SOL final exam

Functional Asymmetry

-Contralateral control sensory and motor control -Motor behavior and proprioception controlled by contralateral hemisphere (opposite side) -LH controls right side of body; RH controls left side -Language is lateralized to the left hemisphere Right ear advantage Why? Information from the right ear goes to the left hemisphere, which is where language is processed in most people.

Cerebrum:

-Largest part of brain The outer layer is made mainly of grey matter and the interior portion is mainly white matter • Grey matter: cell bodies of neurons • White matter: bundles of axons

nonfluent aphasia

-lesion: typically anterior to central sulcus -pauses between syllables and words -noticeable effort -speech rate: slow -prosody: diminished or absent intonation and stress patterns -speech is often agrammatic ("telegraphic" speech) -short utterances (often <4words) -comprehension relatively preserved -typically very aware of impairment

fluent aphasia

-lesion: typically posterior to central sulcus -smooth speech -little effort -speech rate: typical -prosody: intonation and stress similar to unimpaired speakers -function words often preserved with content missing -utterances normal length -comprehension often impaired -may have decreased awareness of errors

aphasia: Types of impairment to language production

Anomia = word finding difficulty Paraphasias = substitution errors Semantic paraphasia = substituting a related word Phonemic paraphasia = substituting a sound Neologisms = substituting a nonword Agrammatic Speech = deletion of function words Perseverations = getting stuck on a word Circumlocution = talking around a word

What do PET/fMRI measure?

Blood flow

For a someone with their corpus callosum cut... What can they do with a picture presented to the left visual field (right hemisphere)?

Can't name it, draw with left hand

aphasia- localization hypothesis

Classic localization hypothesis: Wernicke-Geshwind Model -Broca's area: language production -Wernicke's area: language perception -Arcuate fasciculus: white matter connecting the two Implications of this model: -Damage to Broca's area = nonfluent aphasia -Damage to Wernicke's area = fluent aphasia -Damage to arcuate fasciculus = conduction aphasia Problems with the classic localization hypothesis -Oversimplification -Usually studies on simple tasks, word-level tasks -Ignores "real world" context -Patients don't clearly fit categories -Lacks anatomical precision -Lesion location doesn't always explain symptom profile

Prepositional phrase (PP):

Contains preposition and NP

Gyri and sulci

Convolutions increase surface area for processing ◦Raised portions: gyrus / gyri ◦Lowered portions: sulcus/sulci Gyri & Sulci = increased surface area for information processing

Connotation vs. denotation

Denotation: •The literal "dictionary" definition of a word Connotation: •Concepts associated with or evoked by a word

Visual fields

Each eye has both visual fields

What do EEG/MEG measure?

Electrical activity

Dichotic Listening Studies

Evidence for Language Lateralization -Participants wear headphones •Different words or syllables played through each ear simultaneously •Finding: Right Ear Advantage (REA) ◦ Most participants report stimuli played over right ear

Commissurotomy

Evidence for Language Lateralization •Commissurotomy: Surgical bisection of the corpus callosum •Severs communication between cerebral hemispheres ◦ "Split-brain" patients •Allows for testing hemispheres separately to see what is being processed on each side

WADA test

Evidence for Language Lateralization •Sodium amobarbital injected into cerebral artery•Temporarily anesthetizes cerebral hemisphere•Can test language function while each hemisphere is anesthetized • Findings: Language is left lateralized for the vast majority of R-handed individuals (96%) Also left lateralized for majority of L-handed (70%) with an additional 15% showing bilateral language function

Lesions

Evidence for Language Lateralization: Lesion: damage to neural tissue •Every lesion is different (location, size/extent) ◦ Lesions can be large; may span multiple functional regions •Every brain is different • Difficult to find 2 patients who are truly comparable •It's an oversimplification to say X area does Y function ◦ Broca's area described as the language production center, but implicated in many cognitive functions (working memory, executive function, recognizing actions) ◦ Same lesion may yield different functional deficit; different lesion may yield same functional deficit ◦ There may be reorganization once an area is impaired

