Can non-human primates generate speech?

Why not?

Can non-human primates generate speech?

Why not?

No,

because they do not have the vocal apparatus for speech

What changes to human ancestors enabled speech?

When did this occur?

What changes to human ancestors enabled speech?

When did this occur?

the lowering of the larynx,

which occurred about 250,000 years ago

Which 4 species are given as examples that people have attempted to teach language to?

Chimp

Gorilla

Bonobo

Grey parrot

What is the estimate # of words in ape vocabulary?

What did Jane Goodall observe about their signs?

What is the estimate # of words in ape vocabulary?

What did Jane Goodall observe about their signs?

25 - 125 "words"

Jane Goodall noted that many of the signs they made were also seen in chimps in the wild (contradicts conclusion that they 'learned' language)

What is Broca's Aphasia?

When was it first reported?

What is Broca's Aphasia?

When was it first reported? 

- An inability to produce speech output with relatively intact comprehension (due to lack of prosody and missing fxn words, word endings, conjunctions & prepositions)

- 1861

An unclear phrase such as "boy hit girl" (rather than either "the boy hit the girl"  OR  "the boy was hit by the girl") as common to what condition?  What is the term for it?

Broca's aphasia

/

"Agrammatism"

What approximate percentage of patients with damage to the classical Broca's area have Broca's aphasia?

What area to all Broca's aphasics have damage to?

What approximate percentage of patients with damage to the classical Broca's area have Broca's aphasia?

What area to all Broca's aphasics have damage to?

50%

Insula

What is Wernicke's aphasia and when was it first reported?

- Language comprehension is disrupted but production is intact. 

- 1874

Describe the following regarding Wernicke's aphasia speech:

 Prosody:

Word endings:

 Grammar:

Chance of others comprehending it:

Describe the following regarding Wernicke's aphasia speech:

 Prosody:   appropriate

Word endings:   appropriate

 Grammar:   perfectly fine

Chance of others comprehending it:   None,

because although it 'sounds' right in that the tone of voice and inflection is normal and no rules of grammar are broken,

things like "call me on the television" and  "I did not understand the door" make no actual sense.

What brain regions must be lesioned in order to cause persistent Wernicke's aphasia?

the areas of the posterior temporal & inferior parietal cortex surrounding Wernicke's area

Define conduction aphasia.

ability to comprehend and produce language

but

inability to repeat

What is the name of the damaged structure in conduction aphasia?  What type of structure is it and what does it connect?

What is the name of the damaged structure in conduction aphasia?  What type of structure is it and what does it connect?

- the arcuate fasciculus,

- which is a nerve fiber tract

- that connects Wernicke's and Broca's area

Conduction aphasia is an example of what type of syndrome?

A disconnection syndrome

What 2 types of information about words are included in a mental lexicon?

- Semantic info (ie, meaning of "chair")

- Syntactic info (grammar, ie, "chair" is a noun)

Describe the 2 types of word forms stored in a mental lexicon.

- Orthographic (e.g. the visual form of "chair" as written/read)

- Phonological (e.g. the sound when "chair" is pronounced)

Which words in a mental lexicon are accessed most quickly?

More frequently used words

What is the average number of words in the mental lexicon?

50,000

Name the 3 levels of the mental lexicon and what type of representation is stored at each.

Concept level - semantic representation

Lemma level - syntactic representation

Lexeme level - phonological rep. (OR Grapheme - visual rep.)

In the Collins & Loftus (1975) model of lexical organization,

each word is a ____ .

____  ___  ___  increases with word frequency.

Semantic associations determine the connection ___ and ___ between the nodes.

What happens when one node is activated?

In the Collins & Loftus (1975) model of lexical organization,

each word is a node.

Baseline node activation increases with word frequency.

Semantic associations determine the connection strength and distance between the nodes.

What happens when one node is activated?

- activation spreads to adjacent nodes

In lexical priming tasks / lexical decision tasks, what is the difference between related and unrelated primes?

What does this indicate about semantically related words in the mental lexicon?

In lexical priming tasks / lexical decision tasks, what is the difference between related and unrelated primes?

