunciations, often alter the sequence of sounds
43
Conduction aphasia
▪ Characterised by meaningful fluent speech and comprehension, but poor repetition ▪ Extreme difficulties repeating lists of words (although related words may be repeated) ▪ May replace word they are asked to repeat with another with the same meaning
44
Conduction aphasia: cause
Caused by damage to pathway between Broca and Wernicke area responsible for conveying sound – arcuate fasciculus ▪ Instead, use second pathway which conveys meaning * Hearing sentence evokes imagery, which allows individual to describe the meaning but using different words § Arcuate fasciculus damage = inability to repeat non-words Fusion between legions
45
Reading: Requirements to be diagnosed with aphasia
Caused by brain damage: e.g. cannot be aphasia if can't speak due to being deaf Relatively isolated; must be able to understand that something is attempted to be communicated, and aware of env
46
Reading: Broca's aphasia: region of damage
Left frontal lobe (speech production) Can alternatively use sign language
47
Reading: Wernicke's aphasia: Brain region
left temporal gyrus (comprehension deficit) Struggle to comprehend signs too, so sign lang may not be effective
48
Lateralisation: Where do most language deficits occur?
On the left side of the brain, whether people are left or right handed
49
What % of population is the left side dominant for lang?
90%
50
Kneche et al (2000) found what? Right handed? Ambidextrius? Left handed?
right hemisphere speech dominance was seen in: 4% of right handed people; 15% of ambidextrious people; 27% of left handed people
51
Reading: Split brain operation
- Cutting corpus collosum - Cannot exchange info from hemispheres e.g. putting down a book with the left hand, even if they had been reading it with interest (bcus the right hemisphere, controlling the left hand, can't read = boring)
52
Reading: Lang production: Deciding what to talk about involves what?
When deciding what to discuss, if the event happened in the past it will come from posterior parts of the hemispheres (occipital, temporal and peripheral lobes - & prefrontal cortex)
53
Language comprehension: 2 types of entries?
auditory and visual Like a dictionary, can look up the word according to how it sounds
54
Lang comprehension: Where is sound taken in?
- Wenicke's area (in the auditory association cortex of left hemisphere) takes in the sounds - Is possible to produce speech with wernicke's damage, but does not make sense to the listener often Memories associated with the word are activated!!
55
Where do we comprehend metaphors?
Superior temporal cortex (although research found new metaphors were processed here, if damaged, previously known metaphors could be understood. With damage, new metaphors were not understood.)

Neuroscience (22 decks)

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