Language & The Brain Name of Institution

Brocas Area

Posterior Speech Areas

Including Wernickes
Area

Dr. Jitendra K Sinha

Asst. Prof., AINN
 Language Acquisition Name of Institution

Language is human specific

Critical Period in First Language:
Acquisition of L1 is impaired after puberty
Critical Period in Second Language:
Acquisition of L2 is impaired after puberty
Evolution of Language:
Gestures were important
 Nonhuman Primates Name of Institution

Vocalizations look preprogramed, serving

specific purposes only
Initiated by sub-cortical areas like limbic
system
But for vocalization and decoding, they
also use left hemisphere
Name of Institution
 Language DisordersName of Institution

Egyptians reported
speech loss after blow
to head 3000 years ago
Broca (1861) finds
damage to left inferior
frontal region (Brocas
area) of a language
impaired patient, in
postmortem analysis
 Language Disorders (2) Name of Institution

In language disorders
90-95% of cases, damage is to the left
hemisphere
5-10% of cases, to the right hemisphere
Wada test is used to determine the
hemispheric dominance
Sodium amydal is injected to the carotid artery
First to the left and then to the right
 Language Disorders (3) Name of Institution

Paraphasia:
Substitution of a word by a sound, an incorrect
word, or an unintended word
Neologism:
Paraphasia with a completely novel word
Nonfluent speech:
Talking with considerable effort
Agraphia:
Impairment in writing
Alexia:
Disturbances in reading
 Three major types of Aphasia Name of Institution
Rosenzweig: Table 19.1, p. 615

Borcas aphasia
Nonfluent speech
Wernickes aphasia
Fluent speech but unintelligible
Global aphasia
Total loss of language
Others: Conduction, Subcortical, Transcortical
Motor/Sensory (see also Kandel, Table 59-1)
Brain areas involved in
Language
Name of Institution
 Wernicke-Geschwind Model Name of Institution
1. Repeating a spoken word

Arcuate fasciculus is the bridge from the Wernickes

area to the Brocas area
 Wernicke-Geschwind Model Name of Institution
2. Repeating a written word

Angular gyrus is the gateway from visual cortex to Wernickes

area
This is an oversimplification of the issue:
not all patients show such predicted behavior (Howard, 1997)
 Brocas Aphasia Brodmann
Name 44, 45
of Institution

Dr. Gardner: Were you in the

Coast Guard?
Brocas Mr. Ford (patient):
Area No, er, yes, yes ship
Massachu chusetts
Coastguardyears. He held up
his hand twice indicating 19.
Gardner H. The Shattered Mind. New York: Vintage Books,
1974, pp 60-61

1. Language Comprehension (good)

2. Speech Produc9on (impaired):
Posterior Speech
Areas Including Nonuent
Wernickes Area Words improperly formed
Slow and slurred
Paraphasic errors:
purnpike (for turnpike)

 Wernickes Aphasia Brodmann
Name 22, 30
of Institution

Brocas Dr. Gardner: What brings you to

Area the hospital? I asked the 72-
year-old retired butcher four
weeks after his admission to the
hospital.

Mr. Gorgan (patient):

Posterior Speech
Areas Including
Wernickes Area
1. Language Comprehension (poor)
2. Speech fluent but nonsensical
3. Long sentences without meaning
Boy, Im sweating, Im awful
nervous, you know, once in a while
I get caught up, I cant mention
the tarripoi, a month agok, quite a
little, Ive done a lot well, I
impose a lot, while on the other
hand, you know what I mean, I
have to run around, look it over,
trebbin and all that sort of stuff.
Gardner H. The Shattered Mind. New York: Vintage Books,
1974, pp 67-68
 THE ARCUATE FASCICULUS Name of Institution

White MaPer Tract that

connects Brocas Area and
Wernickes Area


Damage: Conduc9on Aphasia
1.Language Comprehension:
intact
In 97% of people, both Broca's Area and
Wernicke's Area only on leZ hemisphere. 2.Fluent speech with some
paraphasic errors
3.Inability to repeat words

Vernooij, et al. Neuroimage, Vol 35(3) 15 April 2007,
pp 1064-1076
 Name of Institution

The Arcuate Fasciculus (lime green) in

dierent primates using tractography.

HUMAN CHIMPANZEE MACAQUE

Nature Neuroscience 11, 426 - 428 (2008)

 Bilinguals: A Neural
Signature? Name of Institution

Ac9va9on in bilinguals (English-

Spanish)> monolinguals

Contrast for English language
(BA 45, Laterial Inferior Parietal
Cortex, including Brocas Area)

Hot/red: Ac9va9on unique
to bilinguals

Spring/green:
Shared ac9va9on between
bilinguals and monolinguals on a
syntac9c task in English.

Adapted from Kovelman, et al. Journal of Cogni9ve Neuroscience January 2008,

Vol. 20, No. 1, Pages 153-169
 Dyslexia Name of Institution

Problem in learning to read

Common in boys and left-handed
High IQ, so related with language only
Postmortem observation revealed anomalies in
the arrangement of cortical cells
Micropolygyria: excessive cortical folding
Ectopias: nests of extra cells in unusual location
Might have occurred in mid-gestation, during cell
migration period
 Acquired Dyslexia = Alexia Name of Institution

Disorder in adulthood as a result of disease

or injury
Deep dyslexia (pays attn. to wholes):
cow -> horse, cannot read abstract words
Fails to see small differences (do not read each
letter)
Problems with nonsense words
Surface dyslexia (pays attn. to details):
Nonsense words are fine
Suggests 2 different systems:
One focused on the meanings of whole words
The other on the sounds of words
 Lateralization of the Brain
Name of Institution

Human body is asymmetrical: heart, liver,

use of limbs, etc.
Functions of the brain become lateralized
Each hemisphere specialized for particular
ways of working
Split-brain patients are good examples of
lateralization of language functions
 Lateralization of functions Name of Institution
(approximate)

Left-hemisphere: Right-hemisphere:
Simultaneous analysis
Sequential analysis Synthetic
Analytical Visual-Spatial skills
Problem solving Cognitive maps
Language Personal space
Facial recognition
Drawing
Emotional functions
Recognizing emotions
Expressing emotions
Music
 Split-brain Name of Institution

Epileptic activity spread from one hemisphere to

the other thru corpus callosum
Since 1930, such epileptic treated by severing
the interhemispheric pathways
At first no detectible changes (e.g. IQ)
Animal research revealed deficits:
Cat with both corpus callosum and optic chiasm
severed
Left-hemisphere could be trained for symbol:reward
Right-hemisphere could be trained for inverted
symbol:reward
 Left vs. Right Brain Name of Institution

Pre and post operation studies showed that:

Selective stimulation of the right and left
hemisphere was possible by stimulating different
parts of the body (e.g. right/left hand):
Thus can test the capabilities of each hemisphere
Left hemisphere could read and verbally
communicate
Right hemisphere had small linguistic capacity:
recognize single words
Vocabulary and grammar capabilities of right is far
less than left
Only the processes taking place in the left
hemisphere could be described verbally
 Name of Institution

Videos about Language Processing

Genie, the language-deprived child:

hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipt0pjz0mwg
hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nha-lGE_wjo
hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUBkKNOz_k
hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcEEvNFNETM
hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsRr9COItp0
hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NGUP_JSRic

Brocas aphasia:

hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IiMEbMnPM

Wernickes aphasia:

hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVhYN7NTIKU

Split-brain pa9ent:

hPp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo