Chapter 11: Language Flashcards

1
Q

What is prosody and where is it processed?

A

Prosody = rhythm of language
- processed in superior temporal gyrus

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1
Q

What is anomia?

A

Inability to find words to label things = tip of the tongue effect

Happens with left hemisphere strokes

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2
Q

What is aphasia?

A

Broad term of deficits in language comprehension/production

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3
Q

What is dysarthria?

A

Loss of control of articulatory muscles

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4
Q

What is apraxia?

A

Deficits in motor planning of articulations. Related to Broca’s aphasia

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5
Q

What is Broca’s / non-fluent aphasia? Name 4 symptoms. And what is possible?

A
  1. Slow speech with lack of functional words
  2. Difficult speech articulation
  3. No understanding reversible sentences
  4. Poor syntax/grammar

Sometimes can sing, recite, count. They are aware of their deficits

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6
Q

What is agrammatic aphasia?

A

Deficit in comprehending grammar. Only most basic forms are comprehended/produced

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7
Q

What is wernicke’s / receptive aphasia?

A

Normal speech with good grammar and prosdy, but it makes no sense.
Lack of language comprehension

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8
Q

What is the arcuate fasciculus and how does it relate to Broca and Wernicke’s areas? What is conduction aphasia?

A

Neural fiber tract that connects Broca and Wernicke’s areas

Conduction aphasia = if arcuate fasciculus is damaged, Broca and Wernicke can’t communicate.
- Problems with spontaneous speech, repeating and use of words
- Understand words and can hear own errors, but can’t repair them

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9
Q

What are the fundamentals in spoken language (2) and in written language (2)?

A

Spoken:
1: phonological form: sound
2: meaning

Written:
1: orthographic form: vision
2: meaning

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10
Q

What is the mental lexicon? Name 3 types of information it holds.

A

Mental storage of word information
1. Semantics: meanings
2. Syntactics: how to make sentences
3. Word forms: spelling/sound patterns

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11
Q

Name 3 functions of the mental lexicon

A
  1. Lexical access: perceptual analysis activates word representations (semantic + syntactic)
  2. Lexical selection: best match is selected
  3. Lexical integration: words integrated into sentence and larger context to facilitate understanding
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12
Q

What are 4 principles of organization of the mental lexicon?

A
  1. Morphemes (frost - defrost)
  2. Frequently used words are accessed more quickly
  3. Phonemes (cat - hat)
  4. Representations are organized according to semantic relationships
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13
Q

What is semantic paraphasias? What is deep dyslexia?

A

Errors in word meanings (meaning horse when saying cow)

Deep dyslexia is the same, but then for reading

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14
Q

Why is it for people with aphasia harder to identify features for living things than for non-living things?

A

Living things are represented by many things that aren’t distinct
Non-living things can be described very specifically

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15
Q

What is the topographic organization of specifying less complex categories vs. very specific individual things?

A

Non-specific: posterior occipitotemporal

Specific: anteromedial occipitotemporal

16
Q

What is the segmentation problem and how is it solved?

A

How we differentiate auditory sound into separate words
- Prosody helps: rhythm/accents of language

17
Q

From what age do infants start babbling in phonemes of their native language?

A

Between 6-12 months

18
Q

Where is spoken word processed? Name the three areas

A

Heschl’s gyri: main auditory input

Superior temporal sulcus (STS): sound perception

Middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus: distinguish words from non-words

19
Q

What is the hierarchical organization of spoken word processing?

A

Acoustic input: at A1/hesch’s gyri

Word input: spreads from A1 to STS, premotor cortex, parietal regions

The further away from A1, the more sensitive it gets for specific language

20
Q

What is the main impact of CLSM (connectome based symptom lesion mapping) on language studying?

A

Has lead to inferring causal relationships between spoken language and the brain areas involved

21
Q

What are 3 types of visual patterns in written language?

A
  1. Alphabetic (western)
  2. Syllabic (japanese)
  3. Logographic (chinese)
22
Q

What is the selfridge model of letter recognition?

A

Bottum-up and serial process:
- Recognize features and integrate them in a letter

No parallel processing of letters

23
Q

What is the McClelland model of letter recognition?

A

Top-down and bottum-up parallel processing on word level
- explains word superiority effect

24
Q

What is the word superiority effect?

A

Faster response to words than to non-words. Words are processed as a whole

25
Q

Where is the VWFA (visual word form area) located and what is alexia?

A

In occipitotemporal cortex

Alexia = can’t read words, but other language aspects are normal

26
Q

What are 3 models of word comprehension? For what model is the most evidence available?

A
  1. Modular:
    - High-level representations can’t influence lower-level ones (bottum-up)
  2. Interactive:
    - Context can influence before sensory information is available
  3. Hybrid:
    - Lexical access is autonomous and is not influenced by high-level info
    - Lexical selection can be influenced by high-level contextual info

Evidence for interactive model

27
Q

What is syntactic parsing?

A

Brains assigns syntactic structure to words in a sentence. It doesn’t rely on retrieval of representations of sentences

28
Q

What is the N400 response related to? What happens with N400 when words are inconsistent with meaning of the sentence? And when there is surprise?

A

Related to linguistic processes concerning meaning
- High response when inconsistent with meaning
- No response when surprised

29
Q

What is the relationship between N400 and severe aphasia?

A

Reduced and delayed N400

30
Q

What is the P600 response related to? When is there a high response in P600?

A

Syntactic positive shift (SPS)
- High response in P600 happens when there is a grammatically incorrect sentence

31
Q

Lesions to what region results in defective syntactic processing?

A

Lesions in anterior superior temporal cortex and left inferior frontal cortex

32
Q

What are the three elements of Hagoorts neural model for language comprehension? Where are they located and what is their function?

A
  1. Memory
    - in temporal lobe
    - linguistic knowledge that is encoded in memory systems
  2. Unification
    - area just above sylvian fissure
    - integration of lexically retrieved information into overall representation
    - parallel processing
  3. Control
    - Broca, frontal lobe
    - relates language to social interactions (conversations)
33
Q

What are the functions of the 4 pathways of the spoken-sentence comprehension model?

A

1/2: ventral: comprehending words
3: Dorsal: posterior temporal to frontal: speech preparation
4: Dorsal: Broca to ST gyrus and STS: syntactic processing

34
Q

What are the 8 steps for word production for a picture of goats according to serial processing (Levelt)?

A
  1. Perceive picture
  2. Concept of goat is activated
  3. Concept activates representations in mental lexicon + accesses syntactic info
  4. Lexical selection
  5. Morphological encoding (put +s for plural)
  6. Word contains phonological/metrical info for stress pattern/syllables
  7. Phonological encoding maps phonologic info onto metrical info
  8. Articulation and sound production
35
Q

What is the difference between word production models of Levelt and Hickok?

A

Levelt: serial processing
Hickok: parallel processing in sensory and motor systems

36
Q

How did language began in human species? Why do humans have language and other species don’t?

A

It started with gestures.
Humans had a huge change in connectivity between fronto, parietal and temporal areas, which made it possible to have complex language

37
Q

Does a chimp also have communication specialization in the brain?

A

Yes, his left hemisphere is dominant in communication, but he doesn’t have the amount of connections to other lobes as humans have