Dr. R.

Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
1

Neurolinguistics
How do humans learn to understand language?
What are the first steps in language acquisition?
How does language develop from a baby to a child and so on?
Are there certain preconditions in our brains that support language?
And, most importantly, why is language important?
Introduction
Neurolinguistics studies the relation of language and communication to different aspects of
brain function, i.e. it tries to explore how the brain understands and produces language and
communication.
This involves attempting to combine theory from neurology/neurophysiology (how the brain
is structured and how it functions) with linguistic theory (how language is structured and how
it functions).
Neurolinguistics is a branch of Cognitive Neuroscience, that, on its turn, together with many
other fields such as Systemic, Movement, Sensory, Cellular and others, is a branch of a
larger domain named the Neurosciences. Neurolinguistics can still be divided into two areas:
language acquisition and processing and language impairment.

The mind-brain relationship

Each of our eyes sees one image. Then the brain combines the two images into one to
make vision. However, these images are slightly different from each other. The brain uses
these small differences to figure out how far away and how deep an object is. During the
process, the eyes move continuously, on a fleeting time scale, to update the information that
is being sent to the brain, including details of edge, shape, motion and color. In a few
milliseconds we are able to acquire in our brains an accurate mental representation that
matches what is in our visual field.
Children are specially attracted to objects that do something: produce a sound, move
around, light up. Such objects establish a cause-effect relationship that motivates children to
theorize and look for the source of motion inside and not on the surface of what they see.
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
2

As for as adults concerned, based on their knowledge of the world already represented in
their minds, they know or are able to make educated guesses about the contents of closed
containers. This system of world knowledge acquisition that maps objects to abstract, mental
representations gradually breaks children’s innocence in relation to the contents in the world
around them.
Since world concepts and objects are constantly updated along with collective history, the
break of a child’s innocence happens in accordance with the technology and the scientific
bias of a specific time.
The understanding of the mind-brain
Understanding the complex relationship between the mind and the brain means connecting
the subtle effects of cognition – speech, hearing, vision, motor coordination, memory and
others – to the brain, the material portion that gives rise to cognition.
The Central Nervous System consists of the spinal cord and the brain. (The peripheral
nervous system consists of neurons elsewhere in the body, motor and sensory, which are
connected to the spinal cord.) The brain is that portion of the central nervous system which
is located inside the skull. It is commonly divided into five main parts, listed here in order
from lowest (adjacent to the spinal cord) to highest (farthest from the spinal cord):

Certain parts of the brain are responsible for understanding words and sentences. These
brain areas are mainly located in two regions, in the left side of the brain, and are connected
by nerves. Together, these brain regions and their connections form a network that provides
the hardware for language in the brain. Without this brain network, we would not be able to
talk or to understand what’s being said.
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
3

Two brain regions are highlighted in red and orange. These regions are strongly involved in
processing speech and language. The blue and green lines illustrate connections that link
the two regions with one another and form a network of language areas. There is an upper
nerve connection (blue) and a lower nerve connection (green).
The above picture illustrates this talkative mesh in the brain. The connections within this
network are particularly important, because they allow the network nodes to exchange
information.
BROCA’S AREA , WERNICKE’S AREA, AND OTHER LANGUAGE-PROCESSING
AREAS IN THE BRAIN
Broca’s area is generally defined as comprising Brodmann areas 44 and 45, which lie
anterior to the premotor cortex in the inferior posterior portion of the frontal lobe. Though
both area 44 and area 45 contribute to verbal fluency, each seems to have a separate
function, so that Broca’s area can be divided into two functional units.

