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Intro to Language + Practice Questions
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A summary of lecture notes on the neuroscience and psychological aspect of language. Practice questions are included at the end to test the student's knowledge
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Lecture 10 - LanguageThe Major Components of [Oral] Language
🧠 phonological Skills: an awareness of sounds [i.e.syllables and rhymes]
○ study of sound relating to language
○ every language has their own sounds
🧠morphological skills: understanding the meaning ofword forms and parts
○ meaning of the sounds of language
🧠syntax: understand word order and grammar rules
○ knowledge of language rules [i.e. structure and grammar]
🧠semantics / vocabulary: understanding the meaningof words and phrases
○ knowledge of stringing words together
🧠pragmatics: understanding the social rules of communication
○ hidden meaning behind language
○ i.e. sarcasm, idioms, etc.
Hemispheric Dominance for Language
🧠
the right tends to bias attention, whereas the left tends to bias language
🧠
thewada testwas aninvasivemethod used to determinethe hemisphere dominantly used for
language
○ administer anesthesia to put half the brain to put it to sleep
■ through the left carotid artery
○ once half the brain is asleep, the individual would be asked to complete a set of language tasks
■ impaired language function = left side dominant for language
○ i.e. show individual a spoon, and then put half the brain to sleep (i.e. left side); once the hemi is
asleep, ask the individual what they saw
■ if left side dominant for language, won’t be able to verbally tell you what they saw
because their language area would be impaired
● would be able to point to a picture of the spoon to communicate what they saw
however
🧠anon-invasivemethod to determine which hemi is languagedominant wasfMRI
Handedness and Language Relationship
🧠
the left brain controls right side of the body, so when language is dominant for the left brain, there is a
strong relationship between language and the right hand
🧠tower plot graph (pictured to the right
○ a greater number of the subjects evaluated demonstrated to be left
hemi dominant and right handed (top right quadrant)
○ left hemi dominant and left handed seems to be the second most
common
○ being right hemi dominant does occur, but rare and uncommon
, 🧠right brain dominance plot graph (pictured to the right)
○ visual representation of being right hemi dominant for
language and the typically the dominant hand you use
○ most right hemi dominant individuals are shown to be left
handed
○ the number of individuals that are right hemi dominant for
language and right handed is far less
🧠typically for fMRI studies, researchers look at individuals that are rand handed
○ b/c there’s more variability among individuals that are left handed
■ meaning that handedness is a major confound in neuroimaging
○ this is, however, a HUGE methodological limitation (decreases generalizability due to
excluding certain portion of the population)
Locating Language in the Brain
🧠
frontal lobe = languageproduction
○ Broca's area
○ aunilateralbrain area, hence it’s only on the sideof the brain that is dominant for language
(i.e. left hemi language dominant = Broca’s area on the left side of brain)
🧠temporal lobe = languagecomprehension
○ Wernicke’s area
🧠theBroca’s areaandWernicke’s areaare connectedby a bundle of white matter (arcuate fasciculus)
○ arcuate - arched
○ fasciculus - bundle of white matter
Broca’s Aphasia
🧠
the inability to produce speech
🧠
founded by Paul Broca, through 2 case studies
○ case study #1: Louis Victor Leborgne
■ chronic epilepsy earlier in life
■ only produce the utterance of “tan”
■ other mental faculties intact
■ autopsy post death revealed damage to the left inferior frontal lobe, now known as
Broca’s area
○ case study #2: Lazare Lelong
■ treated for dementia at 84
■ could produce 5 distinct utterances [i.e. oui]
■ autopsy revealed of the areas of damage in the brain, Broca’s area was affected
🧠this disability is the inability to think about the sounds that need to be produced in order to speak
○ reading might be impaired
○ inner monologue might disappear for some individuals
○ some can write, some can’t
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