Professor Greg Francis 5/27/081Language and the brainIIE 269: Cognitive PsychologyGreg FrancisLecture 31What’s the big deal about NimChimpsky?Language Properties grammar phrases words Instinct different from other types of learning special areas in the brain related to language evolution: can similar brains learn languageBroca’s aphasia Some stroke patientsshow agrammaticalspeech Seem to know whatthey want to say But are unable to say itBroca’s aphasia Some stroke patients showagrammatical speech repetition short sentences true for both written and spoken no problem controlling mouth» e.g. blowing out candlesDo you drivehome on weekends?Why, yes…Thursday,er, er, er, no, erFriday…Barba-ra…wife…and, oh, car…drive…purnpike…you know…reset and…teevee.Brain damage Broca’s area ==> Broca’s aphasia Wernicke’s area ==> Wernicke’s aphasiaBroca’s aphasia Mr. Ford omitted endings (-ed, -s) omitted function words (or, be, the) skipped function words when reading (or, be, the) but readsimilar sounding words (oar, bee) named objects and recognized names high (nonverbal) IQProfessor Greg Francis 5/27/082Broca’s aphasia Difficulty getting ideas across Patient BL was asked to describe this pictureB.L.: Wife is dry dishes. Waterdown! Oh boy! Okay Awright.Okay ...Cookie is down...fall, andgirl, okay, girl...boy...um...Examiner: What is the boydoing?B.L.:Cookie is...um...catchExaminer: Who is getting thecookies?B.L.: Girl, girlExaminer: Who is about to falldown?B.L.: Boy...fall down!Broca’s aphasia Could understand questions if gist couldbe deduced from content words Do you use a hammer for cutting? Does a stone float on water? Failed to understand anything requiringgrammatical analysis The lion was killed by the tiger, which one isdead?Broca’s area Plays a role in learningthe rules of a language Musso et al. (2003) fMRI while subjects judgewhether Italian sentencesare grammatically corrector not At start, subjects did notknow rules of Italian Broca’s area is activated Signal correlates withcorrect identificationWernicke’s aphasia Other stroke patientsalso showagrammatical speech Seem to be able to saythings But what they say isalmost meaninglessWernicke’s aphasia Patients show poor comprehension poor vocabulary “empty” speechWhatbringsyou to thehospital?Boy, I’m sweating, I’m awful nervous, you know, once ina while I get caught up, I can’t mention the tarripoi, amonth ago, quite a little, I’ve done a lot well. I impose alot, while on the other hand, you know what I mean, Ihave to run around, look it over, trebbin and allthat sort of stuff...Wernicke’s aphasia Difficulty getting ideasacrossH.W.:First of all this is falling down, just about, and is gonna fall downand they're both getting something to eat...but the trouble is this is gonnalet go and they're both gonna fall down...but already then...I can't seewell enough but I believe that either she or will have some food that'snot good for you and she's to get some for her too...and that you get itand you shouldn't get it there because they shouldn't go up there and getit unless you tell them that they could have it. and so this is falling downand for sure there's one they're going to have for food and, and didn'tcome out right, the uh, the stuff that's uh, good for, it's not good for youbut it, but you love it, um mum mum (smacks lips)...and that sothey've...see that, I can't see whether it's in there or not.Examiner:Yes, that's not real clear. What do you think she's doing?H.W.:But, oh, I know. She's waiting for this!Examiner:No, I meant right here with her hand, right where you can'tfigure out what she's doing with that hand.H.W.:Oh, I think she's saying I want two or three, I want one, I think, Ithink so, and so, so she's gonna get this one for sure it's gonna fall downthere or whatever, she's gonna get that one and, and there, he's gonna getone himself or more, it all depends with this when they fall down...andwhen it falls down there's no problem, all they got to do is fix it and goright back up and get some more.Professor Greg Francis 5/27/083Wernicke’s aphasia Other problems include difficulty naming objects(lexicon?) table: “chair” elbow: “knee” clip: “plick” butter: “tubber” ankle: “ankley, no mankle, no kankle” comb: “close, saw it, cit it, cut, the comb, thecame”Wernicke’s aphasia Most aphasias involve damage to morethan just one specific areaAnomia Damage around Wernicke’s area produces a deficit in theability to name things e.g., after a stroke in this area CB cannot retrieve nouns he wantsto useC.B. Uh, well this is the...the...of this. This and this and thisand this. These things going in there like that. This is...thingshere. This one here, these two things here. And the other onehere, back in this one, this one...look at this one.Examiner Yeah, what's happening there?C.B. I can't tell you what that is, but I know what it is, but Idon't now where it is. But I don't know what's under. I know it'syou couldn't say it's ... I couldn't say what it is. I couldn't saywhat that is. This shu-- that should be right in here. That's verybad in there. Anyway, this one here, and that, and that's it. Thisis the getting in here and that's the getting around here, andthat, and that's it. This is getting in here and that's the gettingaround here, this one and one with this one. And this one, andthat's it, isn't it? I don't know what else you'd want.Anomia Sometimes anomia can be remarkablespecific Some patients have difficulty with onlycertain types of nouns concrete vs abstract (chair vs trust) nonliving vs living (table vs dog) animals and vegetables vs food and body parts colors proper namesBrain and language Recall that the left side of the brain is more involvedin language than the right side Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are on the left hemisphere However, the right hemisphere can also work withlanguage left handed people hemispherectomies (age matters!)Brain and evolution We’ve argued that language is an evolved instinct differences in brains account for differences in abilities One might hope to find proto-language abilities in“close” animals to humans Chimpanzees, apes Anatomically, there are many similarities betweenhuman