Area 44 (the posterior part of the inferior frontal gyrus) seems to be involved in phonological
processing and in language production as such; this role would be facilitated by its position
close to the motor centres for the mouth and the tongue. Area 45 (the anterior part of the
inferior frontal gyrus) seems more involved in the semantic aspects of language. Though not
directly involved in accessing meaning, Broca’s area therefore plays a role in verbal memory
(selecting and manipulating semantic elements).
Wernicke’s area lies in the left temporal lobe and, like Broca’s area, is no longer regarded as
a single, uniform anatomical/functional region of the brain. By analyzing data from numerous
brain-imaging experiments, researchers have now distinguished three sub-areas within
Wernicke’s area. The first responds to spoken words (including the individual’s own) and
other sounds. The second responds only to words spoken by someone else but is also
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
4

activated when the individual recalls a list of words. The third sub-area seems more closely
associated with producing speech than with perceiving it. All of these findings are still
compatible, however, with the general role of Wernicke’s area, which relates to the
representation of phonetic sequences, regardless of whether the individual hears them,
generates them himself or herself, or recalls them from memory.
Wernicke’s area, of which the temporal planum is a key anatomical component, is located on
the superior temporal gyrus, in the superior portion of Brodmann area 22. This is a strategic
location, given the language functions that Wernicke’s area performs. It lies between the
primary auditory cortex (Brodmann areas 41 and 42) and the inferior parietal lobule.
This lobule is composed mainly of two distinct regions: caudally, the angular gyrus (area 39),
which itself is bounded by the visual occipital areas (areas 17, 18, and 19), and dorsally, the
supramarginal gyrus (area 40) which arches over the end of the lateral sulcus, adjacent to
the inferior portion of the somatosensory cortex.

The supramarginal gyrus seems to be involved in phonological and articulatory processing of

words, whereas the angular gyrus (together with the posterior cingulate gyrus) seems more
involved in semantic processing. The right angular gyrus appears to be active as well as the
left, thus revealing that the right hemisphere also contributes to semantic processing of
language.
Together, the angular and supramarginal gyri constitute a multimodal associative area that
receives auditory, visual, and somatosensory inputs. The neurons in this area are thus very
well positioned to process the phonological and semantic aspect of language that enables us
to identify and categorize objects.
The language areas of the brain are distinct from the circuits responsible for auditory
perception of the words we hear or visual perception of the words we read. The auditory
cortex lets us recognize sounds, an essential prerequisite for understanding language. The
visual cortex, which lets us consciously see the outside world, is also crucial for language,
because it enables us to read words and to recognize objects as the first step in identifying
them by a name.
How the brain works with language?
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
5

Research has identified two primary “language centers,” which are both located on the left
side of the brain. These are Broca's area, tasked with directing the processes that lead to
speech utterance, and Wernicke's area , whose main role is to “decode” speech.
What part of the brain is language?
Broca's area, located in the frontal lobe of the brain, is linked to speech production, and
recent studies have shown that it also plays a significant role in language comprehension.
Broca's area works in conjunction with working memory to allow a person to use verbal
expression and spoken words.
Why is the brain so well suited to learning language?
Language learning helps improve people's thinking skills and memory abilities. ... “Because
the language centers in the brain are so flexible, learning a second language can develop
new areas of your mind and strengthen your brain's natural ability to focus."
Issues in neurolinguistics and linguistic aphasiology
There are two types of language disorders: acquired language disorders and developmental
language disorders. Acquired language disorders result from brain damage, while
developmental language disorders do not.
The study of aphasia, an acquired language disorder, is a central part of neurolinguistics. It
is the loss of language ability due to brain damage. There are numerous types of aphasia,
including the following:
Broca's aphasia: Caused by damage to Broca's area, it results in declined speech
production, though comprehension remains relatively normal. Agrammatic speech is a
characteristic of Broca's aphasia.
Wernicke's aphasia: Caused by damage to Wernicke's area, it results in reduced
comprehension ability. People who suffer from Wernicke's aphasia can produce fluent
speech, but their speech typically makes no sense. Anomia, a chronic version of the TOT
phenomenon, is often observed in patients.
Conduction aphasia: Caused by damage to the arcuate fasciulus, it results in relatively
normal comprehension and speech but poor repetition. Paraphasia also occurs as they may
pronounce sounds they do not intend to pronounce.
Other language disorders include:
Dyslexia: It is a developmental disorder that results in a reduced ability to read.
Dementia: It is an acquired disorder that results in, among other things, reduced language
ability.
Specific Language Impairment: It is a developmental disorder that results in reduced
language ability with no obvious cause.
MODELS OF SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS IN THE BRAIN
A first model of the general organization of language functions in the brain was proposed by
American neurologist Norman Geschwind in the 1960s and 1970s. This “connectionist”
model drew on the lesion studies done by Wernicke and his successors and is now known
as the Geschwind-Wernicke model. According to this model, each of the various
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
6

