11. Language

Question 1

Spoken speech

Answer 1

Requires acoustic analysis (use of prosody and parsing)

Question 2

Written language

Answer 2

Recognition of visual patternSemantic paraphasia

Question 3

What is the model of spoken language and cognitive system?

Answer 3

Spoken word → acoustic analysis → auditory input lexicon → cognitive system

Written word → orthographic analysis → Orthographic input lexicon → Cognitive system

Question 4

Spoken language

Answer 4

Requires breaking-down speech stream and the formation of abstract representations on basis of spectral characteristics

Question 5

Neuroanatomical asymmetries

Answer 5

1. Planum temporale (Wernicke’s area)

2. Heschl’s gyrus (primary auditory cortex)

Question 6

Mental lexicon

Answer 6

A repository of words

Semantic information
Syntactic information
Word forms (spelling, sound pattern)

Passive knowledge- 50000 words
Collins and Loftus (1975): semantic network

Question 7

What is the relationship between the mental lexicon and word production?

Answer 7

Patients can demonstrate a number of ways in which word production goes wrong
Anomia: Lexeme level
Phonemic misorderings: bibary books
Semantic paraphasias: goat-sheep

Question 8

Anomia

Answer 8

A form of aphasia in which the patient is unable to recall the names of everyday objects

Question 9

Semantic paraphasia

Answer 9

A type of language output error commonly associated with aphasia, and characterised by the prediction of unintended syllables, words, or phrases during the effort to speak

Question 10

Progressive semantic dementia (categorisation)

Answer 10

Progressive left temporal lobe damage

• initial presentation: Problems assigning object to semantic category
• Other mental and language abilities OK, including sentence comprehension and production

Question 11

Category specific anomia

Answer 11

Living vs non-living things

Question 12

What did Damasio et al. (1996) evidence about lexicon structures?

Answer 12

Evidence from PET → naming deficits correlate with brain regions.

Question 13

How does PET do?

Answer 13

Highlights active brain regions only (rather than showing all brain regions)
Injection of radioisotopes (e.g. 2-deoxyglucose) at least twice during a study (control vs. experimental): differential uptake, depending on cell activity
2-DG is taken up by the cells along with glucose but cannot be metabolised
Increased metabolic activity revealed through accumulated radioactivity in cells that have been active
Brain can be mapped during different states (attention, movement, different cognitive tasks)
Technique can identify also abnormally functioning regions

Question 14

How was the PET applied to visualise the brain?

Answer 14

Metabolic activity is measured separately in a control/comparison and an experimental condition
Difference in activity computed by subtraction methods → difference image
Difference image reveals areas most active during experimental condition: here it is the visual cortex
Difference images can be added across participants and averaged

Question 15

What did Levelt (1994, 1999) believe the process from intention to speech involved?

Answer 15

Involves encoding into speech form from preconceived self-generated concepts

Question 16

What are generating words in intention to speech?

Answer 16

Conceptual system
Lemma (syntactic properties and sentence structure info)
Lexeme (word form)

Question 17

Agrammatism

Answer 17

A tendency to form sentences without the correct inflectional structure as a result of brain damage, as in Broca’s aphasia

Question 18

What is involved in Gramma?

Answer 18

Integration and higher-order process (semantic & syntactic)

Agrammatism

Question 19

ERPs

Answer 19

Filtered EEG activity, measured at the scalp, associated with specific cognitive processes
Filtering (signal averaging) results in ERPs (event-related potentials)
Identified by the direction and peak of the waveform (+/- amplitude) and when they occur in time (latency)
Real-time online measurement

Question 20

What is a P300 result in ERPs related to?

Answer 20

Attention

Question 21

What is a P400 result in ERPs related to?

Answer 21

Associated with the processing of semantic anomalies/incongruities, lexical integration.

Question 22

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 22

Inferior prefrontal cortex affected
Primarily affects expressive language.

Effortful, telegraphic speech
Anomia
Some comprehension deficit
Some speech apraxia or dysarthria

Question 23

Wericke’s aphasia

Answer 23

Damage to the posterior region of the superior temporal gyrus
Primarily affects receptive language
Jargon aphasia

Poor comprehension of written & spoken language; production superficially ok but meaningless

Question 24

What does Wenicke’s aphasia propose?

Answer 24

Damage to accurate fasciculus = conduction aphasia (comprehension & spontaneous speech OK but no repetition)

Question 25

According to Werkicke’s aphasia, what does damage to the left angular gyrus cause?

Answer 25

Agaraphia and alexia

Question 26

Agraphia

Answer 26

Loss of writing ability

Question 27

Alexia

Answer 27

Loss of reading ability

Question 28

What is the Wernicke-Geshwind model?

Answer 28

Connectionist/classic localisationist model of language | Discrete language areas connected through white matter tracts

Question 29

According to the Wenicke-Geshwind, responding to auditory info: information is transduced in…

Answer 29

1. The primary auditory cortex and transmitted to… 2. Wernicke’s area: representations of words accessed to determine what they are. Info is then transmitted via… 3. The acuate fasciculus to… 4. Broca’s area (grammar) motor plan formed to say the word. Info is then passed onto… 5. The primary motor cortex for production (implements the plan, manipulates larynx etc. to produce word)

Question 30

What was Hécaen and Angelergues (1964)’s study on relatively focalised lesions?

Answer 30

214 patients carried lesions to LH - Small lesions to Broca’s region: rarely non-lasting effects - Small lesions to Wernicke’s: sometimes no effect - Medium lesions: some deficits in articulation, as likely to result from parietal or temporal lesions as around Broca’s area - Consistent with W-G model, larger anterior lesions (across 3 lobes) more likely to give rise to articulation problems - No specific isolable syndromes

Question 31

What are the shortcomings of the W-G model?

Answer 31

Few pure cases (receptive and expressive problems co-exist) 22 patients with lesions in Broca’s area, only 10 had Broca’s aphasia All patients with Broca’s (incl. autopsied and imaged) had damaged insulae Surgical excision of classical language areas do not have permanent; stimulation of regions outside these areas produced speech disturbances

Question 32

How is fMRI used to learn about language?

Answer 32

Improvement on MRi in terms of speed (temporal resolution) Uses rapidly oscillating magnetic field gradients, more powerful computational techniques Detects oxygen consumptions in active brain regions

Question 33

How does fMRI detect oxygen consumption on the active brain regions?

Answer 33

NB: it can take up to 2 sections to first detect changes in blood flow after stimulus presentation and up to 7 sections to reach the peak.

Question 34

What are the advantages of fMRI over PET?

Answer 34

No substances injected One image provides structural and functional information Better spatial resolution Real time, repeated measurement (like ERPs)

Question 35

What was Bavelier et al. (1997) study using fMRI study?

Answer 35

Reading silently one word at a time vs. reading consonants Only 5-10% of illustrated areas are active Greater activity in left hemisphere Activated areas: Broca’s Wernicke’s area, angular gyrus

Question 36

ERP study

Answer 36

Allows online measurements in patients who are too disabled to obtain behavioural measurements of comprehension

Question 37

What did Swaab, Brown and Hagoort (1997) study using ERP?

Answer 37

Used N400: correlated with lexical integration (anomalies) Compared intact persons (N=12) vs aphasic patients (N=14) (patients: high comprehends v low comprehends) ``` There were three conditions: - Concordant condition - discordant - unrelated condition Normal N400 cloze procedure Auditory odd ball task (For P300) ``` ISI (Inter- Stimulus Interval): Long (1250ms) vs. short (100ms) Task: listen to the sentences and the word that follows them

Question 38

What were Swaab et al (1997) findings in their study using ERP?

Answer 38

At short ISI: - Intact individuals: no difference between unrelated and discordant (expected differences for other comparisons) - Aphasic patients: significant differences in N400 amplitude between all three conditions At long ISI: Groups look similar – no difference between unrelated and discordant So at long ISI evidence of contextual integration Delay in time course of low and high comprehends

Question 39

What do Bilingual aphasics show?

Answer 39

Different patterns of recovery, including paradoxical patterns

Question 40

What does translation activate?

Answer 40

Translation activates anterior cingulate and some bilateral structures (e.g. head of cadate nucleus)

Question 41

What are some recent findings in relation to the multilingual brain?

Answer 41

Comparisons of early and late bilinguals and monolinguals, different proficiency, shows L2 acquisition effect: enhanced cortical thickness in left inferior frontal gyrus and thinner cortex in right IFG with later L2 acquisition Greater anatomical white matter connectivity for early bilinguals vs monolinguals in left frontal and parietal area (10 regions) and right superior frontal gyrus, comprising 2 networks