CHAPTER 13

1

Language and the Brain

Neurolinguistics 2

The relationship between language and the brain.

Where is language located in the brain? How it all started? 1848: discovery of language ability is located in

the left part of the brain Construction foreman Phineas P.Gage

Parts of the brain 3

Parts of the brain that are related to language functions are in the areas above the left ear.

Brain stem: connects the brain to the spinal cord

Corpus callosum: connects the two hemispheres

Left hemisphere

Right hemisphere

Parts of the brain4

Parts of the brain5

Two halves: left and right hemisphere

Parts of the brain6

Parts of the brain7

Parts of the brain8

(1) Broca’s area Anterior speech cortex named after the 19th century physician Paul

Broca who reported that damage in this area was related to difficulty in speech production.

(2) Wernicke’s area Posterior speech cortex named after Karl Wernicke, a German neurologist

and psychiatrist who, in 1874, discovered that damage to this area could cause speech comprehension difficulties.

Parts of the brain9

(3) Motor cortex: Controls the movement of the muscles (for

moving hands, feet, arms, etc. as well as muscles of the face, jaw, tongue, and larynx.

Involved in the physical articulation of speech Two neurosurgeons: Penfield and Roberts (1959)

(4) Arcuate Fasciculus A bundle of nerve fiber Wernicke’s discovery Connection between Broac’s area and Wernicke’s

area

The Localization View10

The Localization View11

Specific aspects of language ability can be accorded to specific locations in the brain

Wernicke’s area arcuate fasciculus Broca’s area motor cortex

Depend on indirect methods Tip of the tongue Slips of the tongue and ear Aphasia Dichotic listening The critical period

Tip of the Tongue12

When we feel that some words are eluding us, we know the word but it just won’t come out

Initial sound, number of syllables, phonological information

‘Word storage’ system maybe partially organized on some phonological basis

Malapropism 13

A malapropism is the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with different meaning, usually with comic effect.

Named after Malaprop (in a play by Sheridan)

Examples:"Eastern and Specific Time." (i.e "Pacific") "I resemble that remark!" (i.e. resent) "Yeah, I super-size with you." (i.e. sympathize)

Slips of the tongue 14

Spoonerisms: the interchange of two sounds. Named after William Spooner.

‘You have hissed all my mystery lessons.’ A long shory stort (a long story short) A fifty-pound dog of bag food Black bloxes Tup of tea

Not random- indicate different stages of linguistic expression

Slips of the ear15

How the brain makes sense of auditory signals.

great ape instead grey tape

Gladly the cross I’d bear

Aphasia16

An impairment of language function because of localized brain damage

Leads to difficulty in understanding and /or producing linguistic forms.

Caused by a stroke or accident.

Depending on the area and extent of the damage May be able to speak but not write, or vice versa Other deficiencies in language comprehension

and production, such as being able to sing but not speak.

Broca’s aphasia17

A.K.A “motor aphasia”

Involves damage to the front part of the left hemisphere

Comprehension is better.

Broca’s aphasia

Characteristics:

Speech output is severely reduced to short utterances of a few words.

Consists of lexical morphemes (nouns, verbs) Lack of syntax and diminished morphology

(agrammatic) Distorted and slow articulation May understand speech relatively well and be

able to read, but be limited in writing.

18

Broca’s aphasia19

I eggs and eat and drink coffee breakfastAh ... Monday ... ah, Dad and Paul Haney [himself]

and Dad ... hospital. Two ... ah, doctors ... and ah ... thirty minutes ... and yes ... ah ... hospital.  And, er, Wednesday ... nine o'clock. And er Thursday, ten o'clock ... doctors. Two doctors ... and ah ... teeth. Yeah, ... fine.

M.E. Cinderella ... poor ... um 'dopted her ... scrubbed floor, um, tidy ... poor, um ... 'dopted ... Si-sisters and mother ... ball. Ball, prince um, shoe ...

Examiner. Keep going.M.E. Scrubbed and uh washed and un...tidy, uh,

sisters and mother, prince, no, prince, yes. Cinderella hooked prince. (Laughs.) Um, um, shoes, um, twelve o'clock ball, finished.

Wernicke’s aphasia20

A.k.A “sensory aphasia”

Difficulty in auditory comprehension, but sometimes fluent speech

Wernicke’s aphasia

Characteristics

Inability to grasp the meaning of spoken words Easy production of connected speech Normally-intoned stream of grammatical

markers, pronouns, prepositions, articles, and auxiliaries

Difficulty in finding correct content words, especially nouns (anomia)

Reading and writing are often severely impaired

21

Wernicke’s aphasia22

Examiner. What kind of work have you done?-- We, the kids, all of us, and I, we were working for

a long time in the... You know... it's the kind of space, I mean place rear to the spedawn...

Examiner. Excuse me, but I wanted to know what kind of work you have been doing.

-- If you had said that, we had said that, poomer, near the fortunate, porpunate, tamppoo, all around the fourth of martz. Oh, I get all confused.

Conduction Aphasia23

Results by the damage to the Arcuate Fasciculus .

Characteristics:

Good language comprehension- Wernicke's area is intact.

Connections between Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas have been impaired- patients are unable to repeat what they hear.

Their spontaneous speech is often like that of Wernicke's aphasics.

Oral reading is poor, but auditory comprehension is good.

Dichotic Listening24

Dichotic Listening25

Right ear advantageThe right hemisphere

non-verbal sounds (music, coughs, traffic noises, bird singing) and all non-language sounds (among other things)

Holistic processing

Left hemisphere language sounds Analytical processing (recognizing sounds, words,

and sentences)

The Critical Period26

The specialization of the left hemisphere for language is described as lateral dominance or lateralization

Proposed by Lenneberg

This hypothesis states that there is a period where the human brain is most ready to receive input and learn a language

If a child is denied language input, she/he will not acquire language

From birth to puberty

Genie27

A girl discovered in 1970 at age 13 who had not acquired her L1

Spent her life in a state of physical, sensory, social, and emotional deprivation.

Unable to speakStarted to imitate sounds, but couldn’t produce

grammatically complex speech.She was using the right hemisphere: in dichotic

listening she showed ‘left ear advantage’