Deck 19: Language and Lateralization

Question 1

The left visual field is projected to

A) the left hemisphere.
B) the right hemisphere.
C) both hemispheres.
D) the hemisphere associated with handedness.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In most split-brain humans, words presented to the left visual field

A) can be repeated accurately.
B) can be written down.
C) cannot be repeated verbally.
D) None of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Wada test involves

A) responses to ink blots.
B) injection of sodium amytal into the carotid artery.
C) MRI scans of people after a stroke.
D) spatial vision tests.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Anesthetizing the right hemisphere in a Wada test interferes with a subject's ability to recognize _______ in a picture that is a composite of the subject's face and that of a celebrity.

A) the face of a celebrity
B) his or her own face
C) the gender of the face
D) the left side of the face

Question 5

An enlargement of which brain region may reflect left-hemisphere language dominance?

A) Parietal operculum
B) Planum temporale
C) Broca's area
D) Angular gyrus

Question 6

Split-brain patients can easily read and verbally communicate words projected to

A) the left visual field.
B) the right visual field.
C) the right hemisphere.
D) either hemisphere.

Question 7

The right-ear advantage for speech sounds is evident with simultaneous presentation of

A) prepositions.
B) vowel sounds.
C) consonants.
D) adverbs.

Question 8

Nonverbal visual stimuli are best processed if they are presented to

A) the left visual field.
B) the right visual field.
C) the left hemisphere.
D) either left or right side-the responses are equal.

Question 9

In approximately 65% of people, the planum temporale is larger

A) in the right hemisphere.
B) only later in life.
C) in the left hemisphere.
D) only early in life.

Question 10

Which influence has been proposed as an evolutionary pressure favoring hemispheric asymmetry and specialization?

A) Hormonal effects on cerebral cortical asymmetry
B) Differential use of the limbs
C) Right-ear advantage for speech sounds
D) Greater activation of left hemisphere blood flow

Question 11

According to research by Klar and colleagues, what percent of right-handers have a clockwise whorl of hair on the back of the scalp?

A) 10%
B) 35%
C) 73%
D) 93%

Question 12

Right-handedness is associated with the gene

A) also found in orangutans.
B) LRRTM1.
C) PCSK6.
D) sinistra.

Question 13

Astereognosis is the

A) failure of binaural hearing.
B) inability to identify objects by touch or manipulation.
C) complete numbness of the fingers and hand.
D) inability to recognize faces.

Question 14

Refer to the figure.
A person who sustained damage to the shaded regions in the figure would be most likely experience which of the following events?

A) When the person's partner comes and talks with them at the hospital, they do not recognize their partner.
B) When the person reaches to turn on a light in a dark room, they feel the switch, but they keep searching because they don't recognize it as the light switch.
C) A botanist recognizes their partner and children through the window of their hospital room, but can no longer differentiate between the different flowers in the bouquets in the room.
D) When looking through a family photo album with their adult daughter, the person asks who the people in the photos are.

Question 15

Prosopagnosia is the inability to

A) identify objects by touch.
B) learn the names of objects that are seen.
C) recognize faces.
D) distinguish different patterns of visual stimuli.

Question 16

Patients with aphasia sometimes produce entirely new, nonsensical words called

A) nonfluent speech items.
B) agraphisms.
C) neologisms.
D) anomias.

Question 17

A symptom of aphasia called "paraphasia" is characterized by

A) stumbling speech.
B) impaired reading.
C) the substitution of words by sounds, phonemes, or unintended words.
D) impaired writing.

Question 18

Which symptom is not a defining sign of aphasia?

A) Paraphasia
B) Neologisms
C) Nonfluent speech
D) Agnosia

Question 19

Disturbance in reading is called

A) anomia.
B) apraxia.
C) alexia.
D) agnosia.

Question 20

Apraxia is

A) a specific inability to execute sequences of movements.
B) a loss of speech and language.
C) an inability to write.
D) sensory impairment.