What does this indicate about semantically related words in the mental lexicon? 

 - The reaction time to determine that a presented sequence of letters is a real word is much faster when a related word is shown right before the test word.

- they are represented close to

each other in the mental lexicon

Describe the 4 hypothesized stages to speech comprehension in the sample model that does not allow top-down influence.

1) Decode acoustic input & transform into phonological code

2) Match phonological code to known word (lexical selection)

3) Access grammatical info (lemma activation)

4) Access meaning (conceptual activation)

What is a phoneme?

What is a phoneme?

The smallest unit of sound that can influence meaning

 (ie /b/ vs. /r/ differentiates bat from rat)

What is phonetics?

The way in which a phoneme is articulated / produced.

Name and define the first factor that affects phonetics.

"place of articulation" - where in the vocal tract the flow of air is obstructed.

Can be at the lips, behind the front teeth, or at the soft palate

Name and describe the second factor that affects phonetics.

"Voice onset time" - the relative timing of the release of air vs. vibration of vocal chords

ie, air release & vibration are simultaneous (b, d)

vs.

vocal cord vibration is approx. 40 ms after air release (p, t)

What are 3 reasons grouping phonemes into words is a difficult problem?

 1) input comes very quickly

2) Variability in signal due to context

- speaker's voice, background noise, etc

3) hard to identify word boundaries

Define 'pure word deafness'

difficulty recognizing speech sounds despite relatively preserved processing of other auditory sounds

What brain damage is associated with pure word deafness?

What type of processing does this implicate these regions in?

What brain damage is associated with pure word deafness?

What type of processing does this implicate these regions in?

- bilateral lesions to relatively superior regions of the temporal lobes

- phonemic processing

In the Lexical Selection stage of speech comprehension:

as phonemes from a word are processed, ____ words are activated until more phonemic info arrives.

In the Lexical Selection stage of speech comprehension:

as phonemes from a word are processed, candidate words are activated until more phonemic info arrives.

What is the 'cohort model' of spoken-word recognition?

Why is it too simplistic?

What is the 'cohort model' of spoken-word recognition?

Why is it too simplistic?

-- All words that begin with the 1st phoneme are activated.  Then, as each phoneme is processed all non-matching words are eliminated until only one is left.

-- Too simplistic because not account for competition between words that don't start with the same phoneme like strain, range, change, etc)

What are the 4 hypothesized stages of reading in the sample model that does not allow top-down influnces?

1)  Decode visual input and transform into orthographic code

2) Match orthographic code to known word (lexical selection)

- can be visual or auditory form

3) Access grammatical information (lemma activation)

4) Access meaning (conceptual activation)

What are the 2 main features of a connectionist model of letter recognition for reading?

- Parallel processing of letter features, letters, and words

- Processing in each layer can affect processing in the other layers

A connectionist model of letter recognition for reading accounts nicely for which experimentally-observed effect?

Which 2 guys came up with this kind of model? 

A connectionist model of letter recognition for reading accounts nicely for which experimentally-observed effect?

Which 2 guys came up with this kind of model?

- The "word superiority effect", which is that we're faster to recongize letters that occur in a word than in a non-word

NOTE: this is top-down activation

- McClelland & Rummelhart

What brain region shows some preferential response to letter strings compared to other visual stimuli?

What condition results from damage to this area?

What region preferentially responds to visually presented words compared to nonwords?

What brain region shows some preferential response to letter strings compared to other visual stimuli?

What condition results from damage to this area?

What region preferentially responds to visually presented words compared to nonwords?

- The  left occipito-temporal cortex

- alexia - a neuro-disorder w/ loss of ability to read words

- NONE

What brain region is more activated by speech sounds (words, nonwords, and reversed speech) than tones? What region is not?

If we had to say that either hemisphere is more activated by speech sounds which would it be?

What brain region is more activated by speech sounds (words, nonwords, and reversed speech) than tones? What region is not?

If we had to say that either hemisphere is more activated by speech sounds which would it be?

- the superior temporal sulcus

- the primary auditory cortex

- the left hemisphere

Which 3 brain areas in the left hemisphere are more strongly activated by words than nonwords?

