57

Other Experimental Evidence of Brain Organization /

·
Dichotic listening is a n ex pe rime nta l te c h niqu th
b h . f I e at uses· aud 1·t . I
_c av,or_o t 1e individu a l he mi sph e res o f the human brai~ S . o ~y signa ~ t~ · o bserve the
0
sig n a ls s,mul ta n cou s ly throu g h earphon es Th ma h ear curl · ?Jects hear two different so und
· ey Y 1n o n d ·/· h
or a cou g h in one ea r a nd a laugh in the other When ask d e ear an gtr rn t e other,
b. f I . • e to st ate what they heard in each ear'
su Ject s a re more rcque nt y correct m reporting linguist IC · st · 1I· (
. d d · •mu words, nonsense syllables
d
an so o n ) d I
e 1ve re 1rectly to the right ear but are f I • • '
· 1· ( • I ' more requent y correct in reportmg
nonve r b a I st1mu ) d 1· d
. I mus1ca chords environm
. , .
ental sound
. s, an d so on e 1vere to the left ear.
S uc h expe nn~e nts provide strong evidence of lateraliza tion.
B_ot~ he misphere s r_eceive_ sign_als from both ears, but the contralat eral stimuli prevail over
the ipsilateral (same-si de) stimuli because they are processed more robustly. The contralat eral
pathway s are anatomi cally thicker (think of a four-lane highway versus a two-lane road) and
are not delayed by the need to cross the corpus callosum . The accuracy with which subjects
report what they hear is evidence that the left hemisphe re is superior for linguistic processin g,
and the right hemisph ere is superior for nonverba l informati on.
These experim ents are importan t because they show not only that language is lateralize d,
but also that the left hemisph ere is nQt superior for processin g all sounds;_it is only better for
those sounds that are linguistic . The left side of the brain is specialize d for language , not sound,
as we also note9 in connecti on with sign language research discussed earlier.
Other experim ental techniqu es are also being used to map the brain and to investiga te the
independ ence of different aspects of language a_n d the extent of the independ ence of language
from other cognitive systems. Even before the advances in imaging technolog y of the 1980s and
more recently, research ers were taping electrode s to different areas of the skull and investiga ting
the electrica l activity of the brain related to perceptua l and cognitive informat ion. In such
experime nts scientists measure event-related ~rain pote~tial~ (ERPs), which are the electrical
signals emitted from the brain in response to d1ffere~t stimuli. ·
For example , ERP differenc es result when the sub1ect hears speech sounds versus nonspeec h
sounds with a greater ·response fr~m the left hemisphe re to speech. ERP experime nts also
show v~riation s in timing, pattern, amplitud e, and hemisphe re of response when subjects hear
sentence s that are meaningl ess, such as
The man admired Don's headache of t,he landscape . XJ . r'

as opposed to meaning£ ul sentences such as

The man admired Don's sketch .of the landscape .
 TBE AUTONOMY OF LANGUAGE /

I 11ddi rion ro brain -dam aged indiv idual s who have lost their
3
lang uage abili ty, there are
ch ildren wic hour brain lesions who nevertheless have diffi
culti es in acqu iring lang uage or a~e
much ~Jower rh an rhe average child. They show no othe
r cogn itive defic its, they are not autis nc
or re rardcd, and rhey have no perc eptu al prob lems . Such
child ren are suffe ring from specific
language impairment (SLI). Only their lingu istic abili ty
is affec ted, and ofte n only specific
aspecrs of gram ma r a re impa ired .
Children with SLJ have prob lems with the use of func tion
word s such as artic les, prep osi-
rions, anJ auxil iary verbs. They also have diffi culti es with
infle ction al suffi xes on noun s and
verbs such as ma rkers of tense and agre emen t. Several exam
ples from a four -yea r-old boy with
SLI illusrrare chis:

2
Phillips. C.. and K. l.. Sakai. 2005. Langu age and the brain.
Yearbook of scienc e and techn ology 2005 . Bosro n :
MrGr,1w-Hill Publishers .
 59
Meowmeow chase mice.
Show me knife.
It not long one.

