LANGUAGE AND

HUMAN BRAIN Psycholinguistic

LANGBRAIN

GROUP

IntroductionEra & Yuni

The ExpertJana & Julaisa

Language and the Brain

Irma & Syarifah

IntroductionEra & Yuni

How the human acquire and use language?

Research on the brain in humans and nonhuman primates, anatomically, psychologically, and behaviorally is helping

to answer the questions connecting the neurological basis for language.

Neurolinguistics is the study of how language is represented and processed in the brain.

We will discuss the language and the brain such as the definition, the reason why only human can speak the language, the process/ mechanism, the

theories, the contribution, and the examples.

The Definition

The brain is one of the important organs that located in human’s

head that composed of neurons, nerve cells that are the basic information processing units of the nervous

system

The language is the human ability to acquire and use

complex systems of communication, the scientific study of

language is called linguistics.

THE HUMAN BRAIN

The cerebral cortex is the gray wrinkled mass that sits over therest of the brain and accounts for language representation andprocessing.

The longitudinal fissure separates the left and righthemispheres of the brain.

The corpus callosum is the bundle of nerve fibers that connectsthe two hemispheres.

Cerebral Cortex

HUMAN’S BRAIN DIFFERS FROM GORILLA’S

Human’s Brain is More Complete and

complex

MOSTLY FOR PHYSICAL SURVIVAL

NO SPECIAL BOX FOR LANGUAGE

COMPLETED WITH 2 HEMISPHERES (LEFT AND RIGHT), SPECIAL BOX FOR LANGUAGE, CORPUS COLLOSUM, WERNICKE, BROCA and so on.

Language ability as a difference in degree between humans and other primates

Nonhuman primates could

not develop speech because

their vocal tracts couldn’t

produce a large enough

inventory of speech sounds.

Mynah birds and parrots

have the ability to imitate

human speech, but not the

ability to acquire language

The development of a vocal tract

capable of producing the wide

variety of sounds can only utilized

by human.

Humans are

born with

faculties of mind

GORILLA’S EPIGLOTIS IS HIGHER THAN HUMAN’S

GORILLA’S RESONANT CAVITY IS SMALLER THAN HUMAN’S.

GORILLA’S TEETH are NOT LEVELLY POSITIONED, NOT LIKE HUMAN’S

GORILLA’S LABIAL FORMS ARE THIN AND LONG, NOT LIKE HUMAN’S THICK AND SHORT.

BIOLOGICALLY

Gorilla Vs. Human

Why is the brain so well suited to learning language?

The structure of human language is inevitably shaped around human learning and processing biases deriving from the structure of our thought processes (brain).

Language is easy for us to learn and use, not because our brains embody knowledge of language, but because language has adapted to our brains.

The connection between the brain and the language

Human brain structure is the fundamental basis

of the relationship between language and

the brain.

The ExpertsJana & Julaisa

In 1861,

found that damage to

the front part of the

left hemisphere

resulted in loss of

speech.

PAUL BROCA, a French neurosurgeon

Broca’s Area

He examined Tan’s brain (a recently deceased

patient who had had an unusual

disorder). Tan could neither speak a

complete sentence nor express his

thoughts in writing. The only

articulate sound he could only

make syllable “tan”.

“we speak

with the left

hemisphere”

-Broca-

CARL WERNICKE, a German neurologist

In 1871, he discovered

another part of the brain,

this one involved in

understanding language,

He found

in the posterior portion of the

left temporal lobe. People who

had a lesion at this location

could speak, but their speech

was often incoherent and made

no sense.

The Language Loop

Lateral Sulcus :

one of the most prominent structures

of the human brain.

Broca's Area:

the production of language, or

language outputs

Wernicke's Area :

processing of words that we hear

being spoken, or language inputs.

