Language, Mind, and Brain by Ewa Dabrowska

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Language, Mind, and Brainby Ewa Dabrowska

• Chapter 4 Language in the brain

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Brocas and Wernickes areas

• Brocas area is associated with ____?
• Wernickes area is associated with ____?

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Brocas and Wernickes areas

• Brocas area is associated with grammatical
  knowledge.
• Wernickes area is associated with lexical
  knowledge.
• NOTE These are the TRADITIONAL beliefs about
  these areas in the brain.

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Brocas and Wernickes areas

• Q Whats aphasia?

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Brocas and Wernickes areas

• Q Whats aphasia?
• A Aphasia is a handicap in linguistic ability,
  often caused by damage to the brain.

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1. The localization issue

• Q Can linguistic functions really be localized
  in the brain?

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1. The localization issue

• Q Can linguistic functions really be localized
  in the brain?
• A No. Language can be affected by damage to
  other regions, and people with damage to Brocas
  and Wernickes areas may not have aphasia at all,
  and aphasia usually involves damage to more than
  just those areas, children with brain damage
  usually recover. Effects found from lesions in
  patients using non-IndoEuropean languages are
  significantly different. Also Wernickes
  aphasics often have grammaticality issues, and
  Brocas aphasics have trouble finding words.

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1. The localization issue

• Q Both Brocas and Wernickes areas are in the
  left hemisphere of the brain, so what happens
  when that hemisphere is removed?

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1. The localization issue

• Q Both Brocas and Wernickes areas are in the
  left hemisphere of the brain, so what happens
  when that hemisphere is removed?
• A The effect is not clearly different from
  removing the right hemisphere. ¼ of people
  without a left hemisphere had normal language, ¼
  of those without the right had no language at
  all. Both hemispheres can sustain language.

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2. Preservation of grammatical knowledge in
Brocas aphasia

• Q What is it that aphasics lack linguistic
  knowledge or ability to process language?

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2. Preservation of grammatical knowledge in
Brocas aphasia

• Q What is it that aphasics lack linguistic
  knowledge or ability to process language?
• A Processing and retrieval are problematic, but
  the knowledge seems to be there.

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4. The resilience of language

• Q What do we know about language and the brain?

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4. The resilience of language

• Q What do we know about language and the brain?
• A Linguistic knowledge is represented in a
  redundant manner in various regions of the brain
  there are close links between lexical and
  grammatical deficits the brain is very plastic
  and flexible in handling language processing.