PSYC550
Biological Bases of Behavior
Communication and Movement
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• cerebrovascualr accident
– A “stroke”; brain damage caused by occlusion or rupture of a
blood vessel in the brain.
• aphasia
– Difficulty in producing or comprehending speech not produced
by deafness or a simple motor deficit; caused by brain damage.
• Broca’s aphasia
– A form of aphasia characterized by agrammatism, anomia, and
extreme difficulty in speech articulation.
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• function word
– A preposition, article, or other word that conveys little
of the meaning of a sentence but is important in
specifying its grammatical structure.
• content word
– A noun, verb, adjective, or adverb that conveys meaning.
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• circumlocution
– A strategy by which people with anomia find alternative
ways to say something when they are unable to think of
the most appropriate word.
• prosody
– The use of changes in intonation and emphasis to
convey meaning in speech besides that specified by the
particular words; an important means of
communication of emotions.
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• Broca’s area
– A region of frontal cortex, located just rostral to the base of the left primary
motor cortex, that is necessary for normal speech production.
• agrammatism
– One of the usual symptoms of Broca’s aphasia; a difficulty in comprehending
or properly employing grammatical devices, such as verb endings and word
order.
• anomia
– Difficulty in finding (remembering) the appropriate word to describe an
object, action, or attribute, one of the symptoms of aphasia.
• apraxia of speech
– Impairment in the ability to program movements of the tongue, lips, and
throat required to produce the proper sequence of speech sounds.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• Wernicke’s area
– A region of auditory association cortex on the left
temporal lobe of humans, which is important in the
comprehension of words and the production of
meaningful speech.
• Wernicke’s aphasia
– A form of aphasia characterized by poor speech
comprehension and fluent but meaningless speech.
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• pure word deafness
– The ability to hear, to speak, and (usually) to read and
write without being able to comprehend the meaning of
speech; caused by damage to Wernicke’s area or
disruption of auditory inputs to this region.
• transcortical sensory aphasia
– A speech disorder in which a person has difficulty
comprehending speech and producing meaningful
spontaneous speech but can repeat speech; caused by
damage to the brain posterior to Wernicke’s area.
Speech Production and
Comprehension: Brain
Mechanisms
• autotopagnosia
– Inability to name body parts or to identify body parts
that another person names.
• arcuate fasciculus
– A bundle of axons that connects Wernicke’s area with
Broca’s area; damage causes conduction aphasia.
• conduction aphasia
– An aphasia characterized by inability to repeat words
that are heard but the ability to speak normally and
comprehend the speech of others.
Disorders of Reading
and Writing
• pure alexia
– Loss of the ability to read without loss of the ability to
write; produced by brain damage.
• whole-word reading
– Reading by recognizing a word as a whole; “sightreading.”
• phonetic reading
– Reading by decoding the phonetic significance of letter
strings; “sound reading.”
The Cambridge
Pseudohoax
Accoidrng to a rereasch at Cimbradge University, it
dosen't mttaer in waht oedrr the letters in a wrod are.
The olny importnat tihng is taht the fsrit and lsat ltteer
be in the rihgt plcae.
The rset can be a toatl mses and you can slitl raed it
wothiut prbolem. Tihs is becuase the huamn mnid deos
not raed eevry letter by iteslf, but the wrod as a whloe.
I was able to read that
without great difficulty
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Disorders of Reading
and Writing
• surface dyslexia
– A reading disorder in which a person can read words phonetically but
has difficulty reading irregularly spelled words by the whole-word
method.
• phonological dyslexia
– A reading disorder in which a person can read familiar words but has
difficulty reading unfamiliar words or pronounceable non-words.
• word-form dyslexia
– A disorder in which a person can read a word only after spelling out the
individual letters.
• spelling dyslexia
– An alternative name for word-form dyslexia.
Disorders of Reading
and Writing
• direct dyslexia
– A language disorder caused by brain damage in which the person
can read words aloud without understanding them.
• phonological dysgraphia
– A writing disorder in which the person cannot sound out words
or write them phonetically.
• orthographic dysgraphia
– A writing disorder in which the person can spell regularly spelled
words but not irregularly spelled ones.
• developmental dyslexia
– A reading difficulty in a person of normal intelligence and
perceptual ability; of genetic origin or caused by prenatal or
perinatal factors.
Control of Movement by
the Brain
• somatotopic organization
– A topographically organized mapping of parts of the body that are
represented in a particular region of the brain.
