Wernicke's & Broca's Aphasia

        Wernicke's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is the cause of left-hemisphere damage.  The area of the brain where this occurs is within the left inferior cortex.  An individual with this deficiency does not have a problem with getting the words out, as in they don't stutter, but the words have a fluidity to them. The individual is able to say words, but these words don't have any meaning. These individuals understand the dimensions of the conversation, and even though the words lack any concrete meaning, the individual doesn't get frustrated with them-self.  Their words can be thought of as a "word salad". Also, they are unable to understand verbal speech or even sign language, which can be a comprehension issue. This type of Aphasia has a relatively normal or fluid production of words, but these words come out as jibberish.  Therefore these individuals have a difficultly of actually comprehending the language or the content (of the conversation).

 video example 1    video example 2

(I do not own any rights to these videos)

        Broca's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is also the cause of left-hemisphere damage, which is often thought of as a stroke.  Broca's Area is located in the left inferior frontal cortex.  People with this disorder struggle to get the words out and because of this, they often become frustrated with themselves.  They do not have any difficulties with comprehension, but they may often stutter to try to get the correct words or sounds out.  It is a motor problem with trying to get the words outs properly, which is linked to functions in the frontal lobe.  Even though people with this type of aphasia have a difficulty to produce words, the words still makes sense; there is comprehension of what is being asked.

                                             video example 1    video example 2              

                                        (I do not own any rights to these videos)

       Hope you enjoyed this introduction into two vary famous types of aphasia! This language dysfunction is often cause my damage to the brain and isn't just something that happens when you wake up one morning. It affects, according to the link below, "....80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia." Thank you for visiting this page today, and hope you enjoyed today's psych knowledge!

information on aphasia

Contralateral and the Corpus Collosum

  (This image is from here.)

      The corpus collosum is a bundle of fibers that connects the left and right hemisphere of the brain.  There are surgeries that cut the corpus collosum which are called split-brain surgery and this is done with patients that have severe epilepsy. After this surgery takes place, there are still moments of epilepsy, but they are decreased.
      Contralateral control means opposite side; for example, the right hand is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain.  The corpus collosum passes information from the left side of the brain to the right side of the brain, and vice versa.  For those that are left-handed, sometimes there is crossover between the left and right hemisphere, especially with language and writing. The left hemisphere is responsible for language, and the right hemisphere is responsible for the intonation within language; which would mean that the right hemisphere is able to detect sarcasm, upward inflections, and so on. The right hemisphere is also responsible for images, as in visualizing the face on a coin. Linguistic thinking is thought to be originated in the left hemisphere.
     The most amazing aspect of contralateral control is that when someone is being asked a question, depending on the type of question, there eyes will move in the direction that is opposite to the hemisphere that is being activated. So, if you the eyes move to the left, then the right hemisphere is being activated, and if you moves your eyes to the right after being asked a question, then the left hemisphere of your brain is being activated. That bit of information should be fun to try on your friends!!!
       The right hemisphere is able to "appreciate" music and see things holistically, while the left hemisphere see things in an analytical manner.  The picture below shows some key differences between the left and right hemisphere. So, please take a moment to look at the image below.

(This image is from here.)

     Thank you for viewing this post on contralateral control and the two different hemispheres of the brain. Hope you enjoyed the above information. Thanks again for reading this post of psych knowledege!

I love you Basal Ganglia!

The basal ganglia is a set of forebrain structures within the lateral hypothalamus, which includes the caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus palidus. The connection or function that is most obvious is within the frontal areas of the cortex, which is responsible for planning planning things in a particular order, and certain aspects of memory and emotional expression. When the basal ganglia has deteriorated, which occurs in cases of Parkinson's or Huntington's disease, the most visible sign is impaired movement. However there are also signs of depression, deficiencies with memory, reasoning, as well as attention.

This image is from: http://neuralmodel.net/library/brain/basal_ganglia.htm

The basal ganglia also plays a role in language, especially those who are bilingual. How do individuals who speak two, or more, languages manage to keep each language separate? The answer is our dear friend basal ganglia.  The language receptors are stored in different areas of the brain, and for those who are efficient with language are able to juggle the different languages. Those individuals who learned two or more languages in early childhood had language areas in the temporal and frontal cortex become "thicker" than average. With those who are better at one language versus the other, the second or weaker language takes more of an effort and therefore activates the language areas stronger than the other language does. The shift from one language to another activates the frontal cortex, and basal ganglia.

Memory tasks that require a procedure, known as procedural memory(motor skills and habits), are linked with the basal ganglia. Another type of memory, declarative, is linked with the hippocampus, has to do with the ability to put things into words. The basal ganglia is also linked to sleep disorders, Schizophrenia, Parkinson's Disease, movement, and of  what is described above. There is more that can be said, but let's just say this is a condensed version of what information there is out there.

If you have any questions, or would like some more information, please feel free to ask or leave any comments/questions/concerns. Thank you for reading Psych Knowledge!

For more information on basal ganglia, click on the link below to listen to a podcast of what happens when the basal ganglia "short circuits"....(This podcast does not belong to me, and is the rights of Radiolab and WNYC.) Enjoy!

Damn It, Basal Ganglia!