1. Biological foundations of language
2013년 1학기
언어와 심리
담당교수: 홍우평

2. Intro Language processes from a biological viewpoint
Various aspects of our language capacity are not mere abstractions but rather have separate and specifiable representations in the brain
The study of the biological foundations of language extends our discussion of language acquisition (how much language is possible in species such as nonhuman primates that lacks brain mechanisms which enable children to acquire language?)

3. Intro
3 sections
Cases of individuals who have suffered damage to the language regions of the brain
The nature of hemisphere differences in language and other functions
Speculations on the evolutionary pressures that led to human language / The studies that have attempted to teach language to chimpanzees

4. Brain mechanisms and language
Clinical descriptions of Aphasia
Broca’s apahsia (expressive aphasia)
An example
“Yes … ah … Monday … er … Dad and Peter H … (his own name), and Dad … er … hospital … and ah … Wednesday, nine o’clock … and oh … Thursday … ten o’clock, ah doctors … two … an’ doctors … and er … teeth … yah” (attempting to explain that he came to the hospital for dental surgery)

5. Brain mechanisms and language
agrammatic speech
Nouns/verbs usually well preserved
Articles/conjunctions/grammatical infections omitted
Ability to comprehend language less impaired than that of producing it
The main feature: the loss of the ability to express grammatical relationships, either in speech or in writing
Damage to the frontal regions of the left hemisphere of the brain

6. Brain mechanisms and language

7. Brain mechanisms and language

8. Brain mechanisms and language
Wernicke’s aphasia (receptive aphasia)
An example
“Well this is … mother is away here working her work out o’ here to get her better, but when she’s looking, the two boys looking in the other part. One their small tile into her time here. She’s working another time because she’s getting, too.”

9. Brain mechanisms and language
paragrammatic speech
Speech that is fluent but of no informational value
Comprehension is also impaired
Damage to a region in the left temporal lobe near the auditory cortex

10. Brain mechanisms and language
fMRI

11. Brain mechanisms and language
Geschwind’s model of language processing

12. Lateralization of language processes
The tendency for a given psychological function to be served by one hemisphere, with the other hemisphere either incapable or less capable of performing the function

13. Lateralization of language processes
[1] Split brain research
← The nervous system in humans is predominantly contralateral

14. Lateralization of language processes
Research 1 (on the nature of left-hemisphere language skills) (visual field task)
A picture of a spoon in patient’s left visual field
Q: What do you see? → “No, nothing’
Q: Select with your left hand the object! → successful performance (‘spoon’) ⇒⇒
Q: What are you holding? → “Nothing”
Q: Reach for the object with your right hand! → chance level performance

15. Lateralization of language processes
Research 2 (on the right-hemisphere language skills)
Simple pictures depicting visual scenes + auditory presentation of 2 sentences one of which is correctly describing the picture ((8) ~ (15), p. 348)
The patients were incapable of distinguishing between (8) and (9), (10) and (11), (12) and (13), but could distinguish between (14) and (15)
※They correctly responded to boy and girl, but could not respond properly to verbs

16. Lateralization of language processes
It appears that the right hemisphere has, at best, very rudimentary syntactic mechanisms

17. Lateralization of language processes
[2] Lateralization in normal brain
Visual field task with normal brain
Dichotic listening task
The simultaneous presentation of different stimuli to the two ears
Recall of verbally presented materials was superior in the right year / recognition of nonverbal stimuli (melodies, e.g.) was better in the left year

18. Lateralization of language processes
Auditory system
Contralateral pathway + ipsalateral pathway
Contralateral pathway > ipsalateral pathway: under the competing conditions of dichotic presentation, the former “block” the latter
Holistic vs. relational processing
Holistic processing (R.h. preference): involves the activation of a single mental representation of a stimulus
Relational processing (L.h. preference): involves the activation of at least two distinct representations along with some relation between the two

19. Lateralization of language processes
[3] Contributions of the right hemisphere
Pragmatic aspects of language
Understanding a white lie, e.g.
Appreciation of humor
R.h.: better at detecting surprise
L.h: better at preserving coherence
Lexical processing
Two hemispheres may play complementary roles in the comprehension of ambiguous word

20. Lateralization of language processes
A lexically ambiguous prime + target in the right vs. left visual field
Right visual field (L.h).: the dominant meaning immediately facilitated & less facilitation for the subordinate meaning
Left visual field (R.h.): the dominant meaning immediately facilitated & the less dominant meaning not suppressed
⇒ the efficiency of the L.h. may be an asset in most situations, but when the wrong meaning has been selected, the correct meaning may be more accessible to the R.h.

21. 1초의 언어처리 Keywords Cognitive Neuroscience 인지신경과학
Electrophysiology 전기생리학
Electroencephalography 뇌파전위기록술
Electroenecephalogram 뇌전도
Event-related (brain) potential 사건성 전위
N400
P600
(E)LAN
Syntactic processing 통사처리
Semantic processing 의미처리
Morpho-syntactic processing 형태통사처리
Violation paradigm 위반 패러다임

24. (1)(a) Jenny put the sweet in her mouth after the lesson
(b) Jenny put the sweet in her pocket after the lesson
(N400)
(2)(a) The boiled watering-can smokes the telephone in the
cat
(b) The boiled watering-can *smoke the telephone in the
cat (P600)