characteristics of language (perception, comprehension, production, etc.) is managed by a

distinct functional module in the brain, and each of these modules is linked to the others by a
very specific set of serial connections. The central hypothesis of this model is that language
disorders arise from breakdowns in this network of connections between these modules.
According to this model, when you hear a
word spoken, this auditory signal is
processed first in your brain’s primary
auditory cortex, which then sends it on to
the neighbouring Wernicke’s area.
Wernicke’s area associates the structure
of this signal with the representation of a
word stored in your memory, thus
enabling you to retrieve the meaning of
the particular word.
In contrast, when you read a word out
loud, the information is perceived first by
your visual cortex, which then transfers it
to the angular gyrus, from which it is sent
on to Wernicke’s area.
Whether you hear someone else speak a word or you read the word yourself, it is the mental
lexicon in Wernicke’s area that recognizes this word and correctly interprets it according to
the context. For you then to pronounce this word yourself, this information must be
transmitted via the arcuate fasciculus to a destination in Broca’s area, which plans the
pronunciation process. Lastly, this information is routed to the motor cortex, which controls
the muscles that you use to pronounce the word.
The Wernicke-Geschwind model is thus based on the anatomical location of areas of the
brain that have distinct functions. On the whole, this model provides a good understanding of
the primary language disorders, such as Broca’s aphasia or Wernicke’s aphasia. But is also
has its limitations. For one thing, its assumption that the various areas involved in processing
speech are connected in series implies that one step must be completed before the next one
can begin, which is not always actually the case. Because this model also fails to explain
certain partial language disorders, other models have been proposed to address these
shortcomings.
In addition to semantic memory, which lets us retain the various
meanings of words, we must use other specialized forms of memory in
order to speak. For example, to pronounce any given phoneme of a
language that you know how to speak, you must place your tongue and
mouth in a particular position. They assume this position unconsciously,
but obviously you must have stored it in memory somewhere in your
brain.

In some languages, such as Spanish, the relationship between spelling

and pronunciation is fairly straightforward, so it is fairly easy to retrieve
the pronunciation of a word when you read it. But in other languages, the
exact same string of letters may be pronounced very different ways in
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
7

different words—for instance, the “ough” in “thought”, “tough”, “through”

and “though”, in English, or the “ars” in “jars”, “mars”, and “gars”, in
French. These arbitrary variations must be memorized as such, with no
logical rules

HANDEDNESS, LANGUAGE, AND BRAIN LATERALIZATION

Perhaps the most striking anatomical characteristic of the human brain is that it is divided
into two hemispheres, so that it has two of almost every structure: one on the left side and
one on the right. But these paired structures are not exactly symmetrical and often differ in
their size, form, and function. This phenomenon is called brain lateralization.
The two most lateralized functions in the human brain are motor control and language. When
a function is lateralized, this often means that one side of the brain exerts more control over
this function than the other does. The side that exerts more control is often called the
“dominant hemisphere” for this function, but this expression can be somewhat misleading
(see sidebar).
Lateralization of motor control is what determines whether
someone is right-handed or left-handed. When someone is
ambidextrous—when they can use either hand as easily as the
other—it means that their brain is only partly lateralized or not at
all lateralized for motor control.
In right-handed people, the “dominant” hemisphere for motor
control is the left, while in left-handed people, it is the right. The
reason for this inversion is that the motor pathways of the
nervous system cross over to the other side of the body as they
go down the spinal cord. Thus the movements of one side of the
body are controlled by the hemisphere on the opposite side.
About 9 out of 10 adults are right-handed. This proportion seems
to have remained stable over many thousands of years and in all
cultures in which it has been studied
In the vast majority of right-handed people, language abilities are
localized in the left hemisphere. But contrary to what you might expect, the opposite is not
true among left-handed people, for whom the picture is less clear. Many “lefties” show a
specialization for language in the left hemisphere, but some show one in the right, while for
still others, both hemispheres contribute just about equally to language.
Though handedness does influence the brain hemisphere that people use to speak, the left
hemisphere does seem to have a natural predisposition for language, and this predisposition
is reflected anatomically.
THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE’S CONTRIBUTION TO LANGUAGE
Verbal language is not the only way that two people communicate with each other. Even
before they open their mouths, they are already communicating through various non-verbal
mechanisms.
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
8