An experimental study of several SLI children showed that th d d h

marker on the verb (as in danced) about 27 percent of the time coey produc~ h \ ; past ten~e
the normal control group Similarly the SLI children produced th' e ml parle wktt (pe~cebnt Y)
· ' b P ura mar er -s as m oys
only 9 percen~ of the time, compared with 95 percent Ythe normal children. ·
Other
. .studies of children with SLI reveal broader grammatical
. i·mpa1rments,
· ·
mvo 1vmg
· d 1"ff'1-
culues. with many grammatical structures and operatio~s. However, most investigations of
SLI chi_ldren show that they have particular proble~s With verbal infle,tion, especially with
producing tensed verbs (walks, walked), and also with syntactic structures involving certain
kinds of word reorderings such as Mother is hard to please, a rearrangement of It is hard to
pleas~ Mother. In many respects these difficulties resemble the impairments demonstrated by
aphasics. Recent work on SLI children also shows that the different components of language
(phonolog~, syntax, lexicon) can be selectively impaired or spared. As is the case with aphasia,
these studies of SLI provide important information about the nature of language and help
linguist~ develop theories about the underlying propertie·s of language and its development in
children.
SLI children show that language may be impaired while general intelligence stays intact,
supporting the view of a grammatical faculty that is separate from other cognitive systems. But
is it possible for language to develop normally when general intelligence is impaired? If such
individuals can be found, it argues strongly for the vie~ that language does not derive from some
general cognitive ability. /

Other Dissociations of Language and Cognition ~

[T]he human mind is not an unstructured entity but consists of components which can be distinguished by
their functional properties.
NEIL SMITH AND IANTHI-MARIA TSIMPLI, The Mind of a Savant: Language, Learning, and Modularity, 1995

There are numerous cases of intellectually handicapped individuals who, despite th~i~ disabil-
ities in certain spheres, show remarkable talents in others. There are superb mus1c1ans and
artists who _lack the simple abilities required to take care of themselves. Such people are refer_red
to as savants. Some of the most famous savants are human calculators who can perform anth-
metic computations at phenomenal speed, or calendrical calculators who can tell you without
pause on which day of the week any date in the last or next century_fa_lls. .
Until recently, most such savants have been reported to be lingu1sttcally hand1c~pped . T hey
may be good mimics who can repeat speech like parrots, but they show meager creative l~nguage
ability. Nevertheless, the literature reports cases of language savants who have acqui red the
highly complex grammar of their language (as well as other la~guages in some cases) but wh o
lack nonlinguistic abilities of equal complexity. Laura and Christopher are two such cases.

Laura
Laura was a retarded young woman with a nonverba l IQ of 41 to 44. She b ( ked ., lmni;r J \l
number concepts, including basic countin g principl es . and co uld dr aw o nl y at a preschool level.
She had an auditory memory spa n limited to three units . Yet, when a t the age of sixteen she
was asked to name some fruits, she res pond ed with pea rs, ap ples, a nd pomegranates. In this
same period she produced sy ntac tica ll y co mplex se ntences lik e He was saying that I lost my
battery-powered watch that 1 loved, and She does paintings, this really good friend of the kids
who I went to school with and really loved, and / was lik e 15 or 19 when I started moving out
of home ...
Laura could not add 2 + 2. She didn't know how old she was or how old she was when she
moved away from home, nor whether 15 is before or after 19. Nevertheless , Laura produced
con,plex sentences with multiple phrases and sentences with other sentences inside them. She
used and understood ,passive sentences, and she was able to inflect verbs for number and person
to agree with the subject of the sentence. She formed past tenses in accord with adverbs that
referred to past time. She could do all this and more, but she could neither read nor write nor
tell time. She did not know who the president of the United States was or what country she lived
in. Her drawings of humans resembled potatoes with stick arms and legs. Yet, in a sentence
imitation task, she both detecte9 and corrected grammatical errors.
Laura is but one of many examples of children who display well-developed grammatical
abilities, less-developed abilities to associate linguistic expressions with the objects they refer
to, and severe deficits in nonlinguistic cognition.
In addition, any notion that linguistic competence results simply from communicative
abilities, or develops to serve communicative functions; is belied by studies of children with
good linguistic skills, but nearly no or severely limited communicative skills. The acquisition
a~d us~ of la~guage _seem to ~ nd on cognitive skills different from the ability to commu-
mcate ma social settmg. /
 "'r) ._ , I ,0