Arcuate Fasciculus :

a large bundle of nerve fibres which

connect Broca's area and Wernicke's

area

90% of

right-

handed

persons

70% of

left-

handed

persons

This language loop is found in the left hemisphere in about :

Language being one of the functions

that is performed asymmetrically in

the brain. This loop would therefore

not appear to be specific to heard or

spoken language, but rather to be

more broadly associated with whatever

the individual’s primary language

modality happens to be.

Language and the BrainIrma & Syarifah

Language in Brain

The relationship between language

and the brain

How it all started?

Where is language located in the brain?

Neurolinguistics.

Parts of the brain

Brain stem: connects the brain to the spinal cord

Left

hemisphere

Corpus callosum: connects the two

hemispheres

Right

hemisphere

Parts of the brain that are related to language functions are in the areas above the left ear.

Parts of the brain

• Anterior speech cortex

• Controls Syntax

(1)Broca’sarea

• Posterior speech cortex

• controls Semantics(2)

Wernicke’s area

Parts of the brain

• Controls the movement of the muscles (for moving hands, feet, arms, etc. as well as muscles of the face, jaw, tongue, and larynx.

• Involved in the physical articulation of speech

• Two neurosurgeons: Penfield and Roberts (1959)

(3) Motor cortex:

• A bundle of nerve fiber

• Wernicke’s discovery

• Connection between Broac’s area and Wernicke’s area

(4) Arcuate

Fasciculus

Parts of the brain

When does brain began to produce

language?

Every child already has their LAD

(language acquisition

device) since they were born even when they were in their

mom’s womb.

Is language totally left-lateralized?

Not completely.

Adults with left cerebral hemispheres surgicallyremoved lose most, but not all of their linguistic competence.

They lose the ability to speak and process complex syntactic patterns, but retain some language comprehension ability.

How Human’s Brain Process

Language

Human Voice

Input (voice)

Respond by temporal lobe and the primary auditory cortex:

received, digested, and processed

Send to Wernicke's Area

Interpreted (In this area sounds broken down into syllables,

words, phrases, clauses, and finally the sentence)

Voice and information understood.

Memory (no need verbal respond)

Broca’s Area (need verbal response)

In Broca’s Area…

Prepare Sound

verbal response

Send to the motor cortex (an utterance there is at least 100

muscle and neuromuscular barrage

involved 140,000)

Sound be considered not only the order of words and sound sequences, but also the order of the features of the sounds

to be uttered

Example….

Example…

“die” “tie”

Consist of / d / / i /, / e

/

Consist of / t /, / i/, / e /

1. Deciding the features of the

phoneme: Phoneme / d / has a feature

[+ voice], [+ consonant], [+ anterior],

[-bilabial], [+ alveolar], [-nasal] ->

2. motor cortex -> 3. vocal cords 30

milliseconds -> 4. attached to the tip

of the tongue in the mouth of

Regional alveolar to the sound / d /

coordinated with all so neat &

accurate coordination

In contrast,

/ t / -> 25 milliseconds

after the sound

To : ensure that the

billabial sound that comes

out it really / d /, and not /

t /

Without this accuracy then the conversation would sound like a

stranger

Written Form

Input in written form a text/ discourse

Visual cortex in the occipital lobe

Angular lines (coordinating understanding areas with

occiptipal areas)

To the Wernicke areas -interpreted (In this area sounds

broken down into syllables, words, phrases, clauses, and finally the

sentence

Broca areas (verbal responses) / areas perietal (process visualization) areas understanding

Language Disorders

1. Aphasia

• A language deficit caused by damage to the brain, often be a stroke or an accident

• According to Rosenzweig, aphasia divided into 3

categories:

1. Broca’s

aphasia

• Nonfluentspeech

2. Wernicke’s

aphasia

• Fluent speech but unintelligible

3. Global

aphasia

• Total loss of language

2. Dyslexia

• Dyslexia is a specific impairment of reading in a person with adequate vision and adequate skills in other academic areas.– More common in boys.

– Research suggests a genetic influence.