Question 21

Which symptom is not associated with aphasic patients?

A) Paraphasia
B) Apraxia
C) Confabulations
D) Neologisms

Question 22

Broca's aphasia is usually associated with lesions of

A) the angular gyrus.
B) the left inferior frontal region.
C) Wernicke's area.
D) the left temporal lobe.

Question 23

A patient who produces seemingly fluent but largely unintelligible speech and has poor comprehension of verbal material is most likely suffering from _______ aphasia.

A) Wernicke's
B) Broca's
C) conduction
D) global

Question 24

A large frontal lesion in the left hemisphere can produce _______ aphasia.

A) Broca's
B) conduction
C) Wernicke's
D) subcortical

Question 25

The angular gyrus links the

A) auditory and visual regions.
B) auditory region and Wernicke's area.
C) visual region and Wernicke's area.
D) interhemispheric regions.

Question 26

Persons with conduction aphasia are unable to

A) repeat words or sentences.
B) speak fluently.
C) understand either written or oral materials.
D) All of the above

Question 27

Which of the following best describes the Wernicke-Geschwind model of aphasia?

A) Global
B) Connectionist
C) Gestalt
D) Atomistic

Question 28

The proposal that left-hemisphere language zones are motor control systems involved in the production and perception of speech patterns is characteristic of

A) the connectionist model.
B) the Wernicke-Geschwind model.
C) the aphasia model of language
D) the motor theory of language.

Question 29

Refer to the figure.
Which choice correctly describes the path of information when speaking a heard word based on the connectionist model of aphasia?

A) 6, 5, 7, 1
B) 4, 5, 7, 1
C) 1, 7, 6, 5
D) 3, 6, 5, 7

Question 30

Refer to the figure.
Which statement about the arrow in the figure is most accurate?

A) The arcuate fasciculus is a bundle of axons between Wernicke's area and the precentral gyrus.
B) Electrical impulses from Wernicke's area jump over regions of cortex to Broca's area.
C) Wernicke's area has been shown to transmit information to Broca's area via the arcuate fasciculus.
D) When speaking a word, information is transmitted from Broca's area to Wernicke's area via the arcuate fasciculus.

Question 31

The connectionist model of aphasia argues that language deficits due to brain damage are a result of

A) destruction of left-hemisphere language zones that control the precise production of and perception of the complex movements that comprise speech.
B) new connections made during the recovery period, between Wernicke's area and the precentral gyrus.
C) the limited number of neural connections in monolingual adults, since the same damage does not cause the same deficits in bilingual adults.
D) broken connections between the brain regions that form the language network.

Question 32

Electrical stimulation of Broca's area in humans produces

A) organized, coherent words.
B) grunts and groans.
C) speech arrest.
D) wild gestures.

Question 33

Functional imaging of the brains of bilingual individuals while they are speaking their native languages indicates that

A) patterns of brain activation do not vary between languages.
B) Broca's area is in different locations in different people.
C) some languages depend on the right hemisphere to a much greater extent than other languages do.
D) patterns of brain activation for each language are slightly different from the other.

Question 34

Refer to the figure.
The leaders point to two regions of Broca's area, discovered by _______ to affect _______.

A) Wilder Penfield; speech production and speech processing
B) PET; only phonological processing
C) DTI; only semantic processing
D) TMS; phonological and semantic processing

Question 35

ERP studies have shown that a grammatically correct sentence containing a word whose meaning does not fit the sentence provokes a(n) _______ wave from the _______ lobe.

A) N400; temporal
B) N400; frontal
C) P600; temporal
D) P600; frontal

Question 36

Children show evidence of sensitivity to the "rules" of language by the age of _______ months.

A) 1
B) 7
C) 12
D) 18

Question 37

Phonemes are the

A) basic sounds of a language.
B) grammar of any language.
C) words of a language.
D) None of the above

Question 38

Because chimpanzees seem able to learn a version of American Sign Language, some researchers have concluded that chimps are able to acquire language. Those who disagree, however, offer which criticism of this conclusion?