• supplemental motor area (SMA)
– A region of association motor cortex of the dorsal and dorsomedial
frontal lobe, rostral to primary motor cortex.
• premotor cortex
– A region of motor cortex of the lateral frontal lobe, rostral to the
primary motor cortex.
• mirror neurons
– Neurons located in the ventral premotor cortex and inferior parietal
lobule that respond when the individual makes a particular movement
or sees another individual making that movement.
Planum Temporale
• Planum temporale seems larger on
the right than left
• Triangular area in the Sylvian
Fissure smack in the middle of
Wernecke’s area
• Important in music and language
• Usually larger on left than right
– If MUCH larger on left – perfect
pitch
– If larger on right - dyslexia
• Cells that ought not be there seem
to have migrated in that area
during development (16-24 weeks
gestation)
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this code:
32341
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How did you do that?
Control of Movement by
the Brain
• apraxia
– Difficulty in carrying out purposeful movements, in the
absence of paralysis or muscular weakness.
• callosal apraxia
– An apraxia of the left hand caused by damage to the
anterior corpus callosum.
• sympathetic apraxia
– A movement disorder of the left hand caused by
damage to the left frontal lobe; similar to callosal
apraxia.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Control of Movement by
the Brain
• left parietal apraxia
– An apraxia caused by damage to the left parietal lobe;
characterized by difficulty in producing sequences of
movements by verbal request or in imitation of
movements made by someone else.
• constructional apraxia
– Difficulty in drawing pictures or diagrams or in making
geometrical constructions of elements such as building
blocks or sticks; caused by damage to the right parietal
lobe.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Control of Movement by
the Brain
• caudate nucleus
– A telencephalic nucleus, one of the input nuclei of the basal
ganglia; involved with the control of voluntary movement.
• putamen
– A telencephalic nucleus; one of the input nuclei of the basal
ganglia; involved with the control of voluntary movement.
• globus pallidus
– A telencephalic nucleus; the primary output nucleus of the basal
ganglia; involved with the control of voluntary movement.
Control of Movement by
the Brain
• ventral anterior nucleus (of thalamus)
– A thalamic nucleus that receives projections from the
basal ganglia and sends projections to the motor cortex.
• ventrolateral nucleus (of thalamus)
– A thalamic nucleus that receives projections from the
basal ganglia and sends projections to the motor cortex.
Control of Movement by the
Brain
• direct pathway (in basal ganglia)
– The pathway that includes the caudate nucleus and putamen, the
external division of the globus pallidus, the subthalamic nucleus, the
internal division of the globus pallidus, and the ventral
anterior/ventrolateral thalamic nuclei; has an inhibitory effect on
movement.
• indirect pathway (in basal ganglia)
– The pathway that includes the caudate nucleus and putamen, the
internal division of the globus pallidus, and the ventral
anterior/ventrolateral thalamic nuclei; has an excitatory effect on
movement.
• Huntington’s disease
– A fatal inherited disorder that causes degeneration of the caudate
nucleus and putamen; characterized by uncontrollable jerking
movements, writhing movements, and dementia.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Control of Movement by
the Brain
• flocculonodular lobe
– A region of the cerebellum; involved in control of postural reflexes.
• vermis
– The portion of the cerebellum located at the midline; receives
somatosensory information and helps to control the vestibulospinal
and reticulospinal tracts through its connections with the fastigial
nucleus.
• fastigial nucleus
– A deep cerebellar nucleus; involved in the control of movement by the
reticulospinal and vestibulospinal tracts.
• interposed nucleus
– A set of deep cerebellar nuclei; involved in the control of the
rubropinal system.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Control of Movement by the
Brain
• pontine nucleus
– A large nucleus in the pons that serves as an important
source of input to the cerebellum.
• dentate nucleus
– A deep cerebellar nucleus; involved in the control of
rapid, skilled movements by the corticospinal and
rubrospinal systems.
• mesencephalic locomotor region
– A region of the reticular formation of the midbrain
whose stimulation causes alternating movements of the
limbs normally seen during locomotion.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
A person in your office can read, write,
understand what you say, but cannot repeat
what you say. What’s going on?
1. He is in the wrong
office
2. He has conduction
aphasia
3. He has pure word
deafness
4. He transcortical
aphasic echolalia
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Degeneration of the
caudate nucleus and
putamen is seen in:
1. Left parietal apraxia
2. Construcitonal
apraxia
3. Huntington’s disease
4. Extrapyramidal
distortion
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