McGarrity COM 374 Week 5 outline – Language and the brain I. II. III. IV. V. VI. Double dissociation A. Good intelligence, poor language i. Specific Language Impairment (SLI) ii. ‘KE’ family (FOXP2 gene) iii. Aphasics The Brain A. Contralateral control: left hemisphere controls right side of body, right hemisphere controls left side of body B. Laterialization: the brain is asymmetrical such that each hemisphere is specialized for certain cognitive functions C. Left hemisphere: i. Analytical processing ii. Speech sounds (language), mathematics, temporal relations, intellectual reasoning D. Right hemisphere: i. Holistic processing ii. Nonspeech sounds, music, visuo-spatial relations, emotional responses Split Brain patients A. Corpus callosum is severed B. Left and right hemispheres operate independently C. Provides evidence for lateralization D. ‘Pieces of Mind’ transcript: http://www.pbs.org/saf/transcripts/transcript703.htm Aphasia A. Any language deficit caused by damage to the brain B. Almost always caused by left hemisphere damage i. Broca’s aphasia: labored, halting speech, word-finding problems, lack of ‘function’ words/inflections (‘agrammatic’), good comprehension ii. Wernicke’s aphasia: speech is fluent, correct word order, use of function words, lexical errors, nonsense words (‘neologisms’), circumlocutions, poor comprehension C. Double dissociation: comprehension and production of language Aphasia in ASL signers A. Damage to left hemisphere: signing is affected as in spoken languages i. Broca’s: sign slowly, omit inflections ii. Wernicke’s: sign fluently but confusingly, show comprehension problems B. Damage to right hemisphere (‘left neglect’): left side of body/visual field is ignored or neglected; impaired spatial understanding and recognition/use of facial expressions i. In ASL users, facial expressions and left-side signs/space can be recognized/used just for signing ASL syntax ii. Demonstrates abstractness of language and its independence from the modality in which it is expressed Language and thought A. Some theories about the relationship i. Thought = Language ii. iii. VII. VIII. IX. Thought determines language Sapir-Whorf hypothesis a. Language determines thought (strong version) b. Language influences thought (weak version) Thought = language A. Philosophers: since animals can’t speak language, they lack consciousness B. Evidence against: i. Animals can think (vervets) ii. Babies can think (Mickey experiment) iii. Deaf adults w/o language iv. Creative thought Thought determines language A. People have thoughts and then put them into words B. Babies must develop cognitively before they can speak C. Evidence against: i. Mental math in bilinguals ii. McGurk effect (visual GA + audio BA = perceived DA) http://www.media.uio.no/personer/arntm/McGurk_large.mov Sapir-Whorf hypothesis A. Linguistic determinism (Language determines thought) i. Pirahã tribe in Brazil: lack of counting terms leads to inability to count http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1094492/DC1 ii. “Doll with Marble experiment” a. hearing kids and deaf kids of deaf parents perform correctly b. deaf kids of hearing parents perform incorrectly c. Conclusion: deaf kids of hearing parents lack the cognitive skill to do the experiment due to lack of complex language iii. Evidence against: a. Translation between languages b. Neologisms c. Intended meanings d. Ambiguity B. Linguistic relativity (Language influences thought) i. Color terms differ across cultures/languages ii. Spatial orientation in Australian langs. Study questions: What do sign languages and whistling languages like Silbo Gomero demonstrate about the human language faculty? What is your own view on the relationship between language and thought? Support your view with relevant examples.