MCB 163: Mammalian Neuroanatomy

01 December, 2005

Neurological Basis
for Speech and
Language
Bradley Voytek

Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute

University of California Berkeley
btvoytek@berkeley.edu
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~btvoytek

Speech vs. Language

Speech
The mechanical process of language such as articulation
and phonation.

Language

The set of symbols we use for communication.

Elements of Speech &

Language
Phoneme
Speech sounds
/p/ or /b/ vs. c in ace/cat
/r/ and /l/ allophones in Japanese
/ph/ aspirated in Chinese vs. spin/pin allophone in English

Morpheme
Smallest

language unit that carries meaning

e.g., dys- in dysfunction

Elements of Speech &

Language
Syntax
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously vs.
Sleep colorless furiously ideas green
I shot an elephant in my pajamas Groucho Marx
[ I shot ] [ an elephant ] [ in my pajamas ]
or
[ I shot ] [an elephant in my pajamas ]

Elements of Speech &

Language
Semantics & Pragmatics
The quarterback threw the ball.
The princess went to the ball.
The dancer pivoted on the ball of her foot.

Intonation, Prosody, etc.

Hey.
Hey!
Hey

Human Language
Every human culture has a language

Language Acquisition
Children understand ~13,000 words by age 6
They understand ~60,000 by 18
Babies discriminate sounds their parents cannot (e.g., /r/
and /l/ in Japanese)
This discriminability begins to disappear at 10 mos.

Human Language
Innateness
In 1959, Noam Chomsky postulated an innate neural circuitry
dedicated to language.
Stages of acquisition are relatively invariant across cultures.
Is innateness for patterns in general, or language specifically?
Deprived of social environment, children will create languages.

Importance of
Language
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Language affects thought.
Effects go beyond intrapersonal communication.
Snow (Eskimo myth and skiing) vs. building.
Hopi had one word for all things not a bird that fly.
Color studies (Classic Greek blue/black)
Number studies (1, 2, >2)

Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)

A proposed idea that through language you can affect anothers
perception and cognition

Language Evolution
Bees dance in stereotyped ways
Other animals mimic human speech
Simians might learn gesture/object associations
Only humans spontaneously learn and create languages
Wednesday Headline: Monkeys have accents too, experts say

Language Studies
No animal models are possible.
If only humans have language, how do we study it?

Dysfunction!

Language & Speech

Disorders
Jean-Paul Grandjean de Fouchy - 1784
Toward the end of dinner, I felt a little increase in pain
above the left eye, and in that very instant I became unable
to pronounce the words I wanted. I heard what was said,
and I thought of what I ought to reply, but I spoke words
other than those which would express my thoughts This
sort of paroxysm lasted about a minute, and during its
course my mind was clear enough to notice this singular
distinction in the sensorium, which had only one of its parts
affected, without any of the others experiencing the least
derangement. (Hoff, Guillemin & Geddes, 1958, p. 447)

Aphasia
Patient Tan (Leborgne)
Could answer questions with gestures
Could say a few curse words, tan
Broca hoped to disprove cortical specialty
In autopsy, found an abscess in Tans brain
1865 paper showed localization to left
frontal lobe (Brocas area)
Pierre Paul
Broca

Aphasia
Another region?
Not all language disturbances were speech
Not all disturbances involved Brocas area
Loss of words comprehension
1874 paper showed localization to left
temporal lobe (Wernickes area)
Carl Wernicke

Speech & Language

Regions

Brocas Area

Wernickes Area

Speech & Language

Regions

Brocas (BA 44, 45): Inf prefrontal gyrus

Wernickes (BA 22): Post sup temporal gyrus at the T-P junction
Arcuate fasciculus: Axon tract connecting Brocas with Wernickes

Brodmanns Areas

Language Laterality
Speech is supported by entire motor system.
Language is subserved by the left hemisphere in:
98% in right-handed males;
90-95% in right-handed females.
Language is subserved equally by the left, right, or both
hemispheres among left-handers.

Clinical Observation
There are many subtle differences to each aphasic case.
These subtle differences, combined with neuroimaging and
anatomical localization, can lead to building a neurological
model for language

Speech & Language

Disorders
Aphasia
A disturbance of language with a breakdown in grammar
and syntax often associated with anomia or paraphasias.
Auditory: speaking, comprehension
Visual: reading, sign language
Tactile: Braille

Types of Disorders
Brocas & expressive aphasias
Wernickes & receptive aphasias
Transcortical motor aphasia
Transcortical sensory aphasia
Conduction aphasia
Global aphasia
Subcortical aphasia
Anomia
Alexia
Apraxia

Brocas Aphasia
Nature
True Brocas aphasia manifests with damage to several
areas including:
Brocas area
Left insula
Left arcuate fasciculus

Symptoms
Loss of fluency and articulation
Inability to repeat complex sentences
Impaired comprehension of complex sentences

Brocas Aphasia

Brocas Aphasia
MRI Video
Patient Video

Did you notice his right arm and hand?

