SLHS 300 FINALLLLL

Brain

Controls thought, sesory perception, emotion, movement and bodily functions (breathing, hormones, heart rate, etc)

Spinal Cord

relays information between the brain and the body (like a highway for information)

Cerebrum

Largest part of the brain

Composed of left and right hemisphere

Responsible for integration of complex sensory and neural functions: touch, vision, hearing, language, reasoning, learning

Initiation and coordination of voluntary activity in the body

Cerebellum

“Little Brain”

Important for motor coordination and prediction

Right hemisphere controls

the left side of the body (contralateral control)

contralateral control

the left hemisphere is controlling he right side of the body and vis versa

Left Hemisphere functions

Language, verbal memory, symbolic thought, analytical reasoning

Right hemisphere functions

Non-verbal sounds, emotional thought, spatial ability, contect perception, number sequencing

Left Hemisphere function (LANGUAGE)

Speech, word-finding, grammar

Right Hemisphere function (language)

Discourse (coherence, informatively, topicality), metaphors, jokes, prosody

WADA Test

Used to determine which hemisphere is dominant for language

Looks at language and memory function on each side of the brain (one side at a time)

Administration of a drug (sodium amytal) in carotid artery makes one side of the brain inactive

Anterior

Towards the front

Posterior

Towards the back

Inferior

Towards the bottom

Superior

Towards the top

Lateral

Towards the side

Medial

Towards the middle

Sagital

A plane that divides the brain into left and right sections.

Transverse

A plane that divides the brain into upper and lower sections.

coronal

A plane that divides the brain into anterior and posterior sections.

Cerebral Cortex

The outermost layer of the brain, responsible for higher brain functions such as thought, perception, language, memory, attention and motor control

Neurons

Nerve cells in the brain that send and receive messages

Dendrite (cell fingers)

Receives messages from other neurons (where information comes in)

Cell Body (Soma)

Houses the neurons DNA and processes the signal from the dendrites

Axon

Transmits messages to other neurons

Gray matter

Outer surface layer of the brain

Consists mainly of neural cell bodies and dendrites

White matter

Found in deeper tissues of cortex (sub-cortex)

Connects different regions of grey matter

Composed mainly of axons going to the cortex or away from the cortex

Corpus callosum

Bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres

Allows the integration of sensory input and functional responses from both sides of the body

Gyrus (Gyri)

The ridges on the cerebral surface of the brain

Sulcus (sulci)

The grooves on the surface of the brain

Sylvian (lateral) Fissure

Grove separating the parietal and frontal lobe FROM the temporal

Central Sulcus

Groove separating the parietal and frontal love

Frontal Lobe

Complex cognitive processes such as planning, reasoning, and problem-solving (executive functions), plan and perform movements (motor control)

Parietal

Receive and process sensory information

Occipital

Process visual information

Temporal

Speech, auditory processing, language comprehension, emotional responses and memory

Brodmanns Area

Mapped out all the different structures of the brain based on anatomical features and cell type associated with specific functions, including sensory and motor control (cytoarchitectonics)

Localization Theory

Specific parts of the brain control different mental function

Holism Theory

Different mental functions are not localized in specific parts of the brain, rather the brain works as a whole and every part of the brain is involved with every cognitive function (need all of the brain, all the time to do anything)

Auditory Cortex

Located in Heschl’s gyrus (frontal lobe), responsible for early processing of sound in both the left and right hemispheres

Broca's area:

Located in the inferior frontal gyrus; responsible for language production, but has other hypothesized roles as well (i.e working memory)

Wernicke's area:

Located in the posterior superior temporal gyrus; responsible for language comprehension but also production

Middle Temporal Gyrus (MTG)

responsible for word meaning

Sylvian parietal temporal (SPT) area:

Responsible for sensory (auditory) motor integration 

Angular Gyrus

Responsible for converting visual stimuli into linguistic stimuli and vice versa 

Motor cortex

Controls speech organ

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Measures when brain activity occurs by recording electrical activity of the brain using sensors placed on the scalp (high temporal resolution)

EEG — N400 Component

A brain response associated with semantic processing and language comprehension

Occurs ~ 400 ms —> when expectations are violated, there is a big N400 response

EEG characteristics

Low spatial resolutions (no localization)

High Temporal resolution (tells when)

Sensitive to the strength of the signal

Sensitive to muscle movement (eyes, jaws, etc0

Relatively cheap

non-invasive

Intracranial EEG (iEEG)

Follows the same principles as EEG, but electrodes are placed DIRECTLY on the scalp

Higher temporal and spacial resolution than EEG (fast and lacalized)

Very invasive!!!!

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Shows structural anatomy of the brain by imaging the gray/white matter and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

Uses the magnetic properties of each tissue type to identify tissue in the brain

See where the brain damage is

What do MRIs show us

Used to study of diagnose brain damage, atrophy, neurodegenerative diseases, tumors, identify abnormalities, and relative size of brain structures in different populations 

Functional MRI (fMRI)

A type of MRI that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow (BOLD) —> determines which parts of the brain are active most (indirectly measures neural activity)

High spatial resolution but lower temporal resolution

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) characteristics

Has high spacial resolution 

Provides clear measures of brain characteristics and pathologies

Very expensive

Sensitive to changes in the magnetic field 

Sensitive to movement

Can be overwhelming for patients

2 structures are important for making connections in the brain

Corpus callosum, arcuate fasciculus

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Result from the brain hitting the skull or an object piercing the skull and entering the brain tissue

• Coup (initial impact)

• Contrcoup (secondary impact)

