Chapter 19 Language

19.1 What is Language?

Language Structure (from slides)
Component Description

Phonemes Smallest unit of meaningful sound

Eg. /b/ vs /p/ in bat vs pat

Morphemes Smallest unit of meaning

Eg. play-er-s talk-ed

Lexicon Collection of all words (form, syntax, and their meanings)

Syntax How words can be combined (grammar)

Semantics Literal meaning of words/ sentences

Prosody Tone of voice - can modify literal meaning of words/ sentences

Discourse Linking of sentences to narrative

Pragmatics Knowledge about how language is used (meaning in cultural and emotional context)

Components of Language (from slides)

- Generativity: infinite combinations possible

What is needed for language? (from slides, not in TB)

- Motor speech apparatus: Typically human spoken language, with articulation and use of consonants
o Controlled by brain
- But: sign language! Also complicated, generative system, does not involve sound
- Human brain: capable to acquire a communicative system with complexity, structure, and generativity of
language
- (Dis)continuity?
- A human environment: input and interaction!
o Deprived children
o Deaf children
- Sensitive period
o Window of opportunity

Producing Sound
- Air exhaled form lungs causes oscillations of vocal cords (or vocal folds) located in larynx (voice box)
- Rate of vocal-fold oscillation determines pitch of sound produced
- Acoustical energy generated passes through vocal tract (pharyngeal, oral, and nasal cavities) and out through
nostrils and lips
 - In vocal tract, structures in vocal tract filter (or shape) sound waves specific to each sound (formants), which
emphasizes sound frequencies meaningful in speech

Core Language Skills

4 core skills underlie human language:
1. Categorisation
2. Labeling Categories
3. Sequencing Behavior
a. LH structures associated with language has role in ordering vocal movements
b. Can sequence body movements to produce nonverbal language
4. Mimicry
a. Fosters language development
b. Mirror neurons responsible for ability to mimic language

19.2 Searching for the Origins of Language

- Discontinuity theories (from slides)
o language evolved rapidly
o Appeared suddenly in modern humans
o ~200,000 years ago
- Continuity theories (from slides)
o Language evolved gradually
o Possibly by modifications of communication common to many animal species

Discontinuity Theories
- One emphasis: unique species-specific “computational core” of human language – its sounds, syntax, and
language
- Argument: ability to write and speak appeared at about same time
- What makes this theory plausible: modern humans first appeared within past 200k years, since evolution was
sudden, vocal tract was low, capable of making deft mouth movements, created art -> theory that one of
their adaptive strategies was vocal language

Continuity Theories
- Evidence from studying chimpanzees
- Nonverbal gestures related to speech

Experimental Approaches to Language Origins

o Animal species communication
o Kanzi the gorilla and understanding novel sentences

19.3 Localisation of Language

Wernicke-Geschwind Model (from slides)
- A three part model (refer to image on right)

The Classical Model – based on aphasia (from slides)

- Broca’s aphasia (1861)
o Posterior part LIFG
o Production impaired (‘tan’)
o Slow, laborious, non-fluent speech
(utterances of <4 words)
o Speech understand and reading
relatively intact, but writing limited
- Wernicke’s aphasia (1874)
o Boundary of temporal-parietal lobes
o Fluent but disordered speech/ writing
o Impaired understanding speech/
reading
Originally thought that function of Broca vs Wernicke: (from slides)
1. Production vs comprehension
2. Syntax vs semantics
3. Integration vs memory -> currently under debate

Problems with classical model: (from slides, not in TB)

- Mismatch aphasia-type and damaged area (50-60%)
- Limited to lexical level (eg. Agrammatism for Broca’s aphasia)
- On point 1: Broca’s area also comprehension (sentences), Wernicke’s area also production
- On point 2: Broca’s area also semantics (meaning), and Wernicke’s area also syntax (grammar)
- There is a possible dynamic interaction between Broca’s and Wernicke’s area

Why the classical model is wrong: (from slides, not in TB)

- Distribution of labour between Broca’s and Wernicke’s area is different than proposed in classical model
o Hence: debate on distribution of labour: MUC model
- Can we talk about Broca and Wernicke only?
- Often bilateral activation in both areas during language processing (neuroimaging studies)
- Much more extended network of areas is involved, also subcortical, and not only in the LH
- Classical connections are not
complete; there are 7 different tracts
that are important for language which
are much more complicated than
classical model (from slides, not in TB)
o Arcuate fasciculus (long)
o Arcuate fasciculus (anterior)
o Arcuate fasciculus (posterior)
o Inferior frontal-occipital
fasciculus
o Frontal aslant tract
o Inferior longitudinal fasciculus
o Uncinate fasciculus

MUC Model (from slides, not in TB)

