Chapter 12:

Language and the Brain

1.Neurolinguistics

Neurolinguistics studies the relationship between language and the brain.

2.Language Areas in the Brain

Broca’s Area

Broca’s area, also known as the anterior speech cortex, is part of the brain.
Paul Broca, a French surgeon, discovered in the 1860s
Function: To control language production.

Wernicke’s Area

Wernicke’s area is technically described as the “posterior speech cortex”.
Function: To control language comprehension.

The Motor Cortex and the Arcuate Fasciculus

The motor cortex controls muscle movement, including those for speech articulation (face, jaw, tongue, larynx).
Electrical stimulation in certain brain areas can interfere with speech production (discovered by Penfield and Roberts in the 1950s).
The arcuate fasciculus, discovered by Wernicke, connects Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas, playing a crucial role in speech processing.

The Localization View

The localization view links specific language abilities to specific locations in the brain.
Language processing involves Wernicke’s area, arcuate fasciculus, Broca’s area, and the motor cortex.
The motor cortex is responsible for physically articulating a word.

3.Tongue Tips and Slips

The Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

The experience of knowing a word, but being unable to access it and bring it to the surface in order to say it
Mainly occurs with uncommon words and names.
Mistakes of this type are sometimes referred to as malapropisms.
The term malapropism comes from the character Mrs. Malaprop

Slips of the Brain: is making a speech error due to linguistic processing

Slips of the Tongue

unintentionally saying something
a speech error in which a sound or word is produced in the wrong place,
Ex:
A lack of pies" instead of "a pack of lies.
"A blushing crow" instead of "a crushing blow."

spoonerisms is a slip of the tongue in which 2 parts of words or two words are switched/swapped

Slips of the Ear

Slips of the ear occur when the brain misinterprets sounds, leading to humorous misunderstandings.

Ex:

Hearing "ice cream" as "I scream."
A child saying, "He’s a real life saver," when they meant to say "He’s a real lifesaver," confusing it with someone who saves lives.
Misunderstanding "piece of cake" as "peace of cake," thinking it refers to harmony instead of an easy task.

4.Aphasia

Aphasia is a language disorder caused by localized brain damage, resulting in difficulties with understanding and producing language.
Different types of aphasia are classified based on the primary symptoms experienced by the individual.

Broca’s Aphasia

A serious language disorder marked by reduced speech, distorted articulation, and slow, effortful speaking is known as Broca’s aphasia
Speech often consists mainly of lexical morphemes, omitting grammatical forms (agrammatic speech).

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Wernicke's Aphasia: A language disorder characterized by fluent but often incomprehensible speech, difficulty in auditory comprehension.
word-finding challenges -> anomia.
Speakers may use strategies like describing objects or their function when they can't recall specific words.

Conduction Aphasia

accurate fasciculus damaged -> difficulty in repeating words or phrases.

5.Dichotic Listening

➔ an experiment in which a listener hears two different souns simulyaneously, each through a different earphone

Demonstrates left hemisphere dominance for processing syllables and words.

Right and Left Hemisphere: Right side signals go to the left hemisphere, and left side signals go to the right hemisphere.

Left Brain, Right Brain

Right-Ear Advantage: The ability to percieve language better in the right ear than the left ear.

Left-Ear Advantage: The ability to percieve language better in the left ear.

Brain Specialization:

Left hemisphere: specializes in analytic processing (details of sounds, words).
Right hemisphere: specializes in holistic processing (general structures and non-language sounds).

6.The Critical Period

The left hemisphere's specialization for language is called lateralization.
Critical period ➔ The brain is most receptive to learning language from birth to puberty.

Genie

No language during the critical period
Communicating after the puberty
Using the right hemisphere of her brain for language functions.

• A left ear advantage for verbal as well as non-verbal signals.

Our ability for language:

• Not limited to only one or two specific areas

• It is based on more complex connections extending throughout the whole brain.

7.Study Questions

1 What is a more common name for the posterior speech cortex?

-> Wernicke's area.

2 What kind of difficulty did Wernicke identify among his patients?

-> Wernicke identified that his patients had difficulty with auditory comprehension and produced fluent but nonsensical speech.

3 Is the use of fire distinguisher instead of fire extinguisher a spoonerism or a malapropism?

->The use of "fire distinguisher" instead of "fire extinguisher" is a malapropism.

4 What type of slip is illustrated by: I like pop porn (for popcorn)?

->a slip of the ear.

5 What is aphasia?

->Aphasia is defined as an impairment of language function due to localized brain damage

6 Damage to what part of the brain results in conduction aphasia?

-> Damage to the arcuate fasciculus

7 Which type of aphasia is characterized by speech like this: speech ... two

times ... read ... wr ... ripe, er, rike, er, write ... ?

->Broca's aphasia.

8 What happens in a dichotic listening test?

->In a dichotic listening test, a subject hears two different sound signals simultaneously, one in each ear, to study hemispheric processing.

9 What is the critical period?

->The critical period is the time frame from birth to puberty during which the brain is most receptive to acquiring language.

10 What did researchers discover from Genie’s dichotic listening tests?

-> Researchers discovered that Genie showed a left ear advantage for verbal and non-verbal signals

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