Class 15: Language and the Brain

LING 1010 Flashcards!

Gyrus

A ridge of the cerebral cortex. Plural: gyri. Also called a convolution

Sulcus

A furrow (valley) of the cerebral cortex. Plural: sulci. Also called a fissure, especially for the major sulci

Central Sulcus

Separates the frontal and parietal lobes

Lateral (Sylvian Fissures)

Separates the temporal lobe from frontal and parietal lobes

Naming Gyri and Sulci

Directions: superior, medial, inferior, anterior, posterior

Lobes: frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital

Examples: superior temporal gyrus, medial temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus

The cerebrum is organized into 2 hemispheres known as…

Left and Right

What fissure separates the left and right hemisphere of the brain?

Medial Longitudinal Fissure

In ~95% of right-handed people language function is lateralized in…

The left hemisphere

Among left-handed people language function is…

More symmetrical

Aphasia

The medical term for the inability (or impaired ability) to understand or produce speech as a result of a brain disease or damage.

Different linguistic impairments have been found to correspond to differences in what areas in the brain are affected. This suggests that different areas of the brain are associated with different linguistic capacities.

Brains areas are located…

In the dominant hemisphere, typically the left hemisphere

Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG)

Broca’s Area

Posterior Superior Temporal Gyrus (pSTG)

Wernicke’s Area

Temporal Lobe

A brain area as well

What does Broca’s area help with in linguistics?

Syntax and Morphology

What does Wernicke’s area help with in linguistics?

Phonology

What does the Temporal Lobe help with in linguistics?

Morphology/Lexicon

Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880)

A French Physician who studied 2 cases that led him to the idea that brain function is localized

Leborgne produced only…

The syllable ‘tan’

Lelong produced only…

The French words for yes, no, always, three, and ‘Lelo’

Broca’s Conclusion

After the deaths of the patients, Broca discovered that both patients had brain lesions in the same area, the left inferior frontal gyrus (lIFG), whcih is Broca’s Area

Broca’s Aphasia

• A disorder associated with damage to Broca’s area.

• Characterized by two deficits: production is impaired and non-fluent. The individual’s speech typically lacks function words (auxiliaries, determiners, and inflectional affixes)

• Comprehension is poor for syntactically complex sentences. In SVO languages like English, any divergence from basic SVO order can confuse the individual

• Analyzed as an impairment of structure building in syntax and morphology

Carl Wernicke (1848-1905)

A German physician inspired by Broca to study language disorders. He encountered several patients with language impairments with different symptoms from Broca’s patients. He autopsied these patients’ brains after their deaths to see what pathology caused the symptoms.

Wernicke’s Conclusion

Found his patients had damage in the posteiror superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) now known as Wernicke’s area

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Disorder associated with damage to Wernicke’s area

Sumptoms associated are…

• Patients are often able to produce grammatical sentences but these sentences don’t make sense

• It appears that the words selected are not intended. The sentences include invented (nonsense) words

• Comprehension is totally impaired. No understanding of what is being seized

Wernicke’s Aphasia has been analyzed as…

An impairment of phonological speech processing: the ability to map sounds to meaning (comprehension) is disrupted. This also regards to the monitoring of one’s own speech

Anomia

A disorder that involves an inability to find the words for certain kinds of objects. The term itself means no+names

Unlike Wernicke’s aphasia, these patients are able to understand what’s spoken to them

They succeed in word repetition tasks too

Anomia results from various lesion sites in the temporal lobe

Aphasia and Lexicon: Anomia

• This suggests to researchers that entries in the mental lexicon are localized at different points throughout the temporal lobe

• Corina et al. (2010) implanted electrodes in patients’ brains before surgery to treat epilepsy. To locate “essential language areas” for preservation, they induced temporary anomia by activating these electrodes.

• The most difficulties with naming were associated wirh the middle and posterior medial temporal gyrus (mMTG and pMTG)