Neurogenics 1

Front 1

Perisylvian Region

Back 1

Central region of the language dominant hemisphere; serves important speech and language functions

Front 2

Broca's Area

Back 2

posterior inferior frontal lobe, just in front of the motor cortex;
language production

Front 3

Wernicke's Area

Back 3

L temporal lobe and L parietal lobe; primary auditory cortex at top of temporal lobe;
language comprehension

Front 4

Arcuate Fasciculus

Back 4

A band of nerve fibers connecting the mid temporal lobe to lower regions of the frontal lobe via the parietal lobe (Wernicke’s area communicates with Broca’s area and other frontal regions of the brain)

Front 5

Angular Gyrus

Back 5

At the junction of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes;
Damage = severe alexia and severe agraphia

Front 6

Comprehension of Speech

Back 6

1. Ears – ascending fibers- auditory cortex in temporal lobes
2. Encode the acoustic info – L Wernicke’s area
3. Wernicke’s area recognizes message as speech, sorts through semantic representations to find meaning of words
4. Determines relationships among the words (syntactic rules)
5. Constructs a representation of the overall meaning
6. Brain (R hemi?) checks if literal meaning represents the speaker’s intent.
7. Sends instructions to other parts of the brain re: how to respond

Front 7

Comprehension of Printed Materials

Back 7

Process resembles that for comprehension of speech, except visual cortex is first stop for information coming from the eyes
Visual cortex encodes the info in a form that Wernicke’s area can understand, sends it to:
Wernicke’s area, constructs a representation of the message’s meaning and sends relevant info to the parts of the brain involved in the response.

Front 8

Spontaneous Speech

Back 8

1. Wernicke’s area retrieves from the central lexicon the words needed to express the message, constructs a sentence that complies with language rules:
2. Sends the neurally coded sentence by way of the arcuate fasciculus to:
3. Broca’s area, translates code into action plan
4. Sends plan to primary motor cortex
5. Primary motor cortex puts finishing touches on the message
6. Sends I via the pyramidal system to:
7. The Cranial nerves, set the speech muscles in motion.
8. Wernicke’s area monitors the motorically produced message to ensure correctness
9. If not correct, repair mode

Front 9

Writing

Back 9

Wernicke’s area formulates a message
To premotor cortex for the hand and arm via arcuate fasciculus
Sets up appropriate movement plans
Sends to motor cortex
Eyes and Wernicke’s area monitor
If errors, W’s area may send messages to correct.

Front 10

Nonfluent aphasia

Back 10

- Damaged areas: Broca, global
- Characteristics:

a. Single words/ groups with long pauses
b. Syllable reduction
c. Misarticulations-phonetic dissolution
d. Content vs. function words- agrammatic or telegraphic speech

Front 11

Fluent aphasia

Back 11

- Damaged areas: Wernicke, conduction, anomic, transcortical motor/sensory
- Characteristics:

Front 12

Paraphasias

Back 12

Spoken or written errors in word production.
-Literal paraphasias (sometimes called phonetic paraphasias):
- Incorrect sounds replace correct sounds, substitutions or transpositions

Front 13

Verbal paraphasia

Back 13

(sometimes called semantic paraphasias):
a. Substitutions of one word for another

Front 14

Broca’s Aphasia

Back 14

Caused by damage in Broca’s area
Broca’s area = lower part of the premotor cortex, just anterior to the primary motor cortex for speech muscles
Also close to the primary motor cortex for the face, hand and arm = R sided hemiparesis or hemiplegia

Nonfluent (motor plans for speech- awry):
a. Single words/ groups with long pauses
b. Syllable reduction
c. Misarticulations-phonetic dissolution
d. Content vs. function words- agrammatic or telegraphic speech
Comprehend spoken/written language better than they read/write (subtle impairments)
Self-monitoring is usually well preserved
Remember tx procedures and may spontaneously generalize tx to daily environment

Front 15

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Back 15

Impaired comprehension of spoken or written materials (severe to mild)
Dissociations between sound/sight of words and their meanings:
Blurred semantic distinctions among words, may lose semantic typicality.

Exacerbated by impaired ST retention/recall.
Speech is fluent, effortless and usually copious. Normal intonation and stress, but word retrieval problems.
a. May have many verbal paraphasias, occasional literal paraphasias, neologisms (paragrammatism)
b. Severe Wernicke’s = Jargon
c. Empty speech
d. Circumlocution
e. Deficient self-monitoring
f. Press of Speech/ Logorrhea

Front 16

Apraxia

Back 16

Difficulty carrying out volitional movement sequences in the absence of sensory loss or paralysis sufficient to explain the difficulty.
Often accompanies aphasia, especially with frontal lobe/anterior parietal lobe damage

Front 17

Ideational Apraxia

Back 17

Disruption of concepts/ideas needed to understand the use of objects.
Unable to carry out movement sequences (e.g. put a key in a lock)
Often appear in wrong order, produce wrong results (inserts envelop into folds of letter)
Diffuse brain damage, e.g. dementia
Cognitive/behavioral vs. motor control

Front 18

Ideomotor Apraxia

Back 18

Disruptions of the motor plans needed to demonstrate volitional actions.
Cannot demonstrate a set of movements upon request, but can do the movements in real life contexts.
More difficulty pantomiming than objects.
Often not aware until tested.
Strongly related to language
-A diagnosis of ideomotor apraxia requires that alternative explanations be eliminated:
a. Weakness/paralysis
b. Sensory loss
c. Incoordination
d. Comprehension impairment

Front 19

Apraxia of Speech (aka Verbal Apraxia)

Back 19

A type of ideomotor apraxia;
Errors in (1) articulation and (2) in prosody.
Characterized by trial-and-error articulatory groping, slow, effortful speech.
Reduced efficiency in accomplishing the oral postures needed for phoneme production and sequences of those postures for words.
Not muscle weakness or aphasia.
Can be with or without aphasia and/ or oral apraxia.
Unplanned, automatic speech > than elicited