language and speech

why is it easier for children to learn a new language earlier in life

it is the critical period 4 learning beofre puberty, they learn through statistical learning, the probability of certain sounds being put together, emphasis on a certain syallable is typically the same in that language

describe the anatomical sturctures of speech and language

larynx = the voice box which contains vocal folds/chords which are muscles that change shape to change sound through vibration and air passing through them, the sounds can be further refined by the tongues, lips and mouth, which is all controlled by the cortex, articulation is altered by tongue, lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, soft palate, hard palate and velum/uvula

describe the process of speech

speech needs air and vocal chords to vibrate air, the pitch of the air is dependent on the vocal cords, elongated and tension = faster and higher pitch, shorted and relaxtion = slower vibration and lower pitch, speed of air moving through glottis = loudness, vocal chords close when we swallow, but open wide when we are breathing and vibrate when we speak

broca aphasia

paul broca = patients with damage to left frontal lobe = impaired language, also called motor non-fluent and expressive aphasia, they loose the ability to produce language but can understand fine, doesn’t produce fluent or grammatical speech

wernicke’s aphasia

fluent aphasia, patient’s cant comprehend language, and they just produce meaningless language, damage to left hemisphere of temporal lobe

conduction aphasia

damage to connecting to broca’s and wernicke’s area, they can understand language and speak well but have trouble repeating spoken words

describe the wernicke -geschwind model

repeating spoken words works through first processing sound through auditory system, then words are understood as meaningful in the wernicke’s area and then signals about the word are sent to the broca’s area through arcuate fasicuculus, then broca’s area codes signal into muscle movements for speech and then is sent to motor cortex

reading writtenw rods, first text is visualized in the visual system and then a signal is sent to angular gyrus where text is made into words, and processed in wernicke’s area as meaningful, then broca’s area then motor cortex to make speech through muscle

describe language being processed in the left hemisphere

language = processed in left hemisphere, planum temporale, on temporal lobe is bigger on the left side than the right side, and the insula size = correlates with language dominance

language disorders

dyslexia - trouble learning to read normal intelligence (KIAAO319 - neuron migration during dev)

verbal dyspraxia - impairment in coordination of muscle movements to produce speech - mutation in foxp2 mutation, which regulates gene expression, and underdev of motor cortex, cerebellum and striatum

specific language impairment - developmental delay in learning a language that can go into adulthood, FOXP2, KIAAO319, CNTNAP2