Language

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

• A system for representing, communicating information about the world using symbols and rules

Question 2

Describe the language groups

Answer 2

On image

Question 3

What are the 5 functional components of language

Answer 3

1. ARTICULATION (phonetics)
   a. Movement of the tongue, lips and jaw to modify a sound wave
   b. Classified by place of articulation
   c. Labial
   d. Alveolar
   e. Palatal
   f. …and by manner of articulation
   g. Voiced vs. unvoiced
   h. Fricative, plosive etc.
2. PHONOLOGY (fəʊˈnɒləʤi)
   a. The sound combinations from which the syllables and words of a language are built up
   b. ‘Legal’ phonological structure varies across languages
   c. The International phonetic alphabet (IPA) is used as a common notation
3. MEANING (semantics)
   a. The representation in long term memory of concepts and the relations between them
   b. Actions, objects, properties -> verbs, nouns and adjectives
   c. Largely independent of grammar
   d. Mapping between concepts and symbols generally arbitrary
   e. though nb onomatopoeia – e.g. ‘hiss’
4. SYNTAX
   a. The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language
   b. Relies on grammatical markers and word order
   c. In English, word order (SVO) is paramount in assigning role:
   d. Other languages rely on ‘markers’ of word role:
5. COMPREHENSION
   a. The ability to represent the meaning of words or sentences spoken or written by another person
   b. Entails knowledge of 1 – 4, but also:
   c. Context:
   d. ‘I reached the bank’
   e. Pitch:
   f. shī shì shí shî
   g. Stress:
   h. ‘Do YOU live here?’ vs. ‘Do you LIVE here?’ vs. ‘Do you live HERE?’
   i. Prosody:
   j. ‘Woman! Without her, man is helpless’ vs. ‘Woman, without her man, is helpless’

Question 4

Describe the cerebral organisation of language

Answer 4

1. ARTICULATION and PHONOLOGY - brocca area
2. MEANING in auditory complex
   a. Temporal poles
   b. Densely interconnected with widespread regions of association cortex
   c. ‘Modality-independent’representations
3. 3) SYNTAX
   a. In left anterior frontal gyrus
4. Comprehension
   a. Temporal poles
   b. Left inferior frontal gyrus
   c. Arcuate fasciculus
   d. Left posterior superior
   e. Temporal gyrus
   f. Primary auditory cortex

Question 5

What are the 4 types of strokes?

Answer 5

• Broca’s aphasia
• Wernicke’s aphasia
• Conduction aphasia
• Adynamic aphasia

Question 6

Describe Broca’s aphasia

Answer 6

• Difficulty with articulation and phonology
• Speech: Halting, fragmented, distorted, agrammatic
• Comprehension: Preserved for words; reduced for sentences
• Follows damage to: Broca’s area
• Typical pathologies: Middle cerebral artery infarction; haemorrhagic stroke

Question 7

Describe Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 7

• AKA ‘Receptive aphasia’ or ‘sensory aphasia’
• Speech: Fluent, often with meaningless phonological strings
• Follows damage to: posterior regions of language network
• Typical pathologies: penetrating brain injury; cerebral haemorrhage

Question 8

Describe Conduction aphasia

Answer 8

•	Difficulty with repetition
•	Speech characteristics
o	Mild fluency and comprehension difficulties
•	Test  
o	single word and sentence repetition
•	Follows damage to
o	posterior perisylvian regions and underlying white matter
•	Typical pathologies
•	lacunar stroke

Question 9

Describe Dynamic aphasia

Answer 9

• Difficulty planning, initiating or maintaining speech
• Speech characteristics
o Reduced, fragmentary, echoic, perseverative speech
• Test
o High vs. low constraint sentence completion
• Follows damage to
o Anterior left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45)
• Typical pathologies
• Left anterior cerebral artery infarction

Question 10

What are the 3 types of neurodegeneration?

Answer 10

• Nonfluent progressive aphasia
• Fluent progressive aphasia
• Logopenic progressive aphasia

Question 11

Describe Non-fluent progressive aphasia

Answer 11

• Slow, distorted, agrammatic speech production
• Begins with subtle changes – progressive course
• Phonological and grammatical errors in spontaneous speech
• Single word comprehension well preserved
• Difficulty understanding sentences
• Typical pathology
• Primary tauopathy [FTD-Tau]

Question 12

Describe Fluent progressive aphasia

Answer 12

• Normal sounding speech rate and production empty of content
• Begins with subtle word-finding changes
• Generic word and pronoun use spontaneous speech
• Profound single word comprehension difficulties
• Location of pathology
o Anterior temporal regions
• Typical pathology
• TDP-43 proteinopathy [FTD-TDP]

Question 13

Describe Logopenic progressive aphasia

Answer 13

• Begins with subtle word-finding changes
• Poverty of speech output
• Occasional errors in syntax and phonology; poor sentence repetition
• Posterior perisylvian pathology
• Typical pathology
• Alzheimer’s disease