First of all, their physical appearance, the way they dress, the way they carry themselves,
and their general attitude all form a context that lends a particular coloration to their verbal
messages. Next, the particular position of their bodies during conversation, the way their
eyes move, the gestures they make, and the ways they mimic each other will also impart a
certain emotional charge to what they say. There is also what is often called the music of
language—the variations in tone, rhythm, and inflection that alter the meanings of words.
When we are talking about language, it is therefore useful to distinguish between verbal
language—the literal meaning of the words—and everything that surrounds these words and
gives them a particular connotation. That is the big difference between denoting and
connoting: the message that is perceived never depends solely on what is said, but always
on how it is said as well.
Another good reason to distinguish between the denotative and connotative aspects of
language is that they call on different parts of the brain. In the great majority of people, it is
the left hemisphere that formulates and understands the meaning of words and sentences,
while the right hemisphere interprets the emotional connotation of these words.
For example, if you ask someone who has right
hemisphere damage to tell you which of the two
pictures here best portrays the expression “She
has a heavy heart”, that person will point to the
woman with the big heart on her sweater rather
than to the woman in tears. Similarly, if you
remarked in a sarcastic tone that someone was a
really nice guy, a person with right-hemisphere
damage would think you really meant it.
CLASSICAL CONNECTIONISTS MODELS
By the early 19th century, two clearly separate
schools of thought regarding the brain’s function in
language had developed.One school was
comprised of those investigators who believed
that specific (mental) functions were subserved by
specific areas of the brain. Investigators
supporting this view point became known as “localizationists”.
Opponents to localizationists viewpoint, known as “holists”, believed that the mental function
was the product of the entire brain working as a unit & that mental ability was a reflection of
total brain volume.
What is the connectionist theory?
Connectionism is a general theory of learning for animals and humans. ... If an animal
perceives that a particular stimulus goes with a particular response then the connection is
more readily established. For example, by opening the puzzle box (stimulus) the cat can get
at the food (response).
 Dr. R. Soundararajan
Associate Professor in English
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The basic components of a connectionist system are as follows; A set of processing

units. A set of modifiable connections between units. A learning procedure (optional)
The connectionist approach, on the other hand, emphasized that human information
processing, as it is indicated by the neural structures of the brain and the activity
patterns that become visible by brain-imaging procedures (fMRI, etc.), does not occur
in a serial and discrete manner, which is characteristic of symbol .
What is the hierarchical structure of language?
Combinations of the individual elements of human language are not only linear but also
hierarchical in nature. This means that human language consists not only of precedence
relations (e.g. coordination) but also of dominance relations (e.g. subordination).
Different views on the relation between brain and language:

 Localism tries to find locations or centers in the brain for different language functions.
 Associationism places language functions in the connections between different areas
of the brain, making it possible to associate, for example, perceptions of different
senses with words and/or “concepts”
 Dynamic localization of function assumes that functional systems of localized sub-
functions perform language functions. Such systems are dynamic, so that they can
be reorganized during language development or after a brain damage.
 Holistic theories consider many language functions as handled by large parts of the
brain working together.
 Evolution based theories stress the relation between how brain and language
evolved over time in different species, how they develop in children and how adults
perform language functions.
Acquired language disorders
• Aphasia is an acquired language disorder, often defined as a focal lesion (i.e. a lesion of
specific areas).
• Acquired disorders are also caused by progressive neurological diseases, e.g. dementias.
• Language and memory are closely connected and interdependent, especially in complex
higher cognitive functions.