Week 7: What are the Neural Bases of Language Flashcards

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1
Q

Why did Broca do tests?

A

To see if functioning was paired or impaired

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2
Q

What is a Post-mortem analysis?

A

Used to observe brains when patient dies

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3
Q

What did Broca find?

A

There is large lesion in an area that sits in the frontal area of the brain on the left-hand side (left-hemisphere).

We NOW call this the aethereal/posterior frontal gyrus

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4
Q

What is a lesion?

A

An area of tissue that has been damaged through injury or disease

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5
Q

Where is language localised?

A

In a specific area of the left hemisphere:

  • Broca’s area
  • Wernicke’s area

There is more than one language area

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6
Q

What does localised mean?

A

A restrict (something) to a particular place or part of the body.

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7
Q

What did Wernicke do?

A

• Wernicke worked with patients who had = impairments in speech comprehension

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8
Q

If you have impairments in speech comprehension, where was this localised?

A

Found lesion in left temporal lobe

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9
Q

What did Lichtheim do?

A

He worked with patients who has impairments in repeating words

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10
Q

If you had impairments in repeating words, where was the lesion located?

A

lesion in the area that CONNECTS Broca’s and Wernicke’s area

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11
Q

What does Wernicke-Geschwind model argue?

A

That language networking involves multiple networking

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12
Q

What does Wernicke-Geschwind model say about how language networks?

A
  1. Comprehension is extracted from sounds in Wernicke’s area…
  2. And is passed over the arcuate fasciculus pathway…
  3. To Broca’s area to be translated as speech
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13
Q

What is Aphasia?

A

A language disorder caused by = damage in a specific area that control language expression and comprehension

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14
Q

How can aphasia be caused?

A

Stroke around the middle cerebral artery

  • Affects ability to comprehend, repeat or produce language
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15
Q

How does aphasia affect primary impairments to the language system?

A
  • Can affect speech
  • Can affect reading (alexia)
  • Can affect writing (agraphia)
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16
Q

What is a syndrome?

A

A set of symptoms that tend to co-occur

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17
Q

What is fluent aphasia?

A

Speech production is fluent BUT what they say makes no sense!

So there are problems in speech comprehension

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18
Q

Types of fluent aphasia?

A
  • Wernicke’s Aphasia
  • Conduction Aphasia
  • Transcortical sensory (isolation)
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19
Q

What is Wernicke’s Aphasia (Fluent)?

A

Lesion to the temporal lobe (left-hemisphere dominance)

There are limitations of precise localisation

difficulty in auditory comprehension

  • difficulty in repeating back
  • Patient hears sounds but not to attach meaning to them
  • They can speak but speech DOES NOT make sense
  • Use of neologisms – made up words = Jargon aphasia
  • Patients can be oblivious to their errors
20
Q

What is auditory comprehension?

A

Understanding what we hear AND what we say

21
Q

What is Conduction Aphasia (Fluent

A

Lesion to the accurate fasciculus (Pathways that connect Broca’s AND Wernicke’s areas).

  • Problem with repetition
  • Some problems with speech production
  • Unlike some Wernicke’s aphasic patients, they can monitor their speech (aware of their errors)
  • Conduit d’approche = After a few attempts, patients produce the right word
  • Good comprehension
22
Q

What is non-fluent aphasia?

A

They understand what is being said to them BUT their speech production is non-fluent

So there are problems in producing speech

23
Q

Types of non-fluent aphasia?

A
  • Broca’s Aphasia
  • Global Aphasia
  • Transcortical motor
24
Q

What is Broca’s Aphasia (Non-Fluent)?

A

Often caused by a stroke

Sometimes patients have lesions that go beyond Broca’s area= (frontal lobe – part of the inferior frontal gyrus in the left-hemipshere)

25
Q

What happens if you have Broca’s Aphasia (Non-Fluent)?

A
  • Difficult to plan and organise spontaneous speech (effortful speech)
  • This aphasia affects adjacent motor areas = Often associated with paralysis of the right upper limb AND buccofacial apraxia (difficulty in moving mouth and face)
  • Telegraphic speech due to agrammatism
  • Agrammatism = Difficulty in using syntax
  • Syntax production can be impaired differently in different patients
  • Patients show fewer difficulty when they are not required to spontaneously initiate speech
26
Q

What is Transcortical sensory Aphasia (isolation)

(TSCA) FLUENT?

