COGSCI 200 Lecture 3: LEC 3_ Language and the Brain
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Language and the Brain
Is recursion an exceptionless feature of all languages?
- Chomsky believes YES → “John believes that Mary thinks that Shelly hates me”
Language
I. Functional→ Problem the capacity is supposed to solve
II. Algorithmic→ Procedures that enabled the problem to be solved
III. Physical→ The neural/chemical substrates in which the procedures are implemented
Modularity
I. Language processing is MANDATORY→ It operates irrespective of conscious initiation or
control
A. EX: You cannot force yourself to NOT process the words you are hearing, your brain
will do it anyway
II. Language processing is FAST
A. We understand speech as it unfolds, and we understand text as we read at a rate of about
250-350ms per word
Question: Suppose there are specialized computers for language processing. Do these computers have
discrete neural locations?
Basic Neuroanatomy (IMPORTANT)
- Regions
- Frontal
- Temporal
- Parietal
- Occipital
- Cerebellum
- Brain Stem (includes midbrain)
- Direction
- Superior/Dorsal→ to the top
- Inferior/Ventral→ to the bottom
- Anterior/Rostral→ to the front
- Posterior/Caudal→ to the back
- Lateral vs. Medial→ away from midline VS. toward midline
- Brain regions important for LANGUAGE
- Motor Cortex→ frontal lobe
- Broca’s area→ frontal lobe; “Syntactic region”
- Primary auditory cortex→ temporal lobe
- Wernicke’s area→ temporal lobe; “Semantic region”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chomsky believes yes john believes that mary thinks that shelly hates me . Functional problem the capacity is supposed to solve. Algorithmic procedures that enabled the problem to be solved. Physical the neural/chemical substrates in which the procedures are implemented. Language processing is mandatory it operates irrespective of conscious initiation or control: ex: you cannot force yourself to not process the words you are hearing, your brain will do it anyway. Language processing is fast: we understand speech as it unfolds, and we understand text as we read at a rate of about. Question: suppose there are specialized computers for language processing. Lateral vs. medial away from midline vs. toward midline. Lesions produce speech that is agrammatical & lacks fluency. Person speaking is clearly frustrated & knows she is having trouble. Complex, fluent speech is preserved but lacks coherent meaning. Lack of awareness person doesn"t know they aren"t speaking correctly. Lesions produce cortical deafness (cannot hear sounds)