- middle and inferior temporal gyri

- temporal pole

- inferior parietal cortex

In Binder's (2000) model of auditory word perception, what 2 areas do the initial auditory analysis (for all sounds) ?

In Binder's (2000) model of auditory word perception, what 2 areas do the initial auditory analysis (for all sounds) ?

- the primary auditory cortex (Heschl's gyrus) and the superior temporal gyrus

In Binder's (2000) model of auditory word perception, what brain area processes info immediately following the initial auditory analysis that all sounds go through?

What does this area distinguish between?

In Binder's (2000) model of auditory word perception, what brain area processes info immediately following the initial auditory analysis that all sounds go through?

What does this area distinguish between?

- the superior temporal sulcus filters speech from non-speech

In Binder's (2000) model of auditory word perception, after speech has been separated from non-speech (by the superior temporal sulcus), which 2 brain structures handle the final stage of word perception & comprehension?

- the middle & inferior temporal gyri

When we read, do the written words access the lexicon directly or via the phonological representations? Explain.

Both are true:

- we normally translate the grapheme into the phoneme

BUT

-  some words don't follow the rules and instead lexicon is accessed directly from visual form without phonological translation

Which disorder provides evidence for the 2 pathways by which written words access the lexicon?

dyslexia

Describe the difference between deep and surface dyslexia. Which text-->lexicon pathway is malfunctioning in each?

deep dyslexia = cannot read  nonwords like barod but can read irregular words like broad.

-- problem with the grapheme --> phoneme --> lexicon path

surface dyslexia = patients read everything by regularizing pronunciation (eg, pronounce 'head' as 'heed').

-- indicates a problem w/ direct route used by irregular words

In stage one of the model of written word perception which brain area analyzes all visual stimuli?

the Visual cortex (V1, V2, ...)

In stage 2 of the model of written word perception which brain area is used and at what level is info perceived?

- the occipito-temporal cortex

- handles letter perception (orthographic units)

In stage 3 of the model of written word perception which brain area is used and what function does it serve?

- the middle temporal gyrus

- does word perception & comprehension

In stage 4 of the model of written word perception which brain area is used and what function does it serve?

- broca's area / inferior frontal

- does pronunciation of written words (othography --> phonology)

What is the purpose of Semantic Integration Processes?

to select the correct meaning of an ambiguous word

What is the N400 wave?

Semantically incongruous words cause a negative ERP wave 400 ms after stimulus onset.

(ex: 'he spread the warm bread with socks')

What modality is the N400 wave observed for?

basically all of them: written, spoken, drawings, infrequent words, doesn't matter what language the person speaks

What is the important implication of the N400 wave?

it indicates that by 400 ms after the onset of the 'word stimulus', the word's meaning has already been integrated with the meaning of the preciding words/context.

What is Parsing?

the process of assigning syntactic (grammatical) structure to incoming words

What is the goal of the garden-path model of assigning syntactic structure to a sentence?

to minimize the amount of time spent

Which 2 principles determine the preferred interpretation of a sentence under the garden-path model?

- Minimal attachment:  minimize # of syntactic nodes to be computed

- Late closure:  attempt to assign incoming words to syntactic phrase currently being computed

Is the garden-path model always correct?

no

What is the P600?

a positive ERP wave 600 ms after a syntactic violation.  Also observed in sentences that require revision when the garden-path isn't correct

What syntactic structures most strongly activate Broca's area?

comples rather than simple structures

What brain area besides Broca's causes agrammatic aphasia?

the anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG)

What 2 main symptoms characterize Agrammatic aphasia?

1) speech becomes short 2-3 word phrases w/ content words only:  no function words

2) can't distinguish between 'the girl hit the boy'  vs.  'the girl was hit by the boy'

What are the 5 stages of the given model of speech production?

semantic rep --> lemma rep/selection -->

phonological rep -->

articulatory encoding/plan --> articulation

Define the "Tip of the Tongue" (TOT) phenomonon.

failure to retrieve phonological rep despite access to semantic rep

Define anomia.

deficit in naming that is an extreme version of

the "tip of the tongue"(TOT) phenomenon