Chapter 11: Language

Question 1

What is prosody and where is it processed?

Answer 1

Prosody = rhythm of language
- processed in superior temporal gyrus

Question 1

What is anomia?

Answer 1

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

Happens with left hemisphere strokes

Question 2

What is aphasia?

Answer 2

Broad term of deficits in language comprehension/production

Question 3

What is dysarthria?

Answer 3

Loss of control of articulatory muscles

Question 4

What is apraxia?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

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

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What is agrammatic aphasia?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is wernicke’s / receptive aphasia?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

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

Answer 8

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

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Spoken:
1: phonological form: sound
2: meaning

Written:
1: orthographic form: vision
2: meaning

Question 10

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

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Name 3 functions of the mental lexicon

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What are 4 principles of organization of the mental lexicon?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is semantic paraphasias? What is deep dyslexia?

Answer 13

Errors in word meanings (meaning horse when saying cow)

Deep dyslexia is the same, but then for reading

Question 14

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

Answer 14

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

Question 15

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

Answer 15

Non-specific: posterior occipitotemporal

Specific: anteromedial occipitotemporal

Question 16

What is the segmentation problem and how is it solved?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

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

Answer 17

Between 6-12 months

Question 18

Where is spoken word processed? Name the three areas

Answer 18

Heschl’s gyri: main auditory input

Superior temporal sulcus (STS): sound perception

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

Question 19

What is the hierarchical organization of spoken word processing?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

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

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What are 3 types of visual patterns in written language?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What is the selfridge model of letter recognition?

Answer 22

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

No parallel processing of letters

Question 23

What is the McClelland model of letter recognition?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What is the word superiority effect?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

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

Answer 25

In occipitotemporal cortex Alexia = can't read words, but other language aspects are normal

Question 26

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

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What is syntactic parsing?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

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?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

What is the relationship between N400 and severe aphasia?

Answer 29

Reduced and delayed N400

Question 30

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

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Lesions to what region results in defective syntactic processing?

Answer 31

Lesions in anterior superior temporal cortex and left inferior frontal cortex

Question 32

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

Answer 32

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)

Question 33

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

Answer 33

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

Question 34

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

Answer 34

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

Question 35

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

Answer 35

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

Question 36

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

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Does a chimp also have communication specialization in the brain?

Answer 37

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