Brocas Aphasia
Anterior insula

Brocas Aphasia (2005)

Anterior insula & arcuate fasciculus

Nina Dronkers

Patient Tan
Anterior insula & arcuate fasciculus

Paraphasia
Often a feature of other aphasias

Neologistic
Invention of new words:
glipt or crint

Semantic
Word substitution, similar meaning:
knife for spoon

Phonemic
Sound substitution:
scoon for spoon

Wernickes Aphasia
Nature
Caused by damage to Wernickes area.

Symptoms
Effortless, melodic speech
Unintelligible content due to word and phoneme choice errors
(phonemic paraphasias)
Loss of repetition

Wernkickes Aphasia
MRI Video
Patient Video 1
Patient Video 2

Wernkickes Aphasia Sign

Language

Transcortical Motor
Aphasia
Nature
Similar to Brocas aphasia:
Damage is in region anterior to Brocas area

Symptoms
Again, similar to Brocas aphasia:
Loss of fluency and articulation
Intact repetition

Transcortical Sensory
Aphasia
Nature
Similar to Wernickes aphasia:
Damage is in region inferior to Wernickes area

Symptoms
Again, similar to Wernickes aphasia:
Effortless, melodic speech
Unintelligible content due to word and phoneme choice
errors (phonemic paraphasias)
Intact repetition

Conduction Aphasia
Nature
Damage along the temporal-parietal junction:
Left superior temporal gyrus
Left inferior parietal lobe
Left arcuate fasciculus (maybe only damage required)

Symptoms
Relatively intact comprehension and speech production
Some phonemic paraphasic errors
Loss of repetition

Global Aphasia
Nature
Widespread damage including:
Basal ganglia
Insula
Brocas area
Wernickes area
Superior temporal gyrus

Symptoms
Like Brocas, Wernickes, and conduction aphasias together:
Loss of language comprehension
Loss of speech production
Loss of repetition

Global Aphasia
Damage so widespread is usually caused by MCA infarct

Global Aphasia

Subcortical Aphasia
Nature
Due to damage of subcortical structures:
Left thalamus, or
Left caudate

Symptoms
Impaired language production
Dysarthria: dysfunction of mouth and larynx muscle control

Anomia
Nature
Caused by lesion to left parietal, posterior to Wernickes

Symptoms
Highly specific deficit
Difficulty in remembering words
Perfectly normal speech and fluency otherwise

Alexia & Agraphia

Nature
Vision-dependent (also known as word blindness)
Disruption of transfer of vision to lateralized speech areas
Splenium allows transfer between visual hemispheres

Symptoms
Alexia: disruption of ability to read
Dyslexia: inability to understand more than a few lines of text
Agraphia: disruption of ability to write
Splenium damage disrupts reading in the left visual field

Apraxia
Nature
Seen in approximately 1/3 of all aphasics
Caused by lesion to precentral gyrus of the insula

Symptoms
Difficulty in mouth movement sequences:
Open your mouth, stick out your tongue, pucker your lips

Induced Aphasias
Wilder Penfield (1952)
Intraoperative mapping of elegant cortex before surgery
Cortical stimulation caused speech arrest

Induced Aphasias
Berger (2005)
Penfields techniques are still being used today
Mouth Motor

Induced Aphasias

Speech Arrest

Induced Aphasias

Anomia

Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulation (TMS)
APs propagate
Creates charge difference along axon
Summed across millions of neurons
Stimulation can induce transient
aphasias

Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulation (TMS)
Easiest to map cortical motor areas via EMG.
Perception of visual or auditory speech increase
excitability of orofacial muscles.
Combined PET/TMS indicates that increased TMS
excitability correlates to Brocas area activity.

Electroencephalograph
y (EEG)
Signal sources are:

APs propagate
Creates charge difference along axon
Summed across millions of neurons

Event-related
Potentials
Averaged, stimulus-locked EEG signal
Many different forms depending on stimulus
Most well-studies is the P300
Most well-studied in language is the N400

Functional Magnetic Resonance

Imaging (fMRI)

Responses to words
Some fMRI studies of bilingual subjects indicate that different
languages share neural components, but have some differences

Conclusions
Language appears to be an innate feature of humans.
This innateness appears to have neurological origins.
As a human-specific trait, language is difficult to study.
Clinical observation of aphasiascombined with
neuroimagingoffers insights into neurolinguistics.
However, knowing which region is important offers little
information as to how these regions play their roles.

Cheers:
Dr. Jeff Winer and John Schlerf
Dr. Bob Knight
All of Fall 05 MCB 163