Language & brain by ali zulfiqar

Language and Brain

Presented by:

Jahanzeb JahanTasawar Abbas Shah

Irfan AbbasZulfiqar Ali

What is Language?

Communication system

Food For Mind

• Does this Communication system present in other species as well?

• How this system originated in human beings?• How does we acquire it?

Does this system present in other species

• Similarities• Ways implied for communication• Sounds • Gestures• Facial expressions

Differences

1)Complexity of Human communication systemPhonetics, phonology , morphologySemanticsSyntaxPragmaticsDiscourse

2)Creativity

How this system originated in human beings?

• The Divine source• The natural-sound source• The oral-gesture source• Glossogenetics• Neurolinguistics

How we acquire it

• Chomsky’s idea of Universal Grammar

• Location of Universal Grammar

Language and Brain

• How language works in the brain• How brain works on the language

The Human Brain

The human brain

Interesting brain facts!• About 1.4 kg (2% of body weight) mass of fat & protein with 75% water content

• W = 140 mm, L = 167 mm, H = 93 mm. Left hemisphere is larger than the right

• 40% grey matter (outer covering: cerebral cortex) 60% white matter (myelinated fiber tracts traveling to & from the cerebral cortex)

• Uses 10 – 23 watt of energy, consuming 20% oxygen from the body. Goes unconscious in 8 – 10 sec. w/o oxygen

• 100 billion neurons (166 times human population & would take 171 years to count! (Tony Buzan)

• 2,50,000 neurons/ minute in early development & stops growing at 18

• 12 pairs of cranial nerves & 31 pairs of spinal nerves

• Thinking initiates electro-chemical-neuro-impulse transmission from0.5 m/sec - 120 m/sec. (434 km/hr)

Why should we as teachers want to better understand how the brain

works?

Share your thoughts with your neighbor!(write only two points that you could think of)

Parts of the brain: Keep in mind there are two distinct sides with different functions

The Brainstem(Pathway to the Body)

• Base of brain• Unconscious work• Autonomic

functions, e.g., survival, breathing, body functions, etc.

The Cerebellum(Balance)

• ‘little brain’• Large in size• 11% of brain’s

weight• Center of balance

The brain has 4 areas called lobes

• Frontal

• Parietal

• Temporal

• Occipital

The Frontal Lobes(Problem Solving)

• Largest part• Moves your body• Highly developed• Forms your

personality

The Parietal Lobes(Touching)

• Two major divisionsAnterior and posterior

• Senses hot and cold, hard and soft, and pain

• Taste and smell• Helps integrate the

senses

The Temporal Lobes(Hearing)

• Processes auditory stimuli

• Subdivisions into• Wernicke’s Area

(associated with speech comprehension)

• Broca’s Area(associated with speech production)

The Occipital Lobes (Seeing)

• Located at lower central back of brain

• Processes visual stimuli

Taking sides….two sides that is!

• Two sides or hemispheres of the brain: LEFT and RIGHT

• We have two cerebral hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum

• This is a bundle of nerves that allows each side of the brain to communicate with each other

• Each side of the brain processes things differently

• It is an outdated assumption that “artsy” type people are right-brained

How the two sides process information!

Left Brain

• Logical

• Sequential

• Rational

• Analytical

• Objective

• Looks at parts

Right Brain

• Random

• Intuitive

• Holistic

• Synthesizing

• Subjective

• Looks at wholes

Left Hemisphere

• processes things more in parts & sequentially

• recognizes positive emotions

• identified with practicality and rationality

• understands symbols and representations

• processes rapid auditory information faster than the right (crucial for separating the sounds of speech into distinct units for comprehension)

• is responsible for language development. It develops slower in boys, that is why males usually develop more language problems than females

Right Hemisphere

• recognizes negative emotions

• high level mathematicians, problem solver like chess playing

• the “non-verbal” side

• responds to touch & music (sensory)

• intuitive

• responsive to color & shape

• emotional & creative

Taking sides….what information the two sides recognize!

Left Brain

• Letters

• Numbers

• Words

Right Brain

• Faces

• Places

• Objects

based on Sousa (1995, p. 88)

Taking sides….take the test!

Hemispheric Dominance Inventory Test at

http://brain.web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm

Aphasia

Jahanzeb Jahan

Language Disorders

• Egyptians reported speech loss after blow to head 3000 years ago

• Broca (1861) finds damage to left inferior frontal region (Broca’s area) of a language impaired patient, in postmortem analysis

Language Disorders

• In language disorders– 90-95% of cases, damage is to the left

hemisphere– 5-10% of cases, to the right hemisphere

• Wada test is used to determine the hemispheric dominance– Sodium amydal is injected to the carotid

artery– First to the left and then to the right

Brain Areas Involved in Language

What is Aphasia?• Aphasia is a disorder that

results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language. For most people, these are areas on the left side (hemisphere) of the brain. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often as the result of a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as in the case of a brain tumor, an infection, or dementia.

Contd…

• The disorder impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing. Aphasia may co-occur with speech disorders which also result from brain damage.

Who has Aphasia?

