Outline
Aphasia and language Double dissociations Localization of (linguistic) function Broca, Wernicke, and the syndrome approach to aphasia Behavioral studies of aphasia Neuroimaging studies of aphasia
Defining aphasia
Rao 1994
Defining language
Speech? Communication? Thought? A separate system of knowledge?
Double dissociations
Double dissociations
Cognitive systems dissociate from one another One can be impaired while another is (relatively) spared This is taken as evidence that cognitive systems are likely distinct from one another the brain/mind is MODULAR in its organization Language is not a monolith Dissociations require caution: - maybe one function is just more vulnerable to certain kinds of damage than another - one task might be more difficult than another - Apparent dissociations might arise from non-modular systems
Single word reading by two alexic patients: Warrington 1981, Patterson 1979, Plaut & Shallice 1993
Localization of function
Phrenology
1800s
Localization of language
Paul Broca (1861): patient Carl Wernicke: patients Tan with posterior lesions in Slow, effortful, nonfluent the left hemisphere speech with many omissions; comprehension is but good comprehension impaired but speech is on parle avec lhemisphere fluent gauche
Wernickes prediction
Predicted two language centers:
Brocas area: speech articulation Wernickes area: speech comprehension
Predicted a third disconnection syndrome damage to the arcuate fasciculus Conduction aphasia
Chris Rorden, University of Nottingham
http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/cr1/c83lnp/c83lnp2.pdf
Wernicke-Lichtheim model
Concepts (distributed) Wernickes aphasia arcuate fasciculus conduction aphasia Wernickes area
Conduction aphasia: can produce and understand meaningful speech, but cannot repeat words they hear
Wernicke-Lichtheim model
1. Brocas aphasia
2. Wernickes aphasia
3. Conduction aphasia 4. Transcortical motor aphasia
5. Dyspraxia
6. Transcortical sensory aphasia 7. Pure word deafness
John
Agent
kissed
Mary
Patient
John
Agent??
central disruption of the syntactic parsing component of the language system Berndt & Caramazza 1980
Perhaps the deficit is not central to syntax, but involves the transfer from syntactic structure to semantic structure of a sentence: a mapping deficit (Saffran et al 1980)
Thalamic involvement was very common, and was related to: comprehension deficits, word-finding problems, alexia and agraphia Concluded that our understanding of the neuroanatomical correlates of the classical aphasias should be re-evaluated, especially with a view to clarifying the role of subcortical structures in language
Thank you!
kfroud@tc.columbia.edu
http://www.tc.edu/neurocog