1. Psycholinguistics

2. Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics
Psycholinguistics: study of language acquisition, storage, comprehension, and production
Neurolinguistics: study of the neural and electrochemical bases of language development and use

3. Brain Architecture Right and left hemispheres
Hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum
Brain is covered by a membrane called the cortex
Bumps on the brain are called gyri, depressions are fissures

4. Cortex Areas
Auditory cortex: receives and identifies auditory signals; Converts them into forms understandable by other areas of the brain
Visual cortex: receives and interprets visual stimuli; Storage site for pictoral images
Motor cortex: sends signals to muscles to make them move

6. Language Centers of the Brain
Broca’s area
Located at the base of the motor cortex
Responsible for organising articulatory patterns of language
Directs the motor cortex when talk is required
Controls use of inflectional and function morphemes

7. Language Centers of the Brain
Wernicke’s area:
Located near the back of the auditory cortex
Responsible for the comprehension of words
Selects words when producing language

8. Language Centers of the Brain
Arcuate Fasciculus
Nerve fibers connecting Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Allow the two areas to share information
Required for accessing of the ‘mental lexicon’

9. Language Centers of the Brain
Angular Gyrus
Located between Wernicke’s area and the visual cortex
Converts visual stimuli into auditory stimuli and vice versa
Allows matching of spoken and written forms to the objects they describe
Crucial for reading and writing

10. Aphasia: Language Disorders
“…An inability to perceive, process, or produce language because of physical damage to the brain,” (p.62).

11. Language Disorders Broca’s aphasia
Individuals suffer from an inability to plan the motor sequences for spoken or signed language
Comprehension is not affected; This is an expressive disorder
Speech is halting, patients have a hard time forming words
Sentences may lack inflection and/or function morphemes (e.G. To, the, etc.)

12. Language Disorders Wernicke’s aphasia
Individuals suffer from the inability to understand the speech of others
This is a receptive disorder
Patients may produce semantically incoherent speech, e.G. Use of circumlocutions
Syntactic word order may be altered

13. Language Disorders Conduction aphasia
Results from damage to the arcuate fasciculus
Individuals may sound like sufferers of Wernicke’s aphasia (fluent but meaningless speech)
Sufferers will be able to understand speech, but not to repeat it
Results from the inability to transmit information from Broca’s to Wernicke’s areas and vice versa

14. Language Disorders Alexia: Agraphia:
Caused by damage to the angular gyrus
The inability to read and comprehend written words
Caused by the inability of the angular gyrus to match the visual word to the phonetic form in Wernicke’s area
Agraphia:
The inability to write words
Caused by the inability of the angular gyrus to relate the phonetic form of a word to the written form
(Not related to dyslexia, which is caused by a structural portion difference of the temporal lobe, and which may be overcome with proper training)