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Lia Aftanty / 21202241042 / PBI B Summary of Brain and Language The study of language has been crucial to understanding the brain–mind relationship. The study of the biological and neural foundations of language is called neurolinguistics (the branch of linguistics concerned with the brain mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and use of human language; the study of the neurobiology of language). The brain consists of 10 billion neurons and billions of fibres. A. The Human Brain Cortex The approximately 10 billion neurons that form the outside layer of the brain; also referred to as ‘grey matter’. Cerebral hemispheres The left and right halves of the brain, joined by the corpus callosum. Corpus callosum The nerve fibres connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres. Contralateral Refers to the transmission of sensory information from one side of the body (left/ right) to the opposite cerebral hemisphere (right/left). B. The Localisation of Language and the Brain Organology is the practice of which is determining personality traits and intellectual ability by examination of the bumps on the skull. Phrenology later introduced to America by Johann Spurzheim. He constructed elaborate maps and skull models in which language is located directly under the eye.
C. Aphasia Aphasia is “language loss or disorders condition following brain damage”. A front (anterior) part of the left hemisphere of the brain, damage to which causes agrammatism or Broca’s aphasia; also called Broca’s region. Lateralisation refers to cognitive functions localised to one or the other side of the brain. Different aspects of language are selectively impaired, and the kind of impairment is generally related to the location of the brain damage. Because of it, research on patients with aphasia has provided a great deal of information about how language is organised in the brain. a) Broca’s Aphasia A language disorder usually resulting from damage to Broca’s region in which the patient has difficulty with certain aspects of syntax, especially functional categories; also called agrammatism. b) Wernicke’s Aphasia The type of aphasia resulting from damage to Wernicke’s area in which the patient often produces semantically incoherent language c) Jargon Aphasia A form of aphasia in which phonemes are substituted, resulting in nonsense words; often produced by people who have severe Wernicke’s aphasia. D. Dyslexia The term dyslexia refer to reading disorders; a cover term for the various types of reading impairment. Many word substitutions are made by aphasics who become dyslexic after brain damage. They are called acquired dyslexics because before their brain lesions, they were normal readers (unlike developmental dyslexics, who have difficulty learning to read). The loss of ability to read correctly by people who were previously literate, following brain damage.
G. Experimental Evidence Of Brain Organisation a) Split Brain Split brain is the result of an operation for epilepsy in which the corpus callosum is severed, thus separating the brain into its two hemispheres. b) Dichotic Listening An experimental method for brain research in which subjects hear different auditory signals in the left and right ears. c) Event Related Potentials Event-related potentials (ERPs) is electrical signals emitted from different areas of the brain in response to different kinds of stimuli. H. The Cerebral Cortex Left Hemisphere the left hemisphere is predefined to be the language hemisphere children with early left-brain lesions show impairment in their ability to form phrases and sentences the normal functions of the left hemisphere can be taken over by the right hemisphere Right Hemisphere the right side plays a role in the very early stages of language acquisition Children with prenatal, perinatal, or childhood brain lesions in the right hemisphere may exhibit delays and impairments in babbling and vocabulary learning Children who undergo a right hemispherectomy before 2 y.o. donʼt develop language, even though they still have a left hemisphere I. The Critical Period The critical period assumes the ability to learn a native language develops from birth to middle childhood. Children who are language deficient during this critical period show an unusual pattern of brain lateralization.
EXAMPLE 1: Ducklings, for example, for a period of nine to twenty-one hours after hatching, will follow the first moving object they see, whether visible or walking like a duck or not. EXAMPLE 2: Children who raised in an environment of extreme social isolation. The most dramatic cases were those described as 'wild' or 'wild' children. J. Specific Language Impairment Specified language impairment (SLI) is a term used to describe people who do not have cognitive or perceptual deficits but still struggle with language acquisition. These children’s cognitive ability is normally assessed by non-verbal IQ and is in the normal range. These kids may struggle with some linguistic ideas. Studies on genetic illnesses also show that one cognitive domain might develop correctly while other cognitive domains develop abnormally, highlighting the language's solid biological foundation. Turner syndrome is a chromosomal defect that causes children to have severe visual and spatial cognitive deficiencies in addition to normal language and excellent reading ability. K. The Development of Language In trying to understand the development of language, researchers have debated the role played by the vocal tract and the ear. It has, for example, been suggested that speech could not have developed in non-human primates because the anatomical differences such as the vocal track and brain which lead to the incapable of .producing a large enough inventory of speech sounds. According to this hypothesis, the development of language is linked to the evolutionary development of the speech production and perception apparatus. This, of course, would be accompanied by changes in the brain and the nervous system towards greater complexity. Such a view implies that the languages of our human ancestors of millions of years ago may have been syntactically and phonologically simpler than any language known to us today. For humans who are born deaf and learn sign languages that are used around them that the ability to hear speech sounds is not a necessary condition for the acquisition and use of language. The lateralisation evidence from ERP and imaging studies of people using sign language, as well as evidence from sign language aphasia, shows that sign language is organised in the brain like spoken language, even there’s no sound involved.
