Language, Mind, and Brain by Ewa Dabrowska Chapter 4: Language in the brain Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas • Broca’s area is associated with ____? • Wernicke’s area is associated with ____? Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas • Broca’s area is associated with grammatical knowledge. • Wernicke’s area is associated with lexical knowledge. [NOTE: These are the TRADITIONAL beliefs about these areas in the brain.] Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas • Q: What’s aphasia? Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas • Q: What’s aphasia? • A: Aphasia is a handicap in linguistic ability, often caused by damage to the brain. 1. The localization issue • Q: Can linguistic functions really be localized in the brain? 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 Broca’s and Wernicke’s 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 nonIndoEuropean languages are significantly different. Also: Wernicke’s aphasics often have grammaticality issues, and Broca’s aphasics have trouble finding words. 1. The localization issue • Q: Both Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are in the left hemisphere of the brain, so what happens when that hemisphere is removed? 1. The localization issue • Q: Both Broca’s and Wernicke’s 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. 2. Preservation of grammatical knowledge in Broca’s aphasia • Q: What is it that aphasics lack: linguistic knowledge or ability to process language? 2. Preservation of grammatical knowledge in Broca’s 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. 4. The resilience of language • Q: What do we know about language and the brain? 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.
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