Brain and language

Brain and language

• Neurolinguisgics: it is concerned with

understanding how language is represented
and processed in the brain.

• Brain science or neuroscience is concerned

with understanding how the breadth and
depth of human experience is coded in the
brain matter.
 Interesting brain facts!
• About 1.4 kg (2% of body weight) mass of fat & protein with 75% water content

• W = 140 mm, L = 167 mm, H = 93 mm. Left hemisphere is larger than the right

• 40% grey matter (outer covering: cerebral cortex)

60% white matter (myelinated fiber tracts traveling to & from the cerebral
cortex)

• 100 billion neurons (166 times human population & would take 171 years to
count!

• stops growing at 18

• 12 pairs of cranial nerves & 31 pairs of spinal nerves

 Parts of the brain
Keep in mind there are two distinct sides with different functions
 The Brainstem
(Pathway to the Body)

• Base of brain
• Unconscious work
• Autonomic functions,
e.g., survival, breathing,
body functions, etc.
 The Cerebellum
(Balance)

• ‘little brain’
• Large in size
• 11% of brain’s
weight
• Center of balance
The brain has 4 areas called lobes
• Frontal

• Parietal

• Temporal

• Occipital
 The Frontal Lobes
(Problem Solving)

• Largest part
• Moves your body
• Highly developed
• Forms your
personality
 The Parietal Lobes
(Touching)

• Two major divisions

Anterior and posterior
• Senses hot and cold,
hard and soft, and pain
• Taste and smell
• Helps integrate the
senses
 The Temporal Lobes
(Hearing)

• Processes auditory
stimuli
• Subdivisions into
• Wernicke’s Area
(associated with speech
comprehension)

• Broca’s Area
(associated with speech
production)
 The Occipital Lobes
(Seeing)

• Located at lower
central back of brain
• Processes visual
stimuli
 Taking sides….two sides that is!

• Two sides or hemispheres of the brain: LEFT and RIGHT

• We have two cerebral hemispheres connected by the corpus

callosum

• This is a bundle of nerves that allows each side of the brain to

communicate with each other

• Each side of the brain processes things differently

• It is an outdated assumption that “artsy” type people are

right-brained
How the two sides process information!

Left Brain Right Brain

• Logical • Random
• Sequential • Intuitive
• Rational • Holistic
• Analytical • Synthesizing
• Objective • Subjective
• Looks at parts • Looks at wholes
 Left Hemisphere

• processes things more in parts & sequentially

• recognizes positive emotions

• identified with practicality and rationality

• understands symbols and representations

• processes rapid auditory information faster than the right

(crucial for separating the sounds of speech into distinct units
for comprehension)

• is responsible for language development. It develops slower

in boys, that is why males usually develop more language
problems than females
 Right Hemisphere

• recognizes negative emotions

• high level mathematicians, problem solver like chess playing

• the “non-verbal” side

• responds to touch & music (sensory)

• intuitive

• responsive to color & shape

• emotional & creative

 Taking sides….
what information the two sides recognize!

Left Brain Right Brain

• Letters • Faces

• Places
• Numbers

• Objects
• Words
Aphasia
• Aphasia is defined as an acquired impairment
in the use of language due to damage to
certain parts of the brain

• This damage could be caused by injury, stroke,

or seizure

• The language deficits include difficulties in

language comprehension and execution
 Major Types of Aphasias
All aphasias can be classified into two groups
• Non-fluent aphasias
– Difficulty producing fluent, articulated, or self-
initiated speech
• Fluent aphasias
– The inability to understand the language of others
and the production of less meaningful speech
then normal
 Non-Fluent Aphasias
• Broca’s aphasia
– This type of aphasia manifests with difficulties
initiating well-articulated conversational speech
– The language that is produced is slow, labored, and
ungrammatical, which means words like a, an, or the
and verb tense is left out of their speech
– This aphasia is produced by damage to Broca’s area of
the brain
 Broca’s aphasia

The speech is very halting. Patients have great

difficulty in accurately producing the needed
phonemes to say a word.

(a) It's hard to eat with a spoon

(b)…. har eat….wit….pun
 Broca’s aphasia as a syntactic
disorder
(a) It's hard to eat with a spoon
(b)…. har eat….wit….pun
Omission of "little words" are often called function
words, and the speech is characterized as “telegraphic
speech”.
One possible account of the speech of Broca's aphasics
is that it results from an economy of effort.
Broca’s aphasia as a syntactic disorder

Broca's aphasics will not always be able to

determine which ones are grammatical and
which one are not:

A) The boy at it up.

b) The boy ate up it
c) Boy ate it up
d) The boy ate up the cake
Broca’s aphasia as a syntactic disorder

a)The mouse was chased by the cat

b)The dog was chased by the cat
c)The cat was chased by the mouse

Most Broca's aphasics have complete

understanding of what they should say, but find
themselves unable to say it.
More Types of Non-Fluent Aphasia’s

• Global aphasia
– As the name suggests, this type of aphasia is
characterized by a severe depression of all
language functioning
– The people with this affliction have poor language
comprehension and speak in slow, labored jargon
– This aphasia is caused by damage around and to
Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas of the brain
 Types of aphasia
Fluent aphasia
Fluent aphasics have no difficulty producing language,
but have a great deal of difficulty selecting,
organizing, and monitoring their language
production.

The most important type of fluent of aphasia is called

Wernicke's aphasia. The syndrome is named after the
German physiologist Carl Wernicke.
 Types of aphasia
Fluent aphasia

This type of aphasia was associated with a lesion in

the temporal lobe.
 Types of aphasia
Fluent aphasia
Wernicke's aphasics are generally unaware of their
deficit.

Their speech typically sounds very good: there are no

longer pauses; sentence intonation is normal; function
words are used appropriately; word order is usually
syntactically correct.

The problem is that the patient rarely makes any

sense.
 Types of aphasia
Fluent aphasia
The following is a conversation between an examiner E
and a Wernicke's patient (P):
E: How are you today Mrs. A?
P: Yes
E: Have I ever tested you before?
P: No, I mean I haven't
E: Can you tell me what your name is?
P:No, I don't I… right I'm right now here
E: What is your address?
P: I cud /kd/ if I can help these like this like you know…
to make it. We are seeing him. This is my father.
 Types of aphasia
Fluent aphasia
This semi-random selection of words and short
phrases very few real words of the language is termed
jargonaphasia.

Wernicke's aphasia is primarily a comprehension

deficit.
Other Interesting Facts About Aphasia
The handwriting of a person with an aphasia
reflects their speech impediment.

There was an experiment done where people

with Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasias were
presented with a picture and then asked to
write down a description of what they see in
the picture.
This is the picture
 A patient with Broca’s aphasia wrote this

Notice the use of very few words, but the words

do make some sense
 A patient with Wernicke’s aphasia wrote
this

Notice here that there are many, less forced, words, but
they don’t make much sense. Also because they’re
not struggling to find their words, the handwriting is
better.