PSYC 125: Language/Aphasia

language processing areas

* primary auditory cortex
* wernicke’s area
* broca’s area
* arcuate fasiculus
* supramargrinal gyrus
* angular gyrus

where is the primary auditory cortex located

superior temporal gyrus

primary auditory cortex

* receptive neurons segregate info into signals coming in
* tonotopic organization
* heschl’s gyrus (broadmann’s area 41)

wernicke’s area

* posterior part of superior temporal gyrus
* secondary auditory cortex

broca’s area

* 3rd frontal convolution of left inferior frontal gyrus
* not motor area but where language is generated

lesion to broca’s area does NOT

make you unable to move your mouth

arcuate fasiculus

connective fibers btwn wernicke & broca areas

supramagrinal gyrus

integrate visual and spatial info from occipital and parietal lobes w/ auditory info

angular gyrus

* integrates other info
* plays role in reading comprehension by matching sounds to words
* reading & writing

right hemisphere lesions

problem with interpreting tone

left hemisphere specialization

* major player
* comprehension
* production
* meaning

right hemisphere lateralization

* emotion in language
* prosody

domains of language

* spontaneous speech
* repetition
* speech comprehension
* naming
* reading
* writing

aphasia

disturbance of language usage or comprehension

what is aphasia NOT due to?

motor dysfunction of mouth/vocal cords (that is dysarthria)

what is aphasia most frequently caused by?

stroke

when is broca’s aphasia more severe?

if lesion is closer to ventricles

what is broca’s aphasia also known as

expressive/nonfluent aphasia

what is the main deficit in broca’s aphasia

speech production

what occurs in speech for a person with broca’s aphasia?

speech is effortful, hesitant, and dysarthric

what is wernicke’s aphasia also known as

receptive aphasia, fluent aphasia

what is the main deficit in wernicke’s aphasia

language comprehension

what happens to speech in wernicke’s aphasia?

speech is fluent but not in proper grammatical form, word meaning is lost

do patients realize that they are not making sense in wernicke’s aphasia?

no

what are signs of conduction aphasia

* impaired repetition
* hesitations and word-finding pauses
* intact reading abilities
* damage to arcuate fasiculus

features of global aphasia

* decrease in language function in multiple domains
* widespread deficits
* damage in perisylvian regions
* MCA blockage

motor transcortical aphasia

* broca-like disturbed spontaneous speech
* good repetition, comprehension
* disruption btwn conceptual word representations and motor speech output

where is the lesion for motor transcortical aphasia

white matter tracts connecting broca’s area to parietal lobe

sensory transcortical aphasia

* wernicke-like impairments in word comprehension
* good repetition
* normal recognition of auditory words but no activation of meaning
* reading/writing affected

where is the lesion for sensory transcortical aphasia

disruption of white matter tracts btwn parietal and temporal lobes, or angular gyrus regions

features of anomia

* impaired single word production (everyday nouns)
* repetition and comprehension intact
* impaired storage or access to lexical info

where is the damage in anomia

inferior parietal lobe or perisylvian region. also seen in dementia

what is circumlocutory

speaking around the word, such as saying “clothing you pt your legs into” when trying to say pants

what is paraphasia

misspoken word

what is phonemic paraphasia

substituting similar sounding word/syllable

* subbing bleaver for beaver

what is semantic paraphasia

substituting word with similar context

* subbing orange for apple

features of boston diagnostic aphasia exam

* 2 part test: free speech & formal testing
* 90-120 min

features of boston naming test

* ability to name pictured objects
* 10-20 min

features of controlled oral word association

* test of fluency
* name words that begin with a letter or fit a category
* 5-10 min

features of token test

* standardized
* follow instructions like “pick up circle then touch the cross”

features of peabody picture vocab test

* hearing vocab in children, now standardized in adults and clinical pops
* 10-20 min