Week 10: Language

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

▪Sharing of ideas through symbols
▪Cultural evolution
▪Not just speech
▪Subject to (grammatical) rules
▪Unique to humans?

Question 2

Can chimpanzees be taught language?

Answer 2

▪ Attempts to teach speech/sounds (Gua and Viki projects) unsuccessful
▪ Larynx higher and closer to mouth
▪ Restricts possible range of sounds
▪ Gestures may be used in a more sophisticated way
Study in Twycross zoo indicates they imitate and learn from each other

Question 3

Can they be taught sign language?

Answer 3

• Washoe (1965-2007): wild chimpanzee captured for use in the US space program
• First chimpanzee to learn ASL
  • Taught some to her son
  • Combined signs into novel combinations in response to her environment when there wasn’t an equivalent known sign e.g. signing “water” and “bird” upon seeing a swan
• Whether these are truly combined for a single meaning or consecutive is contentious (e.g. did they mix the words to creatively say swan? Or did he just see a bird and water?)

Question 4

How many signs Washoe

Answer 4

Learn ~350 sign

Question 5

Interpretations on Washoe and mates

Answer 5

• Emotion/empathy
  
  • When she was told about one of the keepers taking time off work for a personal loss, Washoe signed “cry” by running a finger down her cheek (chimpanzees do not produce tears)
  • Self-awareness
  • When presented with a mirror and asked what she could see, she responded “me, Washoe”

However has not been replicated successfully…

Question 6

Most of our understanding about language (speech) comes from observing brain injuries…

Answer 6

E.g. Broca & Tan, his patient

Question 7

Lateralisation: What side is language? For what percentage of people?

Answer 7

▪ Language is (mostly) lateralised

▪ Left is dominant for speech in 90% of population

▪ Right side dominant in 27% of left-handed people and 15% ambidextrous but only 4% righthanded people

Question 8

A combination of hemispheres

Answer 8

▪ The opposite (usually right) plays an important role in speech and language

▪ Perception, memories, etc

Question 9

Split brain recap

Answer 9

▪ Surgical cutting of the corpus callosum

Question 10

Communication

Answer 10

▪ Language production requires multiple factors
▪ Something to communicate
* Perception, Memory, Story
▪ Sensory input(s)
▪ Muscular movement
➢ So multiple brain regions implicated

Question 11

Broca’s area

Answer 11

Important to language production

Question 12

Wernicke’s area

Answer 12

Important in language comprehension

Question 13

Angular gyrus

Answer 13

• Angular gyrus - helps interpret sounds & visual cues

Question 14

Language: primary motor cortex

Answer 14

Also fine motor skills

Question 15

Auditory and visual cortex

Answer 15

sends info to the Wernickes area to help with comprehension

Question 16

Wernicke-Geschwind model:

Answer 16

Wernicke-Geschwind model involves these areas:
- Primary auditory cortex (1stly signals here sent to Wernicke’s)
- Arcuate fasiculus then sends signal to Broca’s area
- Primary motor cortex next to generate response

Question 17

Wernicke-Geschwind model: (video notes)

Answer 17

• Highly localised language in left hemisphere
  • Motor theory of lateralisation theory: left hemisphere controls fine movements such as those required to produce speech
  • Broca’s area - links to motor functions associated with speech production (damage = impaired speech)
    Wernicke’s area - responsible for the understanding of language (damage = impaired ability to understand language)

Question 18

Wernicke-Geschwind model involves these areas: When reading aloud

Answer 18

• info sent to primary visual cortex
  - Then to angular gyrus for auditory signal
  - Wernicke’s area next for comprehension
  (then it follows the same path already outlined:)
  - Primary auditory cortex (1stly signals here sent to Wernicke’s)
  - Arcuate fasiculus then sends signal to Broca’s area
  Primary motor cortex next to generate response

Question 19

Facial movement

Answer 19

▪ Cranial nerve:
▪ V (trigeminal),
▪ VII (facial),
▪ VIII (vestibulocochlear),
▪ IX (glossopharyngeal),
▪ X (vagus), and
▪ XII (hypoglossal)

Question 20

Describing consonants: Voicing

Answer 20

(vibration = it is voiced., e.g. ‘z’)

Question 21

Place of articulation

Answer 21

involves a constriction of air flow (bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal)

Question 22

Manner of articulation

Answer 22

involves how the airflow is constricted (stop, fricative)

Question 23

Language comprehension

Answer 23

▪ The brain works like a dictionary (the words are first sensed)
▪ Audio and visual

 ▪ Memories associated with words are activated (via posterior language area)  ▪ Language also includes more complex, abstract meaning like metaphors

Question 24

Metaphors

Answer 24

▪ Comprehension likely involves more of right hemisphere

“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”

	* Experimental research suggests right superior temporal cortex 

	* Transcranial magnetic stimulation impaired ability to infer meaning of novel metaphors  * Supported by fMRI studies

Question 25

Bilingualism

Answer 25

▪Majority of people in the world are bilingual or multilingual ▪Different languages are processed by different areas of the brain (tested on bilingual people just about to undergo surgery) * Some overlapping * Primary or secondary language specific regions

Question 26

Benefits of bilingualism

Answer 26

- Learning language in childhood easier due to plasticity - Higher density of neurones when learning language - Can delay the onset of dementia/ altzimers Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - involved in problem solving & executive function