• Anyone can acquire aphasia, including children, but most people who have aphasia are middle-aged or older. Men and women are equally affected. According to the National Aphasia Association, approximately 80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia

What Causes Aphasia?

• Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more of the language areas of the brain. Many times, the cause of the brain injury is a stroke. A stroke occurs when blood is unable to reach a part of the brain. Brain cells die when they do not receive their normal supply of blood, which carries oxygen and important nutrients. Other causes of brain injury are severe blows to the head, brain tumors, brain infections, and other conditions that affect the brain.

Types of Aphasia

• There are two broad categories of aphasia:

• Fluent and non-fluent.

• Fluent = Wernicke's Aphasia, Conduction Aphasia, Transcortical Sensory Aphasia

• Non Fluent = Broca's Aphasia, Anomia Aphasia, Transcortical Motor and Global Aphasia

Classical Types of Aphasia

(- = relatively deficient; + = relatively spared)

• APHASIA TYPE NAMING FLUENCY COMPREHENSION REPETITION

• Broca's - - + -• Transcortical Motor - - + +• Wernicke's - + - - • Transcortical Sensory - + - +• Conduction Aphasia - + + -• Anomia - + + +• Global - - - -

Fluent AphasiaWernicke's Aphasia

• Damage to the temporal lobe (the side portion) of the brain may result in a fluent aphasia called Wernicke’s aphasia.

Wernicke’s Aphasia

• In most people, the damage occurs in the left temporal lobe, although it can result from damage to the right lobe as well. People with Wernicke’s aphasia may speak in long sentences that have no meaning, add unnecessary words, and even create made-up words. For example, someone with Wernicke’s aphasia may say,

“You know that Beautiful Cow and that I want to get him round and take care of him like you want before.”

Wernicke’s Aphasia

• As a result, it is often difficult to follow what the person is trying to say. People with Wernicke’s aphasia usually have great difficulty understanding speech, and they are often unaware of their mistakes. These individuals usually have no body weakness because their brain injury is not near the parts of the brain that control movement.

Wernicke’s Area

• Lesions in posterior of the left superior temporal gyrus, extending to adjacent parietal cortex

• Fluent speech• But contains many paraphasias– “girl”-“curl”, “bread”-“cake”

• Syntactical but empty sentences• Cannot repeat words or sentences• Unable to understand what they read or hear• Usually no partial paralysis

Wernicke Aphasia

„Speech-Comprehension Problem“

- Fluent, abundant, well articulated, melodic

Example: “Ah, yes, it's, ah… several things. It's a girl… uncurl… on a boat. A dog…'S is another dog… uh-oh… long's… on a boat. The lady, it's a young lady. An' a man a They were eatin‘.” (Elapsed time: 1 min 20 s)

Conduction aphasia• Conduction aphasia, also called associative

aphasia, is a relatively rare form of aphasia. An acquired language disorder, it is characterized by intact auditory comprehension, fluent (yet paraphasic) speech production, but poor speech repetition. Patients will display frequent errors during spontaneous speech, substituting or transposing sounds. They will also be aware of their errors, and will show significant difficulty correcting them.

Conduction aphasia usually is the result of damage to the left brain hemisphere, such as by sstroke.

Transcortical Sensory Aphasia

• TSA, is a type of Aphasia where sufferers have poor comprehension, but have fluent, grammatical speech. Patients can communicate well and are capable of good repetition. The main problem lies within the brain in a region known as the Temporal-occipital-parietal junction, located behind Wernicke’s Area. This disruption causes TSA sufferers to have Semantic paraphasia wherein aphasics do not use the correct word, but use another word of similar content (e.g. Apple is mistaken for Orange, Paper is mistaken for Pencil, etc.)

Non- Fluent Broca’s Area

• A type of non-fluent aphasia is Broca’s aphasia. People with Broca’s aphasia have damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. They frequently speak in short phrases that make sense but are produced with great effort. They often omit small words such as ”is,” ”and,” and ”the.” For example, a person with Broca’s aphasia may say, ”Walk dog,” meaning, ”I will take the dog for a walk,” or ”book book two table,” for ”There are two books on the table.”

Broca’s Area

• People with Broca’s aphasia typically understand the speech of others fairly well. Because of this, they are often aware of their difficulties and can become easily frustrated. People with Broca’s aphasia often have right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for motor movements.

Broca’s Aphasia• Lesions in the left inferior frontal region

(Broca’s area)• Nonfluent, labored, and hesitant speech• Most also lost the ability to name persons

or subjects (anomia)• Can utter automatic speech (“hello”)• Comprehension relatively intact• Most also have partial paralysis of one side

of the body (hemiplegia)• If extensive, not much recovery over time

Brocas Aphasia

„Speech-Production Problem“

- nonfluent, effortful

Example: “O, yea. Det's a boy an' a girl… an'… a… car… house… light po' (pole). Dog an' a… boat. ‘N det's a… mm… a… cofee, an' reading. Det's a… mm… a… det's a boy… fishin'.” (Elapsed time: 1 min 30 s)

Anomia Aphaisa

• Persons who are left with a persistent inability to supply words for the things that they want to talk about.

