Week 2 (Biological bases) Review Sheet Answers

Answer the following questions in the space provided.

1. Describe two ways we can use to learn about language abilities that reside in the brain.

Study individuals who have experienced particular types of brain injuries and examine what these injuries do to language processing abilities. Look at what portions of the brain are active during different tasks (this technique uses normal adults).

2. Name the four lobes of the cortex and describe their functions.

Frontal - it regulates overall activity level. Important for preparation of voluntary behavior. E.g intention, planning, organization, personality, emotions.
Parietal - deals with perception, integration of things like touch, body awareness and visual spatial information.
Temporal - Processes and perceives auditory stimuli.
Occipital - used for visual info.

3. Define Pure Word Deafness.

The inability to understand spoken language while retaining the ability to speak, read, and write.

3. Describe Dichotic Listening.

A technique developed to study the brains of healthy individuals. Different stimuli are presented to the left and right ears of the subject, who is then asked to report on what he heard. In tasks such as this, the left hemisphere processes words, numbers and nonsense syllables more quickly and accurately than the right hemisphere. The right hemisphere is more accurate when dealing with music, human non-speech stimuli, and visual-spatial processing tasks.

4. How does PET work?

Measures changes in blood flow to see what parts of the brain are working the hardest on any specific task. Humans are injected with a radioactive water or sugar. As the brain does more work, the blood flow increases to that portion of the brain, bringing it more oxygen and sugar, and so more of the radioactive substance is there, and this can be measured.

Answer the following multiple-choice questions.

1.b

2. b

3. c

4. d

Fill in the blanks.

1. neurolinguistics

2. 3.5

3. Broca's aphasia

4. Hemispherectomy

Decide whether the following statements are True/False.
In the case where you decide that the statement is false, then change the statement to make it correct.

1. False. They suffer from anomic aphasia. Conduction aphasia occurs when individuals primarily have difficulty with repetition (can understand and produce but can't repeat).

2. True. However, many language abilities reside in the non-dominant hemisphere.

3. False. Since they are x-raying the brain, they can tell you where there are areas of damage but can't tell us about what the brain is actually doing.