Question 27

Voice recognition: Prosody

Answer 27

(prosodic cues) ▪ Intonation and emphasis to convey meaning

Question 28

Voice recognition

Answer 28

▪Speech conveys information beyond the meaning of the words ▪E.g., age and gender ▪Specific voices of individuals

Question 29

Phonoagnosia

Answer 29

can't recognise voices Accent, intonation, etc

Question 30

Aphasia

Answer 30

▪ Loss or impairment of language comprehension or production ▪ Difficulties in language function not always attributable to impairment of the speech or writing production apparatus (muscles of the tongue and throat, or peripheral sensory loss) ▪ Also damage to brain centres moderating language functions

Question 31

Forms of Aphasia: Broca's

Answer 31

* Non-fluent (where as the rest of the types are fluent) * "content" words are still used (e.g., nouns, verbs) * "function" words are more difficult (e.g., a, the, in) - Can use phrases such as 'yes' and 'no' - Can use curse words (often due to frustration) - Can use non-language emotional expression They may also represent the language contribution of the right hemisphere

Question 32

Conduction aphasia

Answer 32

Cannot repeat words, particularly non-words

Question 33

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 33

Fluent but cannot understand

Question 34

Anomic aphasia

Answer 34

Patients can't name specific objects (but can use other words to describe objects)

Question 35

Broca 1861-1865: Patient Tan

Answer 35

* Cavity left frontal lobe filled with fluid * Patient can comprehend but not express speech * Speech is associated with left hemisphere

Question 36

Broca’s or non-fluent aphasia: damage to what region?

Answer 36

▪ Damage to the inferior left frontal lobe and underlying subcortical white matter ▪ Comprehension of speech is intact ▪ Speech is slow, non fluent, costs effort

Question 37

Other aspects of broca's aphasia

Answer 37

- Left frontal lobe: usually right sided hemiplegia (total paralysis limbs and trunk usually due to stroke) - Spiralises of function Damage to motor central areas of the left hemisphere results in extreme motor impairment: poor writing

Question 38

Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Test: (example of Broca's aphasia

Answer 38

‘kid…kk…can…candy…cookie….candy… well I don’t know but it’s writ…easy does it… slam….early…fall…men…many no…girl. Dishes…soap…soap…water… water… falling pah that’s all..dish..that’s all. Cookies..can…candy..cookies cookies..he…down..That’s all. Girl..slipping water..water..and it hurts..

Question 39

3 speech deficits of Broca's

Answer 39

Agrammatism Anomia Articulation problems

Question 40

Agrammatism

Answer 40

difficulty in use of grammatical constructions (e.g.,-ed, have) but also word order to decode sentence

Question 41

Anomia

Answer 41

Word-finding difficulties (function words)

Question 42

Articulation problems

Answer 42

Mispronunciations, often alter the sequence of sounds

Question 43

Conduction aphasia

Answer 43

▪ Characterised by meaningful fluent speech and comprehension, but poor repetition ▪ Extreme difficulties repeating lists of words (although related words may be repeated) ▪ May replace word they are asked to repeat with another with the same meaning

Question 44

Conduction aphasia: cause

Answer 44

Caused by damage to pathway between Broca and Wernicke area responsible for conveying sound – arcuate fasciculus ▪ Instead, use second pathway which conveys meaning * Hearing sentence evokes imagery, which allows individual to describe the meaning but using different words § Arcuate fasciculus damage = inability to repeat non-words Fusion between legions

Question 45

Reading: Requirements to be diagnosed with aphasia

Answer 45

Caused by brain damage: e.g. cannot be aphasia if can't speak due to being deaf Relatively isolated; must be able to understand that something is attempted to be communicated, and aware of env

Question 46

Reading: Broca's aphasia: region of damage

Answer 46

Left frontal lobe (speech production) Can alternatively use sign language

Question 47

Reading: Wernicke's aphasia: Brain region

Answer 47

left temporal gyrus (comprehension deficit) Struggle to comprehend signs too, so sign lang may not be effective

Question 48

Lateralisation: Where do most language deficits occur?

Answer 48

On the left side of the brain, whether people are left or right handed

Question 49

What % of population is the left side dominant for lang?

Answer 49

90%

Question 50

Kneche et al (2000) found what? Right handed? Ambidextrius? Left handed?

Answer 50

right hemisphere speech dominance was seen in: 4% of right handed people; 15% of ambidextrious people; 27% of left handed people

Question 51

Reading: Split brain operation

Answer 51

- Cutting corpus collosum - Cannot exchange info from hemispheres e.g. putting down a book with the left hand, even if they had been reading it with interest (bcus the right hemisphere, controlling the left hand, can't read = boring)

Question 52

Reading: Lang production: Deciding what to talk about involves what?

Answer 52

When deciding what to discuss, if the event happened in the past it will come from posterior parts of the hemispheres (occipital, temporal and peripheral lobes - & prefrontal cortex)

Question 53

Language comprehension: 2 types of entries?

Answer 53

auditory and visual Like a dictionary, can look up the word according to how it sounds

Question 54

Lang comprehension: Where is sound taken in?

Answer 54

- Wenicke's area (in the auditory association cortex of left hemisphere) takes in the sounds - Is possible to produce speech with wernicke's damage, but does not make sense to the listener often Memories associated with the word are activated!!

Question 55

Where do we comprehend metaphors?

Answer 55

Superior temporal cortex (although research found new metaphors were processed here, if damaged, previously known metaphors could be understood. With damage, new metaphors were not understood.)