– Significant in nouns and verbs– Understand speech well most cases read

adequately– Poor writing ability

Transcortical motor aphasia

• (TMA), also known as adynamic aphasia, results from an injury to the anterior superior frontal lobe. The injury is typically caused by a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), commonly referred to as a stroke. The area of insult is sometimes referred to as a watershed region, a region surrounding Broca’s Area. The insult typically involves the left hemisphere as most people (regardless of handedness) are left hemisphere dominant for language (nearly 100% of right-handers, about 85% of left-handers).

Global Aphasia

• Another type of non-fluent aphasia, global aphasia, results from damage to extensive portions of the language areas of the brain. Individuals with global aphasia have severe communication difficulties and may be extremely limited in their ability to speak or comprehend language

How is Aphasia Diagnosed?

• Aphasia is usually first recognized by the physician who treats the person for his or her brain injury. Frequently this is a neurologist. The physician typically performs tests that require the person to follow commands, answer questions, name objects, and carry on a conversation. If the physician suspects aphasia, the patient is often referred to a speech-language pathologist, who performs a comprehensive examination of the person’s communication abilities. The examination includes the person’s ability to speak, express ideas, converse socially, understand language, read, and write, as well as the ability to swallow and to use alternative and augmentative communication.

How is Aphasia Treated?

• In some cases, a person will completely recover from aphasia without treatment. This type of spontaneous recovery usually occurs following a type of stroke in which blood flow to the brain is temporarily interrupted but quickly restored, called a transient ischemic attack. In these circumstances, language abilities may return in a few hours or a few days.

How is Aphasia Treated?

• For most cases, however, language recovery is not as quick or as complete. While many people with aphasia experience partial spontaneous recovery, in which some language abilities return a few days to a month after the brain injury, some amount of aphasia typically remains. In these instances, speech-language therapy is often helpful. Recovery usually continues over a two-year period. Many health professionals believe that the most effective treatment begins early in the recovery process.

How is Aphasia Treated?

• Some of the factors that influence the amount of improvement include the cause of the brain damage, the area of the brain that was damaged, the extent of the brain injury, and the age and health of the individual. Additional factors include motivation, handedness, and educational level.

Family Members are Directed to:

• Simplify language by using short, uncomplicated sentences.

• Repeat the content words or write down key words to clarify meaning as needed.

• Maintain a natural conversational manner appropriate for an adult.

• Minimize distractions, such as a loud radio or TV, whenever possible.

• Include the person with aphasia in conversations. • Ask for and value the opinion of the person with

aphasia, especially regarding family matters.• Encourage any type of communication, whether it is

speech, gesture, pointing, or drawing. • Avoid correcting the person’s speech.• Allow the person plenty of time to talk.• Help the person become involved outside the home.

Seek out support groups such as stroke clubs.

Other Treatments• Other treatment approaches involve the use

of computers to improve the language abilities of people with aphasia. Studies have shown that computer-assisted therapy can help people with aphasia retrieve certain parts of speech, such as the use of verbs. Computers can also provide an alternative system of communication for people with difficulty expressing language. Lastly, computers can help people who have problems perceiving the difference between phonemes (the sounds from which words are formed) by providing auditory discrimination exercises.

Summary1. Human Language is a system that is

quite unique in its characteristics and at the same time very intricate in its nature.

2. It is crystal clear that human language is dependant on brain thought we can’t as to how the brain formulates the language, yet is plays the pivotal role which can’t be denied at all

3. It can be said that both Language and Brain are interdependent as language cant be made possible without brain. Same is the case with the lateralization of the brain that can’t take place without having exposure to any language.

4. This unique quality, known as “Species Specific”, is pre-programmed to a larger extent in our brain as study and research has proved it

5. We have discovered the fact that it is the output of certain specific parts of the brain.

6. Sign Language is also the part of the working of the brain which emphasizes the fact that language, which is commonly used for the tool of communication, can’t be possible without brain.

7. Language disorder or aphasia is another evidence which shows the role of brain related to language as in the case of certain aphasias, people lose their prominent part of the language largely though exceptions are always there…

References

• Bandura, A.(1994). Social learning theory. From Theory into practice database. (Kearsley, G.). Retrieved March 25, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://tip.psychology.org/bandura.html

• Bloom's Taxonomy: (2003). retrieved December 2, 2003, from http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/educ_school2/docs/stai_manual/manual10.htm

• Chicurel, M. (1995) The Inner Life of Neurons, retrieved on-line, http://www.med.harvard.edu/publications/On_The_Brain/Volume4/Number2/SP95In.html

• Doolittle, P. (2001). Multimedia Learning: Empirical Results and Practical Applications [Online]. Available http://edpsychserver.ed.vt.edu/workshops/edtech/pdf/multimedia.pdf [2002, Aug 18].

• Gaines, B.R. & Shaw, M. (1995). Collaboration Through Concept Maps. Retrieved November 20, 2002, from: http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/articles/CSCL95CM/

• Sousa, D. R. (1995). How the Brain Learns. Reston, VA: NASSP

Any Questions?