A) Sign language is simply not a language.
B) Chimpanzees do not produce novel sequences of signs.
C) Chimpanzees are only imitating the gestures of trainers.
D) Both b and c

Question 39

Which of the following has not been used for language training in apes?

A) ASL
B) Arbitrary signs
C) Symbols
D) English

Question 40

Which feature of birdsong suggests that it is analogous to human speech?

A) Some birds require early exposure to species-typical birdsong in order to develop their characteristic song.
B) Removal of the left temporal cortex of birds eliminates characteristic song patterns.
C) Brain damage results in permanent song elimination.
D) Deafened female birds are more sensitive to left-brain injury.

Question 41

Electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex of monkeys

A) produces shrieking.
B) produces purring.
C) produces cackling.
D) fails to elicit vocal behavior.

Question 42

Song development in canaries and zebra finches depends on

A) maturation of the nervous system.
B) lifelong exposure to the sounds of conspecifics.
C) exposure to adult birdsong early in life, during a sensitive period.
D) copying the songs of females.

Question 43

Song learning in developing songbirds is impaired by lesions of the _______, but lesions in this location have no effect in adulthood.

A) LMAN
B) HVC
C) RA
D) hippocampus

Question 44

In squirrel monkeys, stimulation of the _______, but not of the _______, causes vocalizations.

A) cortex; subcortical regions
B) cortex; frontal lobes
C) subcortical regions; cortex
D) cerebellum; frontal lobes

Question 45

Brain regions of nonhuman primates in which electrical stimulation elicits vocalizations seem to be those involved in

A) higher-order cognitive functions.
B) fine sensory analysis of acoustic information.
C) delicate control of all musculature.
D) defense, attack, feeding, and sex behaviors.

Question 46

Which of the following is not a component of birdsong learning?

A) Fixing, or crystallization
B) An intact LMAN in adulthood
C) Successive approximation of the song
D) Initial exposure to the song

Question 47

The organ in birds that is necessary for song production is called the

A) syrinx.
B) temporal lobe.
C) voice box.
D) thalamus.

Question 48

Jill has been diagnosed with dyslexia. Based on this diagnosis, you expect she also

A) has a low IQ.
B) has trouble packing her car trunk efficiently.
C) has difficulty recognizing which of her classmates is speaking when she cannot see the speaker.
D) gets lost easily, even in familiar places.

Question 49

People with dyslexia also have

A) difficulty identifying speakers of foreign languages by voice.
B) trouble identifying speakers of their native language by voice.
C) poor spatial learning performance.
D) poor IQ scores.

Question 50

Which of the following is characteristic of developmental dyslexia?

A) Deep dyslexia
B) Letter-by-letter reading
C) Surface dyslexia
D) Micropolygyria

Question 51

Which pathology is consistent with acquired dyslexia?

A) Cerebellar dysfunction
B) Micropolygyria
C) Etopias
D) Left inferior frontal atrophy

Question 52

Most neural disorganization in dyslexia (e.g., ectopias) is found in

A) the parietal cortex.
B) the premotor areas.
C) the planum temporale.
D) Wernicke's area.

Question 53

Unusual groupings of cells in the outer layers of the cerebral cortex have been seen in postmortem studies of

A) dyslexia.
B) apraxia.
C) childhood aphasia.
D) Broca's aphasia.

Question 54

Refer to the figure.
Consider a patient whose brain scan resembles the figure. Which statement represents the most likely diagnosis?

A) The left planum temporale is the same size as the right, so the patient is likely dyslexic.
B) Heschl's gyrus is much smaller than the planum temporale, so the patient is likely dyslexic.
C) The figure shows that there are more neurons in the left than the right planum temporale, thus this patient likely does not have dyslexia.
D) The planum temporale is larger than Heschl's gyrus, thus this patient likely does not have dyslexia.

Question 55

Disruption of DYXC1 and _______ has been linked to reading disorders.

