Language and The Brain

Pudy Astuti
(2013083059)
 Language and The Brain

• Language
L : is a function of the peculiar
structure of the human brain.

• Brain B :is the most complex part of

the human body.

• Neurolinguistics The study of how language is

represented and processed in
the brain.
Human Brain Left and right Function
 Broca’s Area

• In 1861,
neurosurgeon Paul
Broca found that
patients with speech
defects had injuries on
the left hemisphere of
the brain.
Wernike’s Area

Ten years after Broca’s

discoveries, German
neurologist Carl Wernicke
found that damage to
Broca’s area wasn’t the
only place in the brain that
could cause a language
deficit.
Parts of the brain
1. Broca’s area
is used to produce production of
speech.
2. Wernicke’s area
is posterior speech cortex.
3. Motor cortex
is an area that generally controls
movement of the muscles
(for moving hands, feet, arms,etc).

4. Arcuate Fasciculus/ auditory

cortex
is connects between Broca’s area
and Wernike’s area.
The Localization View
 Example 1:
What happens when you say a word?
 Example 2
What happens when you
understand and repeat a word?
Hearing and repeating a word out loud

Step 1 Auditory cortex processes information perceived by ears

interprets auditory stimulus and matches

information to a lexical entry. Arcuate
Step 2 Wernicke's area
fasciculus phonetic information sent from
Wernicke's area to Broca's area
interprets information received from arcuate
Step 3 Broca's area fasciculus; transmits articulatory information to
motor cortex
directs movement of muscles to pronounce the
Step 4 Motor cortex
word
 Aphasia

• Aphasia is one kind of language disorder

that results from damage to the parts of the
brain that contain language.
• Aphasia causes problems in the ability to
percieve, process, or procedure language.
• This damage could be caused by injury,
stroke or seizures.
 Example
• There was an experiment done where people with
Broca’s and Wernike’s aphasia were presented
with down a description of what they say in the
picture.
» This picture
 Example 1
A patient with Broca’s aphasia wrote
this:

• Notice the use of very few words, but the words

do make some sense.
Example 2
A patient with Wernike’s aphasia wrote this:

• Notice here that there are many. Less forced, word,

but they don’t make much sense. Also because they’re
not struggling to find their words, the handwriting is
better.
"If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it."

Anonymous
THANK YOU