Hemispherectomy

Evidence for Language Lateralization: - surgical treatment •Isolated right hemisphere (left hemisphere removed) ◦Children -Comprehension: very good -Production: limited ◦Adults: -Comprehension: moderate -Production: very limited •Isolated left hemisphere (right hemisphere removed) ◦Comprehension and production normal ◦BUT... tone is disrupted - "robotic"

narrow scope vs broad scope

Given the phrase "terrifying pirates and monsters", what is terrifying... In a narrow scope interpretation? pirates In a broad scope interpretation? pirates and monsters

Count nouns

Have plural forms Cannot stand alone in singular (needs determiner) Occur with "too many"

Functional vs. anatomical asymmetry

Hemispheres have two types of asymmetry: anatomical asymmetry -Differences in size and shape of neuroanatomy (physical differences) functional asymmetry -One hemisphere performs some cognitive function more than (or different from) the other side -Lateralization of function

Morphology

How morphemes combine into words

phonology

How sounds combine into syllables and words

split brain experiments

How the split-brain studies work: -Present word or picture in peripheral visual space ◦Instruct patient to look straight ahead ◦Stimuli presented on right side are processed by the LH and vice versa •Linguistic information presented to the right visual field (and therefore processed by the left hemisphere): ◦ Patient can say the word or picture out loud. •Linguistic information presented to the left visual field (and therefore processed by the right hemisphere): ◦Patient CANNOT say the word or picture out loud. ◦Patient DID see the object but cannot say it. Patient DRAWS item.

Noun phrase (NP):

Includes all subjects, objects of verb; minimally contain a noun, often contain a determiner

IO inversion test

Indirect object vs. object of preposition The steps Step 1: identify the NP of interest Step 2: delete the preposition Step 3: place the NP after the verb Step 4: does it work? (if it doesn't then it is a object of preposition) ex. The students turned in their exams *The students turned their exams (delete the preposition, move the NP after the verb) = doesn't work = object of preposition

what isn't impacted by aphasia?

May be preserved: • Singing •Formulaic/automatic speech •Conversational speech formulas • Idioms • Proverbs • Expletives •Intellect, cognition, or memory are typically unaffected -Typically relatively intact nonlinguistic cognitive skills -Note: in PPA, cognitive decline occurs later in the progression of the disease •Motor function or planning are not impacted by aphasia -The individual's ability to physically create the motions needed for speech or manual communication are not impacted. •BUT the brain is messy! These and other impairments may co- occur with aphasia

For a someone with their corpus callosum cut... What can they do with a picture presented to their right visual field (left hemisphere)?

Name it, draw with right hand

Mass nouns

No distinct plural forms Can stand alone in singular (not need determiner) Occur with "too much"

If adjectival,

PP connects to NP

If adverbial

PP connects to VP

Types of pronouns

Personal Nominative = subject Objective/accusatory = object Genitive possessive = possessive Reflexive Demonstrative Relative

Homophony

Single phonetic form with two entirely different meanings May or may not be spelled the same Homophones typically have separate dictionary entries

roles of NP

Subject - who or what is doing the action Direct object - who or what the action is being done to Indirect object - for, of, or to whoever or whatever the action is being done to Object of preposition - follows a preposition Subject complement - defines or renames the subject Object complement - defines or renames an object

McKinnon, Allen & Osterhout (2003)

The idea of word processing- How do we process morphologically complex words? (words with multiple morphemes) takeaway: in order for our brain to process morphologically complex words, we decompose the complex word forms before we understand what's happening. We decompose complex wordforms before processing them -e.g., We process "conceive" as 'con + ceive'

Ambiguity

The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. e.g., Rhonda hit the boy with the bike ◦ Two possible meanings are represented with different syntactic trees

Verb phrase (VP):

The predicate of a sentence; the VP contains a verb and the object NP(s) taken as arguments of the verb

Types of verbs

Transitive - direct object(s) only Intransitive - no object attached to the verb Ditransitive - two kinds of objects: direct and indirect Linking - followed by an adjective