A) DCDC2
B) ROBO1
C) KIAA0319
D) All of the above

Question 56

A child loses her left hemisphere during a hemispherectomy when she is 3 years old. When grown up, this person will likely

A) be paralyzed for life.
B) have no resulting speech impairments.
C) be unable to speak.
D) have impaired language functions.

Question 57

Which statement about childhood aphasia is most true?

A) Aphasia produced by childhood brain injury is severe and permanent.
B) Language abilities impaired by childhood brain injury are usually restored by adulthood.
C) Childhood aphasia and adult aphasia have similar recovery patterns.
D) The brain's ability to compensate for loss due to damage increases progressively with age.

Question 58

Recovery of language function following a stroke may take place as a result of a

A) shift to right-hemisphere control of language.
B) profound regrowth of connections in the left hemisphere.
C) subcortical control of language.
D) shift to frontal cortical control of language.

Question 59

In patients with aphasia, the greatest amount of language recovery is likely to be achieved _______ after the episode of brain damage.

A) within 3 weeks
B) within 3 months
C) between 3 months and 1 year
D) during speech therapy

Question 60

Childhood hemispherectomy is often followed by

A) the need for a respirator for the rest of the individual's life.
B) extensive functional deficits that are permanent.
C) extensive seizure activity.
D) extensive functional recovery.

Question 61

Which of the following about stem cells is false?

A) They have helped reduce Parkinson's symptoms.
B) They are usually obtained from embryos.
C) They are resistant to immune responses when implanted.
D) They may be created from nonembryonic sources.

Question 62

Which therapeutic technique has been shown to be helpful for aphasic patients?

A) Transcranial magnetic stimulation
B) Electroshock therapy
C) Cognitive behavioral therapy
D) Singing sentences that they have trouble saying

Question 63

According to some studies, stroke patients given _______ therapy can show about a 75% return of normal use of a paralyzed arm within a relatively short period of time.

A) melodic intonation
B) constraint-induced movement
C) edema reduction
D) intense massage

Question 64

Which of the following is not a type of brain disorder associated with boxing?

A) Dementia
B) Cortical atrophy
C) Ventricular dilation
D) All of the above are common in boxers.

Question 65

"Punch-drunk" is currently known as

A) stupefactus.
B) chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
C) mTBI.
D) dementia pugilistica.

Question 66

Split-brain individuals are those who have undergone surgery to cut the _______ as a treatment for epilepsy.

Question 67

A prominent structural asymmetry in the brains of normal humans is apparent in the _______, which is located on the superior surface of the temporal lobe.

Question 68

_______ is a deficit characterized by the inability to recognize, by touch, objects placed in the hand contralateral to an injured somatosensory cortex.

Question 69

The most prominent sign of aphasia is the presence of _______ in speech, which can include substituted sounds, incorrect words, or unintended words.

Question 70

Almost all patients with aphasia also exhibit _______, which is an impairment in writing.

Question 71

Among patients suffering from the various forms of aphasia, those with _______ are likely to experience the best recovery.

Question 72

_______ tractography has shown that the extent of the arcuate fasciculus from Wernicke's area does not reach Broca's area.

Question 73

A gene that has been associated with a language disorder in humans and is quite different in apes is the _______ gene.

Question 74

Monkeys point their right ear toward vocalizations from conspecifics, suggesting that they rely on the _______ hemisphere to decode communication sounds.

Question 75

The final stage in the acquisition of song by male songbirds is called _______.

Question 76

A native English-speaking person with _______ dyslexia would have great difficulty reading the title The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough.

Question 77

An exciting future treatment for brain injury may be the use of _______ to replace the damaged neurons.

Question 78

In boxers, the devastating effects of repeated blows to the head are evident in the development of a progressive cognitive impairment called _______.

Question 79

Describe the dichotic listening task, its underlying theoretical rationale, and the general findings that relate to the study of hemispheric lateralization.

Question 80

Describe the Wada test and how it has been used to examine hemispheric specializations.