Chapter 2

Question 1

What is Psycholinguistics?

Answer 1

-Helps us understand how we do things that go into reading, writing, speaking, and understanding

Question 2

Why is the field of Psycholinguistics important?

Answer 2

-knowing where the breakdown is can help us figure out how to treat
-also can help us figure out alternate modalities to support other senses to bypass the breakdown (adding a picture to a word)

Question 3

Why is it important for us to know how the brain processes information?

Answer 3

-helps us problem solve and theorize why patients are making errors or what is happening in the brain

Question 4

Franz Joseph Gall

Answer 4

-started organology or later known as phrenology
-created idea of localization of function in the brain
-certain areas do certain jobs in the brain

Question 5

What does it mean to say that the brain processes information?

Answer 5

-neurons connected to each other to make pathways
-every experience, conscious or unconscious makes tiny changes in the strengths of synaptic connections
-brain plasticity: brain changing w/experience and strengthening connections
-regions of the brain are connections of neurons that communicate with each other

Question 6

Cortex of the Brain

Answer 6

language and critical thinking

Question 7

Lower Regions of the Brain

Answer 7

automatic functions like breathing

Question 8

How can a bunch of cells learn or know how to do something?

Answer 8

-when you remember how to do something, motor neurons are activated
-everything we do there is a neuron storing a memory
-imaginative techniques are necessary to help people form strong links between language and what they need to use language for

Question 9

Activation

Answer 9

-building up chemical changes inside a neuron to the point where it starts sending out signals to other neurons it is connected to
-becomes stimulated enough, activates and passes the stimulation on
-neurons are not always firing or activated

Question 10

Resting Level

Answer 10

-the state of a neuron when it is only receiving a few neurotransmitters stimulating the synapses of it’s dendrites to pass electrical signals toward the body

Question 11

Threshold Level

Answer 11

-where the neuron wakes up fully and passes on the activation
-need enough neurotransmitters to arouse or reach threshold level
-neurons vary in the amount of activation is needed to progress from resting to threshold

Question 12

Activation and Memory: Real World Learning

Answer 12

-Learning happens all the time conscious or unconscious
-all things going on in the brain at any instant are linked together.
-links are weak at first but strengthen with experience and strong emotion
-brains are indiscriminate and record all date in memory

Question 13

Corpus Callosum

Answer 13

-connection between left and right hemisphere of the brain structurally and functionally
-allows the hemispheres to transfer info within 40 milliseconds

Question 14

Lobes of Brain Hemsipheres

Answer 14

-frontal
-parietal
-occipital
-temporal

Question 15

Frontal Lobe

Answer 15

Broca’s area

Question 16

Temporal Lobe

Answer 16

Wernicke’s area

Question 17

Motor and Somatosensory Cortex

Answer 17

-control of articulators takes up more space in the brain than extremities because they require more coordination and fine-tuning of movement

Question 18

Spreading Activation

Answer 18

-multiple areas in the brain stimulated to carry out a task.
-association between a candle and the action of blowing is an example because motor areas are stimulated as well as visual areas

Question 19

Conduction Aphasia

Answer 19

-broken path from Wernicke’s to Broca’s (arcuate fasciculus)
-damage to fiber pathways cause disturbances in language even though language areas are intact

Question 20

CAT Scans & MRI

Answer 20

-can isolate brain areas that are affected in neurological disease with greater accuracy
-can see exact location of CVA
-can evaluate brain behavior relationships w/better accuracy

Question 21

Anterior Temporal Lobe

Answer 21

-role in language debated
-close to Wernicke’s area
-maybe a semantic hub (stores features and facts of things)

Question 22

Primary Progressive Aphasia

Answer 22

-a type of dementia that attacks language areas first instead of memory
-difficulty naming objects, comprehending words, and telling differences between things
-affects anterior temporal lobes on both sides of the brain

Question 23

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 23

-“My DOG is in the HOUSE.”
-Would only produce content words because broca’s area is affected
-no syntax or function words

Question 24

Anterior Superior Temporal Gyrus

Answer 24

-lesions here result in difficulty recognizing basic syntactic structures in sentences
-often impacted w/patients who have Broca’s Aphasia

Question 25

Apraxia of Speech

Answer 25

-difficulty w/coordinating articulatory movements -consistent symptom of Broca's aphasia

Question 26

Insula/Isle of Reil

Answer 26

-deep in brain, underneath Broca's area -consistently lesioned in people who have apraxia of speech -just this piece damaged = apraxia -other areas involved = additional problems

Question 27

Syndrome

Answer 27

-All symptoms put together

Question 28

Angular Gyrus

Answer 28

-in parietal lobe -integrates info from secondary areas in the sensory, visual, and auditory cortex -issues w/reading and spelling (have to pair visual letter w/stored info about the letter)

Question 29

What makes the connections between neurons?

Answer 29

-axons -cell body or other parts of a neuron may be healthy, but the axon is what carries the signal to the next -axons are susceptible to damage

Question 30

Arcuate Fasciculus

Answer 30

-fiber pathway that connects Wernicke's to Broca's area -connects all of the temporal and frontal lobe gyri together -more numerous connections from middle temporal gyrus to speech area -axons also travel front to back of the brain/ not just back to front

Question 31

Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus

Answer 31

-passes low in temporal lobe and runs entire length -connects short and long neurons

Question 32

Inferior occipital-frontal Fasciculus

Answer 32

-low in temporal lobe, but its long fibers also course into frontal (syntax), temporal (meaning), and occipital lobes togthers

Question 33

Middle Longitudinal Fasciculus

Answer 33

-runs through the superior temporal gyrus and up into angular gyrus in parietal lobe

Question 34

Hubs in the Brain

Answer 34

-key nodes of a network because they have more connections than other nodes -Broca's to Wernicke's -some particular well connected hubs of other networks forming a rich club may facilitate their integration of info from one network to another

Question 35

Does the Right Side of the Brain Participate in Language

Answer 35

-yes -lesions in right hemisphere result in difficulty understanding linguistic nuances like jokes, sarcasm, metaphors, interpreting emotions -deficits in pragmatics -right side of brain is activated first during language learning

Question 36

Top Down Processing

Answer 36

-using prior knowledge to make sense of things -using knowledge of the patterns of a language to help compensate for noise -expectation or imagination -relies on subconscious knowledge of our language

Question 37

Bottom Up Processing

Answer 37

-using sensory data to make sense of things -reality, what is actually on the page or in the sound waves -used if we can't rely on top-down: focus on letters on the page or the sound waves hitting our eardrum

Question 38

Prediction and Language

Answer 38

-brain integrates new info and used old info to predict and understand the new information -we have many ways of dealing w/bulk info including prediction -we learn what sounds and words are likely or unlikely to be what we hear or see in the next instant of listening or reading -we learn the patterns of our language -children look for patterns to understand data in language learning

Question 39

How we learn language patterns?

Answer 39

-language innateness: built into human minds genetically -extraordinary ability to respond to and extract the patterns that are present in the thousands of examples we hear -learn patterns of sounds, constructions, and probable sequences of words

Question 40

Using our knowledge of language patterns in conversation

Answer 40

-use the parts we did hear or read to predict to compensate for missing or distorted info -can prepare our response before others are finished speaking -use fillers to allow more time to plan what to say next