- Sentences in the brain

o Cooperate
o In posterior
temporal cortex on
forming of words ->
a lot of interaction
between the areas
-> need
cooperation for
sentence
processing
o Always see these
areas activated
hence difficult to
differentiate the
specifics of
functions of regions
Anterior and Posterior Language Regions
Broca’s area has 2 subdivisions: anterior and posterior in area 45, dorsal and ventral region in area 44
- However anatomy of broca’s areas brings many challenges that prevent us from fully understanding
anatomical basis of language function in this brain region
Binder (2017) on Posterior Cortical Regions for Phonemes and Semantics

Lateralisation of language (from slides, not in TB)

- Lateralisation strongest for production and syntax
- RH also involved in language comprehension and semantics
- RH special role for prosody and language in context (drawing inferences, metaphors, etc.)
- Different structural properties of hemispheres might give biases for lateralisation

Dual Pathways for Language

- Thompson-Schill (2014): temporal and frontal
cortices connected by pairs of dorsal and ventral
language pathways, rather than single pathway
in Wernicke-Geschwind model
- Dorsal language pathways: transform sound
information into motor representations (from
slides)
o Syntax: categorises sounds in terms of
frequency of association
- Ventral language pathways: convey phonological
information into semantic information (from
slides)
o Syntax: extract meaning from
grammatical organisation of words
- Nonverbal speech (reading/ sign language from
visual cortex/ Braille from parietal cortex) also uses these pathways
 - TLDR: dorsal pathway for sounds, ventral pathway for meaning
o Damage to dorsal language pathway: cannot articulate words, can understand
o Damage to ventral language pathway: can read, cant understand meaning
o Damage to both: cannot repeat words (DLP), cannot articulate meaningful words (VLP)

Speech Zones Mapped by Brain Stimulation and Surgical Lesions

- Damage to sensory and motor areas produces transient
aphasia (aphasia from which considerable recovery occurs)
- Cortical stimulation (in areas shown in diagram) produces
positive/negative effects, and variety of aphasia-like errors:
o Total speech arrest or inability to vocalise
spontaneously
o Hesitation and slurred speech
o Distortion and repetition of words and syllables
o Number confusing while counting
o Inability to name objects despite retained ability to
speak
o Misnaming and perseverating
- During stimulation of Broca’s area:
o Unable to make voluntary facial movements
o Disrupt phonemic discrimination and gestures
associated with speech

Speech Zones Mapped by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

(from slides)
- Possible subdivision of Broca’s area
- Semantic task (same meaning?) or phonological task (same
sound?)
- Consistent with fMRI

Speech Zones Mapped by Brain-Imaging Techniques

Neural Networks for Language
The Semantic Network (from slides), refer to image on right
- Posterior: perceptual knowledge of language
o Including interpretation of visual, auditory, and tactile signals
related to construct of words and their meanings
- Anterior: action knowledge
o Eg. Travel to various locations, use of tools, social interactions
- Overlaps with default mode network and semantic memory network
(autobiographical memory network)

Language in brain: (from slides, not in TB)

- No strict separation between anterior and posterior language areas
- Functions of these areas not strictly limited to language
- Cortical areas within RH, subcortical structures (thalamus, caudate
nucleus), cerebellum, and visual cortical areas are also involved in
speech and language

The brain dictionary (from slides)

- Data-driven (participants watch movies/ listen/ read stories)
- Correlations with specific words/ actions
- Response of a single voxel (a unit of area in brain imaging) to objects
and actions
- Voxel in the left parahippocampal place area: responsive to scenes containing constructed objects, decreased
response to animals, plants and body parts

- Brain dictionary organises and displays multiple semantic maps tiled across the cortex, each map
topographically representing related language objects and actions
o Semantic maps suggest that objects and verbs are continuously represented across cortex
Nodes and Neural Webs for Language

- Meaning comes through connections (different senses of same word) (from slides)
o Eg. Piano being played vs piano being moved -> depending on context word is used, it activates
different neural networks

19.4 Language Disorders

Aphasia: language disorder apparent in speech, in writing (agraphia) or in reading (alexia) (from slides)
- Not: disturbance language due to intellectual impairment, loss of sensory input or paralysis musculature
mouth (anarthria) or hand

Fluent Aphasias
= fluent speech, difficulty verbal comprehension or repeating words/ sentences (from slides)
- Sensory aphasia (= Wernicke’s aphasia)
o Fluent speech without articulation problems, but incoherent
o Poor understanding of spoken language
o Elementary problems with phonemes (speech sounds) and graphemes (letters)
o Word salad: intelligible words strung together randomly
o Writing problems
- Transcortical aphasia (or isolation syndrome)
o Can repeat, understand words, name objects but cannot speak spontaneously
o Or can repeat words but cannot comprehend them
o Poor production of meaningful speech (word production normal, but words not associated with
other cognitive activities in brain)
- Conduction aphasia
o Understanding and speaking OK, but unable to repeat words
- Anomic/ amnesic aphasia
o Good speech understanding and production
o Serious word finding problems: with nouns (temporal) or verbs (frontal)
Nonfluent Aphasias
= relatively good speech understanding but difficult, simplified, or absent speech production (from slides)
- Expressive aphasia (= Broca’s aphasia)
o Good speech understanding, but slow, poor, and grammatically deficient speech production
- Transcortical motor aphasia
o Repetition good, difficult spontaneous production of speech
- Global aphasia
o Speech labored, comprehension poor

