Functional Neuroanatomy
What is a double dissociation? If you find a double dissociation, what can you conclude and WHY can you conclude that?
It describes the situation in which damage to area A results in loss of function A but not function B, while damage to area B results in loss of function B but not function A.
You can conclude that functions A and B are completely separate – it’s not the case that one is a subset of the other. If, for example, A was a subset of function B, then damage to area B would affect both functions A and B.
What is the MERGE function?
A syntactic function that combines separate words into phrases, such as “this” and “flirk” into the phrase “this flirk”.
Describe at least TWO ways that signed language differs from charades.
Many signs are arbitrary (they don’t depict what they refer to).
There is a systematic grammar (of handshapes, orientation, movement, and sign order).
What is bilingualism?
the active use of more than one language
The loss of functions due to damage to Broca’s vs Wernicke’s area has been described as a “double dissociation”. Describe this double dissociation.
Damage to Broca’s area results in difficulties in producing fluent speech but not comprehending speech and producing meaningful speech, while damage to Wernicke’s area results in comprehending speech and producing meaningful speech but not difficulties in producing fluent speech.
Describe in detail what Zaccarella & Friederici (2015) did that allowed them to figure out that the MERGE function may be localized in Broca’s area.
They asked people to read pairs of words that could be put together into a phrase (“this” and “flirk”) and found that BA 44 specifically was active during this task but not other areas, whereas when people read pairs of words that don’t form a phrase (“apple” and “flirk”) BA 44 did not show activity. The selective activity in BA 44 when people were reading words that could form a phrase suggests that BA 44 is involved in putting words together into phrases, i.e., performing the MERGE function.
Follow the links to view the American Sign Language (ASL) signs for the following words:
THINK
https://www.handspeak.com/word/search/index.php?id=2201
KNOW
https://www.handspeak.com/word/search/index.php?id=1207
How do the words differ from each other “phonetically”? Choose one or more of the following:
hand shape
location of sign
movement
hand shape
movement
According to the cascaded activation model of lexical access, when providing the name of a pictured object:
a. the activation of semantic competitors at the lexical node layer (e.g., bison, buffalo) does not lead to the activation of their phonological properties
b. activation feeds both forward and backward – activation of a particular lexical node can result in the activation of a particular phonological node, but this activation can then flow back to the lexical node, causing a circuit of activation.
c. a word’s meaning is defined by its place in a hierarchy of features and superordinate categories.
d. the activation of semantic competitors at the lexical node layer (e.g., bison, buffalo) spreads some proportional activation to each of the corresponding phonological segments.
d. the activation of semantic competitors at the lexical node layer (e.g., bison, buffalo) spreads some proportional activation to each of the corresponding phonological segments.
What brain region is implicated in processing sentences such as “Which movie did your brother remind to watch?”
a. BA 44
b. BA 45
c. BA 47
d. pSTG
c. BA 47
Explain why Zaccarella & Friederici’s (2015) finding that the MERGE function may be localized in Broca’s area is not an example of a double dissociation.
Because they were only looking at one area and one function. A double dissociation would involve finding that BA 44 is not active when some other function was being carried out, but that some other area is active during that other function but not active during MERGE.
Emmorey & Herzig (2003) asked deaf signers and hearing non-signers to interpret ASL descriptions of a simple geometric configuration – where a dot is positioned relative to a horizontal line. Participants were asked to place a sticker on a page where the ASL description indicated it should be placed. Describe the specific way in which performance on this task differed between deaf signers and hearing non-signers. CHALLENGE: Argue for whether this difference suggests that there is an effect of sign language on non-linguistic (spatial) thought.
The deaf signers showed a slight bias to place the stickers towards the horizontal bar, compared to the hearing non-signers.
Could argue that this suggests a potential effect of sign language on non-linguistic (spatial) thought. (Emmorey & Herzig (2003) suggested that the signers treated the gestures as a more integrated (tighter) construct than the non-signers.) Might argue against it – the deaf signers are only shown here to be affected by language when they were actively using the language (comprehension of the ASL description). A stronger test of the effect of language on thought would assess whether they treat non-linguistic space differently even when the task doesn’t involve any language at all.
Describe the cognate facilitation effect observed in Costa et al. (2000).
Bilinguals were faster to name the pictures when the words were cognates (“gat” and “gato”) in their two languages (Catalan and Spanish), but showed no facilitation for naming pictures when the words were not cognates.
What brain region is implicated in processing sentences such as “The police watched the man with the binoculars.”
a. BA 44
b. BA 45
c. BA 47
d. pSTG
d. pSTG
Which of the following is an object relative clause?
a. There is the girl, who the boy likes to talk to.
b. There is the boy, who likes to talk to the girl.
a. There is the girl, who the boy likes to talk to.
Emmorey & Herzig (2003) asked deaf signers and hearing non-signers to interpret ASL descriptions of the size of a necklace pendant. Participants were asked to choose a circle size corresponded to the described size of the pendant. Describe the specific way in which performance on this task differed between deaf signers and hearing non-signers. CHALLENGE: Argue for whether this difference suggests that there is an effect of sign language on non-linguistic (spatial) thought.
The deaf signers treated the handshapes categorically – they chose small medallions if the ASL description used an F handshape and large medallions if the ASL description used a baby C handshape. Within each of these categories the, they treated increased distance between thumb and forefinger as gradient – with greater spacing indicating increased medallion size.
In contrast, the hearing non-signers did not treat the handshapes categorically, and they showed only a very weak correlation for medallion size and handshape.
Could argue that this difference in performance suggests a potential effect of sign language on non-linguistic (spatial) thought – the signers perception of a non-linguistic object was influenced by the particular handshape used in the description. Might argue against it – the deaf signers are only shown here to be affected by language when they were actively using the language (comprehension of the ASL description). A stronger test of the effect of language on thought would assess whether they treat non-linguistic space differently even when the task doesn’t involve any language at all.
Explain HOW Costa et al.’s (2000) finding supports the cascaded activation model of lexical access rather than the discrete serial model of lexical access
It provides support for the cascaded activation model of lexical access because the only way to get this facilitation is if there is additional activation of the phonological node – it must be coming from the nonselected cognate word.
What brain region is implicated in processing phrases such as “this flirk”
a. BA 44
b. BA 45
c. BA 47
d. pSTG
a. BA 44
Describe in detail what Skeide, Brauer, & Friederici (2015) did that allowed them to figure out that the maturational status of the arcuate fasciculus underlies accuracy and speed of processing of object relative clauses.
They asked people to listen to sentences and point to one of two pictures that matched the sentence. The sentences were subject relative clauses (such as “Where is the big fox, who carries the small beetle?”) or object relative clauses (such as “Where is the small beetle, who the big fox carries?”). Accuracy and speed of processing improved with age, with development significantly correlated with the maturational status of the arcuate fasciculus.
Signers’ interpretations of words in an experiment during a “gating task” reveals that
a. just like for spoken languages, the very early stages of activation for a signed word involves activation of a cohort of potential lexical candidates.
b. it is once the movement of the sign has been revealed that participants correctly guess the word being signed.
c. signers’ interpretation of words is influenced by the context of the sentence they were used in.
d. a and b only
e. all of the above
d. a and b only
Explain HOW Costa et al.’s (2000) finding supports the idea that bilinguals have a single lexicon containing words from both languages, as opposed to completely separate lexical stores for the two different languages.
Production of a word is facilitated by the existence of a nonselected cognate word – specifically, the word in the language that the participant is not speaking during the experiment!