61
Genetic Basis of Language / '
Studies of genetic disorders also revea I that one cognitive dorna.
wit· h a b norma I d evelopment in other domains,
· a nd the Y a Iso und
in can develop normally . along
· I
· f I d me ( h erscore the strong 6 101ogica
basis o anguage. Children with Turner syn ro a c romoso h 1
1 1
language and advanced reading skills along with serious nonlinma _ ~no(m_a y)I avJ nor~~)
cognitive deficits. Similarly s'tudies of the language of children anlu~
st
;c visua _a~ ;.fttla
syndrome reveal a unique behavioral profile in which certain l1'ngu~ t? efscent~ wit I iambs
· . •1 .. is 1c unctions seem to e
relatively preserved m the face of visual and spatta cognitive defi'ci·ts d d d ·
·. . an mo erate retar anon.
In add1t1on,
. .developmental dyslexia and SLI also appear to have a ge ne t 1c. ' ba sis.
· A nd rec en t
studies of ~ltnef~lt_er syndrome (another chromosomal anomaly) show quite selective syntactic
and semantic deficits alongside intact intelligence.
Epidemiological and familial aggregation studies show that SLI runs in families. One such
study is of a lar_ge multigenerational family, half of whom are language impaired. The impaired
members of this family have a very specific grammatical problem: They do not reliably use
word-endings or "irregular" verbs correctly. In particular, th.ey often fail to indicate the tense
of the verb. They routinely produce sentences such as the following:
She remembered when she hurts herself the other day.
He did it then he fall. .
The boy climb up the tree and frightened the bird away.

These and similar results show that a large proportion of SLI children have language-impaired
family members, pointing to SLI as a heritable disorder. Studies also show that monozygotic
(identical) twins are more likely to both suffer from SLI than dizygotic (fraternal) twins. Thus
evidence from SLI and other genetic disorders, along with the asymmetry of abilities in linguistic
savants, strongly supports the view that the language faculty is an autonomous, genetically
determined module of the brain.

Langµage and the brain are intimately connected. Specific areas of the brain are devoted to
language, and injury to these areas disrupts language. In the young child, injury to ~r remo~al
of the left hemisphere has severe consequences for language development. Conversely, mcreasmg
evidence shows that normal brain development depends on early and regular exposure to
language. (See chapter 8.)
 SUMMARY V
The attempt to understand what makes the acquisition and use of language possibk has led
to research on the br~in-mind-language relationship. Neurolinguistics is the study of rhc
brain mechanisms and anatomical structures that underlie linguistic: competence ;ind perfor-
mance. Much neurolinguistic research is centered on experimental and beh::ivioral dat;.1 fror~
people with impaired or atypical language. These results greatly enhance our understa nding 01
language structure and acquisition.

