LING 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Frontal Lobe, Neurolinguistics
23 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Neurolinguistics
How is language represented and processed in the brain?
-Modularity
-Investigation of healthy brains
-Evidence from aphasia - acquired language disorders
Brain-behaviour relations
-What is the relationship between brain and function (behaviour)
-There are at least 2 possibilities:
1. Function (i.e. behaviour) can be localized to specific anatomical areas of the brain
2. Function located all over the brain, i.e. There is no localization of function
This is the debate of modularity (1) vs holism (2)
In discussing this debate and its conclusions we will also get some history in methodology, early
brain language models etc…
Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828): Phrenology. The first modular theory.
Gall’s theory
a. The human mind is partitioned into distinct mental faculties (e.h. hope, calculation,
combativeness, veneration)
b. The human brain is practitioner into distinct brain areas
c. There is a one-to-one relation between facilities and anatomy
d. Larger brain region per faculty, means better performance
e. The skull fits the brain as a glove fits the hand
Hence
The study of variation in skull
Shape is the study of mental variation (“cranioscopy”)
The weaknesses of Phrenology
1. No statistical analyses
Everything was about confirmation
2. The faculties he refers to (hope, variation) are difficult to define in an objective way
How do you quantify hope other than someone’s subjective opinion
Should all faculties be measured with the same scale
But, he was the fist to associate language with the frontal loves in objective way (lesion)
3. The outer skull does not represent the inner skull or the brain shape
The Broca’s/Florens debate: Modularism vs Holism
Florens (1794 - 1867) - Holism
-Florens developed the lesioning technique
Remove (or damage) part of brain (cortex) and look at effect on behaviour
The animals he lesioned showed pattern of loss and recovery
His conclusion: no localization of function
Tissue loss correlates with loss of function
Problem: studied pigeons and chicken and looked at behaviours like walking
10% of brain use
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
What is the relationship between brain and function (behaviour) There are at least 2 possibilities: function (i. e. behaviour) can be localized to specific anatomical areas of the brain, function located all over the brain, i. e. there is no localization of function. This is the debate of modularity (1) vs holism (2) In discussing this debate and its conclusions we will also get some history in methodology, early brain language models etc . Shape is the study of mental variation ( cranioscopy ) The weaknesses of phrenology: no statistical analyses. Everything was about confirmation: the faculties he refers to (hope, variation) are difficult to define in an objective way. How do you quantify hope other than someone"s subjective opinion. Should all faculties be measured with the same scale. But, he was the fist to associate language with the frontal loves in objective way (lesion: the outer skull does not represent the inner skull or the brain shape.