Stroke

A disruption in blood supply resulting in relatively focal death of brain cells

(ischemic stroke — blockage/clot)

(hemorrhagic stroke — bleeding from inside)

Ischemic stroke

Blockage/clot

Hemorrhagic Stroke

Bleeding from the inside

Aphasia

An ACQUIRED language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate

Left Hemisphere

Which side of the brain is correlated to Aphasia

Broca Aphasia

A type of non-fluent aphasia characterized by difficulty in speech production, while comprehension remains relatively intact

Impaired comprehension for some complex sentences and grammatical structures

Word finding difficulty

Wernickes Aphasia

A type of fluent aphasia where individuals have difficulty understanding language, leading to the production of nonsensical speech while their ability to speak in a fluent manner remains intact

Global Aphasia

non-fluent, impaired comprehension, impaired repetition of words/phrases

Transcortical Motor Aphasia

Nonfluent, relatively good comprehension , good repetition of words/phrases

Conduction Aphasia

Fluent, good comprehension, impaired repetition of words/phrases

Anomic Aphasia

Fluent, good comprehension, good repetition of words/phrases

Transcortical Sensory Aphasia

fluent, impaired comprehension, good repetition of words/phrases

Berko-Gleason Experiment

An experiment demonstrating children's understanding of grammatical morphology through nonsense words, revealing their ability to apply grammatical rules (proof that learning through imitation is false)

• Wug —> 2 wugs

Classification of aphasia

Fluency, comprehension, repetition

Critical Period from Language Acquisition

Humans have a predisposition for language acquisition that begins to dissipate around the age of puberty and falls of grammatically at the onset of adulthood

Statistical Learning

-the use of statistical regularities in language (co-occurrence of phonemes, morphemes and word boundaries) to acquire language

• Regular patterns used to apply to how language works

What are the two stages of language development?

prelinguistic and linguistic

Prelinguistic stage

BEFORE TALKING
What can kids do before they can talk?
Recognize sounds
Discriminate speech sounds
Segment speech
Identify patterns in their native language
Turn adults into mush!

true

Parents tend to correct meaning more than grammar

babbling

may be the fist stage of language acquisition

Noises drawn from set of possible human sounds

~6 months infants are able to better control the vocal tract and begin to produce a large variety of sounds

Single-word stage

• ~12 months – babies have begun to segment the continuous speech stream pick out some words, and use them

• Holophrastic sentences: one word to express a whole sentence/message 

  • Examples

    • “Up” → pick me up

    • “Uh-oh” → after an accidence 

    • “Dog” → naming

Two-word stage

• ~2 year old – children start to put words together 

  • Examples

    • Mommy sock

    • Doggy floor

    • Push truck 

• A variety of grammatical relationships between the two words:

  • Examples: person + possessive, object + location, action + object 

Telegraphic Stage

• First utterances longer than 2 words are all missing function words and morphemes:

  • What that?

  • He play little car

  • Andrew want that

  • No sit there

Consistent morphological order

1. Present progressive (-ing)

2. Prepositions in/on

3. ^^

4. Plurals -s

5. Irregular past tense (e.g said, ran0

HIGH FREQUENCY

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)

• Length is counted in morphemes, not words

  • Examples (how many morphemes?):

    • Doggy eat cookie (3)

    • Doggy eating cookie (4)

    • MLU = 3.5

Browns Stages of Language Development

uses MLU and age to determine whether a child is developing language typically

Primary Language Impairment

• Cannot be accounted for by any other known etiology (cause/origin of condition)

  • Primary disorder is language impairment → e.g Developmental Language Disorder

Secondary Language Impairment

Can be accounted for by another primary condition such as Autism, hearing impairment, general developmental difficulties, or neurological impairment (e.g stroke, aphasia, traumatic brain injury (TBI)) – Major problem is not language 

Developmental Language Disorder

Born with it

An umbrella term for children who display language problems in the presence of generally normal development

• 3 general classifications:

  • Expressive (issues producing)

  • Receptive (issues understanding)

  • Mixed (both expressive & receptive)

Acquired Language Disorder

Language problems that result from traumatic brain injury, stroke, or some other neurological condition 

Language Delay:

Similar pattern of growth as typically developing children but reaches a little later (‘normal’ but slower)

Language Deviance:

Growth pattern that differs from typically developing children (not ‘normal’ – something happens differently)

Speech Disorder

How we say sounds and words

• POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

  • Not say sounds clearly (articulation disorder) “r”

  • Have a hoarse or raspy voice (voice disorder) 

  • Repeat sounds or pause when speaking (stuttering)

Language Disorder

• Has to do with the words we use to share or understand ideas

• May show issues with:

  • Understanding 

  • Talking 

  • Reading

  • Writing 

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

child has a problem with language development that continues into school age and beyond (wide variety of issues)

Diagnosis

• The child has a language difficulties that create obstacles to communication or learning in everyday life

• The child's language problems are unlikely to resolve by five years of age

• The problems are not associated with a known condition  

Children with DLD have difficulties with…

• Categorical Perception

• Relative clause construction 

• Repetition and Word Learning

• Statistical learning

Aphasia — subtypes with different treatments

DLD — gets lumped together as a single unified disorder

Aphasia vs DLD

Dyslexia

• difficulties in learning to read that cannot be explained by some other impairment

• Treatment:

  • one size fits all approach (but causes are mixed — BAD)

WEIRD Sample

• Western (or White)

• Education (or English-Speaking)

• Industrialized

• Rich

• Democratic 

Universality

all have (essentially) the same mind inside of our head – function in same way 

• NOT TRUE (different background, genetics, age, fatigue, etc impact processing)