3
Chomsky, N., in Searchingcr, G. 1994. The human langu a ~e ser ic'i , prugra, 11 J. Vid eo. N t· w Yo rk : hp1111u x I ilt1 tf
Ways of Knowing, Jnc.
4
Gould, S. J., in Searchinger, G. 1994. The human lang uage !>t:ril' '- , prograQ) L V1d1: o . N L·w Y,u k : Fq11i11 ox hlm / W,11 '
of Knowing, Jnc.
1
Pinkcr, S. 1995. The language i,istinct. New York: William Morrow ,
 67
The brai n is the mos t com plex or
and thou ght proc esse s . Rese arch con~an o f t he bP d
Y, cont rolli ng mot or and sens ory a~tivities
arts of the brai n cont rol diffe re ucte d f~r more than a cent ury has show n that diffe rent
Pb . ll d h nt body
ram are ca e t e cort ex whic h serve funchtion· s. The 11
nerve cells that form the surfa ce of the
, t e mte ectu a I dec1s · ·
from the sens ory orga ns and initi ating sallas volu 10n mak er receiving messages
ntar y acti'ons Th b · 'f 11 h' h
• · ·d d · · l
1s d1v1 e mto two part s calle d the cerebral hem 'sph • e ram o a 1g er amm as
1 eres , w h.1c h are d by t h
callo sum , a ~etw ork tha~ ~erm its the left and righ t conn ecte e corpus
hemispheres to com mun icate .
E~ch h~m isph ere exhi bits contral~teral cont rol of
func tions . The left hemisphere cont rols
the ngh t side of the body , and the ngh t hem isph ere
cont rols the left side. Despite the general
sym metr ~ of the ~um an body , muc h evidence suggests
that the brai n is asym metr ic, with the
left and ngh t hem isph eres lateralized for diffe rent func
tions .
. Neuroli_nguists have man y tool s for stud ying the brai
n, amo ng them dichotic listening exper-
iments and ~~n y typ~ s of scan s and elec trica l mea
sure men ts. Thes e tech niqu es perm it the
study of the livin g brai n as it proc esse s lang uage . By
stud ying split-brain patie nts and aphasics,
localized area s of the brai n can be asso ciate d with part
icul ar lang uage func tion s. For example,
lesions in the part of the brai n calle d Broca's area may
suffer from Broca's aphasia, whic h results
in imp aire d synt ax and agrammatism. Dam age to
Wernicke's area may resu lt in Wernicke's
aphasia, in whi ch flue nt spea kers prod uce sem antic
ally anom alou s utter ance s, or even worse,
jargon aph asia , in whi ch -spe aker s prod uce nons ense
forms that mak e their utter ance unin ter-
pretable. Dam age to yet diffe rent area s can prod uce
anomia, a form of apha sia in whic h the
patie nt has wor d-fi ndin g diffi culti es.
Dea f sig\iers with dam age to the left hemisphere show
apha sia for sign lang uage simi lar
to the lang uage brea kdo wn in hear ing ap~asi~s, even
thou gh sign lang uage is a visu al-sp atial
language.
Othe r evid ence supp orts the later aliza tion of lang
uage. Chil dren who unde rgo . a left
hemispherectomy show specific linguistic _deficits,
whereas othe r cognitive abilities rema in
intact. If the righ t brai n is dam aged or removed after
1
the first two or thre e year s, however,
language is unim pair ed, but othe r cogni~iv~ diso rder s
may result. .. . . ..
The lang uage facu lty is modul~r. ~t is independen~
of othe r c~gmt1ve ~ystems ~1th wh!c_h
it inter acts. Evid ence for mod ular ity 1s foun d m stud
ies of apha sia, of child ren with spec1f1c
language imp airm ent (SLI), of lingu istic _savants, and
of child ren who l_e arn lang uage past t.he
critical period. The gene tic basis for an m~e pend ent
la_nguage m?d ule is-s_upport~d by stud ies
of SLI in fami lies and twin s a_nd by stud ies of gene
tic- anom alies asso ciate d with lang uage
disorders. ·
The critical-age hypo thes is state s that there is a wi~d
ow of oppo rtun ity bet~ een birt~ and
middle chil dhoo d for lear ning a first lang uage . The
imper~ect lang uage l~~rnmg of pers ons
exposed to lang uage afte r this peri od support~ the hypo
thesis. Some so~gbtrds also appe ar to
have a criti cal peri od for the, acqu isitio n of their calls
and songs. \.,,,,,,,.,,,.