Pure Aphasias
- Pure (selective) aphasias: specific problems with reading (alexia), writing (agraphia), or word recognition,
without other language problems (from slides)

19.5 Localisation of Lesions in Aphasia (from slides)

- Infarct outside Broca’s area can result in Broca’s aphasia
o Selective damage to Broca’s and Wernicke’s area do not produce
Broca or Wernicke aphasia
- Complexities (often because of stroke, and different regions are
affected):
o Large parts of brain directly or indirectly involved in language
(auditory or visual perception, motor activity, working memory,
long-term memory)
o In many patients, language disorders effect of CVA of middle
cerebral artery – providing blood supply of important temporal
and frontal language areas and caudate nucleus
- Localisation of language disorders difficult because CVA is often followed
by (partial) recovery processes
- Fluent and non-fluent aphasias may consist of numerous symptoms
which may have different neurological causes

Cortical Language Components

- Damage to insula: apraxia of speech
- Damage to dorsal bank of superior temporal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus: impairments in sentence
comprehension
- Damage to arcuate fasciculus: recurring utterances
- Damage to ventral frontal cortex: impairments in working memory and articulation
- Damage to medial temporal lobe and underlying white matter: core difficulties of fluent aphsia, especially
lack of speech comprehension
- Damage to temporal cortex: deficits in holding sentences in memory until they can be repeated

Subcortical Language Components

- Thalamus: participates in language
o Stimulation of thalamus: positive effect on memory
- Stimulation of left-ventrolateral and pulvinar thalamic nuclei: speech arrest, difficulties in naming,
perseveration, reduced talking speed
- Lesions of left-ventrolateral thalamus or pulvinar nucleus or both: postoperative dysphasia
o Symptoms include: increased verbal-response latency, decrease in voice volume, alterations in
speaking rate, slurring, hesitation in speech, impaired performance on verbal IQ and memory tests
Right-Hemisphere Contributions to Language (from slides)
- RH can also understand language
- Capable of language comprehension, especially auditory material, even though usually no control of speech
– there is rarely aphasia after RH lesion
- But good auditory comprehension of language (both objects and actions)
- Can recognise words (semantic processing), but little understanding of grammatical rules and sentence
structures (syntactical processing)
- Problems prosody if got lesion
- Problems context use for (word/ sentence/ discourse) interpretation

19.6 Neuropsychological Assessment of Aphasia

- Included many different tests for aphasia, but I doubt it will be tested

Acquired Reading Disorders (from slides)

- Acquired dyslexia (stroke) vs developmental dyslexia
- Overall term for group of heterogeneous cognitive
reading problems
- Dyslexia may occur at level of letters, words, or
sentences
- Dyslexia may be effect of defective (parallel)
processing of orthographic, phonological, spatial, or
semantic representations of written language or
combinations thereof
- Types of dyslexia:
o Attentional dyslexia
▪ More than one letter present, letter
naming is difficult
o Neglect dyslexia
▪ May misread first half or last part of
word
o Deep dyslexia
▪ Semantic errors; read semantically
related words in place of word they
are trying to read (eg. Merry as
Christmas)
▪ In increasing difficulty of types of
words to read: nouns, adjectives,
verbs
o Phonological dyslexia
▪ Inability to read nonwords aloud
o Surface dyslexia
▪ Cannot recognise words directly but
can understand them by using
letter-to-sound relations if they
sound out the words
The Dual-Route Theory
= reading written language is accomplished by use of two distinct but interactive procedures, the lexical and
nonlexical routes
- Reading by lexical route: relies on activation of orthographic (picture) or phonological (sound)
representations of whole word
o Can process all familiar words, both regular and irregular
o Fails with unfamiliar or nonwords due to lack of means for representing them
- Reading by nonlexical route: uses subword procedure based on sound-spelling rules
o Succeeds with nonwords and regular words that obey letter-sound rules
o Fails with irregular words that do not obey these rules (eg. Winding, choir)
- Applying dual-route theory
o Typical readers: compute sense and sound in parallel
o Dyslexic readers: one or the other process absent
▪ Deep dyslexia: unable to process for sound, reads for sence
▪ Surface dyslexia: process sound, but not sense
- Theory effective in diagnosing both developmental and acquired dyslexia