A
  • Disorder of comprehension
  • Production is filled with neologisms
  • Lesions near junction of temporal, parietal and occipital lobes
27
Q

What is Transcortical Motor Aphasia (TCMA)

NON-FLUENT?

A
  • Difficulties in initiating speech
  • Good comprehension
  • Generally associated with dorsolateral prefrontal regions, often overlap with Broca’s area
28
Q

What are the two main pathways for language?

A

Dorsal Pathway

Ventral Pathway

29
Q

What is Dorsal pathway?

A
  • Mostly associated with production and articulation of speech
  • This is on top of the brain
30
Q

What is Ventral pathway?

A
  • Mostly associated with comprehension and semantics
  • This is on bottom of the brain
  • V POINTS DOWN = Bottom of brain (VENTRAL)
31
Q

How does the dorsal pathway help in language?

A

Auditory-to-motor mapping =
The association between sounds and articulatory actions with the goal of facilitating speech output

  • Important for speech repetition
  • Accurate fasciculus = Key role by connecting Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, which helps produce and understand language
32
Q

How does the ventral pathway help in language?

A

Ventral pathway helps language by:

Mapping sound into meaning =
This is semantic processing

Semantic processing = Encoding the meaning of a word and relate it to similar words with similar meaning.

33
Q

What is an event related potentional?

A

An event-related potential are scalp recorded voltage fluctuations that are time-locked to an event.

34
Q

Types of Event-Related Potentials?

A

 N400
 LAN
 P600

35
Q

What is n400?

A
  • N suggests it is negative
  • 400 tells us about the latency

Latency = The time it takes for data to pass from one point on a network to another.

• N400 refers to a negativity peaking at about 400 milliseconds after stimulus onset

Stimulus onset = (the amount of time between start one on stimulus and the start of another stimulus)

Kutas & Hilyard (1980) first reported = N400 is involved in semantic processing

E.g.: “He spread the warm bread with…”

Butter
Socks

If you said socks = This a semantically unexpected word which produces a decrease in the signal of the EEG around 400ms after the word

Negativity is plotted upwards

primarily a semantic ERP NEGATIVE

36
Q

What is LAN?

A
  • LAN = Left anterior negativity
  • 500ms

LAN = Involved in detecting a syntactic irregularity / syntactic violation

E.g. Violating the grammar, “She was writing a books”

  • Syntactic violations produce a decrease in the EEG signal around 300-500ms after stimulus onset
  • Depending on the violation the ms can vary

primarily a syntactic ERP NEGATIVE

37
Q

What is P600?

A
  • P suggests it is positive
  • 600-800ms
  • P600 is associated with the processing of grammatical anomalies
  • This is a syntactic component
  • Studies have found it outside of language (E.g. Patel et al (1998) in music; Lelekov et al (2000) in maths)
  • Violations produces an increase in the EEG signal 600-800ms after stimulus onset (positive is downward)

primarily a syntactic ERP POSITIVE

38
Q

Can the brain respond specifically to language stimuli from birth?

A

newborns can differentiate speech AND non-speech

Newborns showed an increase activation in the left-hemisphere

Pena et al. (2003) study

39
Q

What did Gervain use to detect brain activation for repeated syllables?

A

NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy)

40
Q

Can newborn brains detect certain irregularities in language input?

A

Yes

Gervain found this!

41
Q

What area of the brain responds to adjacent syllables?

A

Left temporal and frontal areas responded more to adjacent syllables E.g.: “mubaba” “penana”

42
Q

What age can babies associate novel words to objects?

A

3 months

They dont remember the association the next day

Friedrich & Friederici (2015)

43
Q

What can babies do by the end of the first year?

A

Babies can discriminate familiar AND unfamiliar words

Thierry et al., (2003); Mils et al., 2004 study

44
Q

What does the developmental disorder do?

A

Affects the domain of language processing, with unaffected intelligence, affective processes and auditory abilities

45
Q

• Friederici (2004) said = Children at (genetic) risk show decreased responses in what?

A
  • Phonological processing
  • Semantic (depicted) processing
  • Syntactic processing