Particle movement test

Words like in, off, up, by, along, down, forward, under (all prepositions) can be particles in special cases Step 1: identify the word (preposition-like) of interest Step 2: move the word of interest before and after the noun Step 3: does it work? Example: The students turned in their exams The students turned their exams in = works; particle We ran down the driveway *We ran the driveway down = doesn't work; preposition

adjectives vs adverbs

adjectives: •Modify nouns •Can often get -er and -est (for comparisons) •Can be modified by adverbs (called 'intensifiers') (e.g., very, really) adverbs: •Often (not always) end in -ly ( quickly, cleverly, graciously) • Modify ◦ verbs: They skillfully maneuvered the sails ◦ adjectives: very happy, extremely soapy ◦ adverbs: very quickly, quite graciously, remarkably fast ◦ sentences: Luckily, Harry isn't going to marry the English woman

what is D?

brain stem: -Relay station -Also controls basic life-sustaining functions

what is F?

central sulcus: -Separates frontal and parietal lobes

what is B?

cerebellum: -Plays a crucial role in controlling movement

Synonymy

different words that share (all) semantic features

what is C?

frontal lobe: - Contains primary motor cortex, which controls voluntary motor activity (including speech) - Includes Broca's area, a part of the cortex active in many aspects of language, especially production - Contains prefrontal cortex, which underlies executive function (higher-level functions like planning, organization, self-regulation, goal-directed behavior, judgment, etc.)

syntax

how words combine into sentences

Corpus callosum

is a very large white matter tract connecting the two hemispheres

what is H?

lateral/sylvian fissure: -Separates frontal and temporal lobes -Perisylvian cortex extremely important for language

what is G?

occipital lobe: -Primary site for processing visual input

Polysemy

one word with multiple related meanings

what is A?

parietal lobe: -Processes somatosensory input from the body (touch, temperature, pain) • Angular gyrus at the border of the parietal and temporal lobes plays a role in language and reading

Antonymy

related words that differ along a single dimension

what is E?

temporal lobe: -Primary site for processing auditory input• -Includes Wernicke's area, part of the cortex active in language comprehension

Cerebral Cortex

the thin layer of grey matter that covers the surface of the cerebral hemispheres

Thematic roles

• Agent: The performer/doer of the action ◦ The dog ate the onion • Theme/Patient: The undergoer of the action ◦ The dog ate the onion • Goal: Place where action is directed ◦ They walked to Iowa. • Location: Place where action takes place ◦ They danced in the gym. •Source:Place where action originates ◦ The rocket was launched from the command center. • Instrument: Tool/object used to perform an action ◦ She swept the floor with a broom.

How semantic features relate to word meaning

• Breaking words into semantic features allows us to talk about natural classes in semantics: ◦ dog and puppy are [+canine]; puppy and kitten are [-adult]. •Some words can only combine with words with certain semantic features ◦ *The dog and the tree got married: Subject/object of marry must be [+human] ◦ *Rodrigo drank the pencil: Object of drink must be [+liquid]

what does aphasia impact?

•All domains of language -phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax •All modalities of language -speaking, listening, reading, writing •Aphasia is highly variable across individuals! -While all of the above may be impacted in aphasia, the extent of each will vary person to person

aphasia

•An acquired neurogenic language disorder resulting from an injury to the brain—most typically, the left hemisphere •Most frequently the result of a stroke, but can be the result of anything else that damages the language centers of the brain (e.g., traumatic brain injury, tumor, etc.) •Can also occur as a part of a degenerative disease: frontotemporal dementia = primary progressive aphasia (PPA)

fissure

•An especially deep sulcus is a fissure -Longitudinal fissure: the sulcus that divides the two hemispheres

Constituency tests

◦ Answers a question Who verb-ed? = NP What got verb-ed? = NP What did x do? = VP Where did x verb? PP ◦ Substitution (of a pronominal form [pronoun]) He, she, it, they, them = NP Do, do so, did, did so = VP Here, there =PP ◦ Clefting ◦ Conjunction