Chapter 16

split- brain patients

patients whose left and right hemispheres have been separated by commissurotomy

aphasia

brain damage produced deficit in the ability to produce or comprehend language

cerebral dominance theory

one hemisphere (usually left) assumes dominant role in control of all complex behavioral and cognitive processes, and the other plays only a minor role

helping-hand phenomenon

one hemisphere may have access to the location of an item, the hand that "knows" may correct the positioning of the other hand to help perform the task

the cerebral ___ connect the 2 hemispheres

commissure

Left hemisphere damage plays a special role in both aphasia and

apraxia

cortex of the left inferior prefrontal lobe became known as the

broca's area

one common test of language lateralization is invasive; it involves injecting ___ into the carotid artery

sodium amytal

some evidence suggests that the brains of males are ___ lateralized than the brains of females

more

the ___ is the largest cerebral commissure

corpus callosum

_____ received a Nobel prize for his research on split brain patients

Sperry

commissurotomy can be an effective treatment for severe cases of

epilepsy

the 2 hemispheres of a split brain patient can communicate via an external route; such external communication has been termed ___

cross- cuing

Damage to the ___ hemisphere is more likely to produce ipsilateral motor problems

left

a neural mechanism metaphorically referred to as the interpreter is assumed to reside in the ___ hemisphere

left

Because broad categories of abilities do not appear to be the units of cerebral lateralization, researchers have turned to studying the laterality of _______ cognitive processes

constituent

3 common theories of cerebral asymmetry are the analytic- synthetic theory, the motor theory, and the ____ theory

linguistic

Broca's area play's a role in speech production, but there is now strong evidence that Broca's area and other areas of motor cortex also play a role in language _______

comprehension

Broca's aphasia

characterized by normal comprehension of both written and spoken language and by speech that retains its meaningfulness despite being slow, labored, and poorly articulated

Wernicke's aphasia

characterized by poor comprehension of both written and spoken language and speech that is meaningless but still retains the superficial structure, rhythm, and intonation of normal speech

7 components of the Wernicke-Geschwind model

primary visual cortex, angular gyrus, primary auditory cortex, wernicke's area, arcuate fascicles, Broca's area, primary motor cortex

The ____ gyrus translates the visual form of a read word into an auditory code

angular

The ___ cortex controls the muscles of articulation

primary motor

the ___ cortex perceives the written word

primary visual

_____ area is the center for language comprehension

Wernicke's

The ___ cortex perceives the spoken word

primary auditory

___ area contains the programs of articulation

Broca's

The left ___ carries signals from Wernicke's area to Broca's area

arcuate fasciculus

3 premises that define cognitive neuroscience approach to language

1. use of language is mediated by widespread activity in all areas of the brain that participate in the cognitive process
2. areas of the brain involved in language are not dedicated solely to that purpose
3. areas involving language are likely to be smal

lexical procedure

reader looks at word, recognizes it, says it

phonetic procedure

reader looks at word, recognizes the letters, sounds them out, says the word