Language And Speech Processing Throughout Modern Humans Essay

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast Broca’s and Wernickie’s area of the brain. The approach to identifying parts of the brain that involved language started in 1861 when the brain of a not long ago patient who had an unusual disorder passed away, by a French neurosurgeon, named Paul Broca. (Dubuc 2002) The patient whose name became known as “Tan” was the result of that being the only sound he could make, the syllable tan.

There are two cortical areas required for speech known as the Wernicke area and the Broca area. The Wernicke area is a small part of the brain that helps us to understand language. It is usually found in the back portion of the left temporal lobe. The Broca area also works with speech, but is the motor speech area, whereas the Wernicke area is the sensory speech area. They are connected by the arcuate fasciculus, a bundle of neurons. When reading a book out loud, the words are recognized and comprehended by the Wernicke area, and in the Broca area the words are formulated as it will be spoken.

A human being’s capacity to articulate and deduce arbitrary sounds and symbols into something of which conveys meaning, may indeed be one of the most remarkable characteristics of brain. Research presented in Flinker et al., (2015) infer that there are two areas of the brain that are imperative for both the understanding and production of both verbal and written communication. Broca’s area, located in the left frontal lobe of the brain is primarily responsible for the production of speech, that is, the movements required to produce fluent speech and language (Flinker et al., 2015). The second region of the brain associated with language is known as Wernicke’s area, of which is located on the border between

Language is perhaps the most concrete way of differentiating between humans and animals. Broca's area-- the center of the brain dedicated to processing speech and language in humans-- is larger in our species than in any other animal. Studies in childhood development have found that young children are able to assimilate language at an alarming rate when compared with other species. Young children start learning how to make vowel sounds and respond to their parents at five months of age and are able to produce basic words, as well as understand the concepts they represent, at around a year of age. We learn to speak before we learn to walk or eat on our own; clearly, language is an integral part of the human experience.

The Wernicke’s area is considered the second language area of the brain because it helps control how the brain understands languages; in contrast to the function of the

The Broca's area is a part of the brain responsible for our ability to speak and communicate. This part of the brain is also involved with language comprehension as well as hand movement. While engaging in conversation the hippocampus will be responsible for the long-term memories specifically facts and events. Memories

Throughout time, Speech Language Pathologists and the Deaf World have had a less than amicable relationship. Audism—the belief that hearing makes an individual superior—has been prevalent throughout the entire history of the Speech Language and Hearing Sciences field. As an individual who hopes to pursue a career as an SLP in the future in order to help those with communication disorders, I experience a lot of cognitive dissonance about my ties with the Deaf Community. While I do not think Deaf people who primarily use ASL have a communication disorder, or necessarily need the help of an SLP, I know that there will be instances where I will be working with Deaf individuals in my future. It is my hope that I can use my background in Deaf Culture and ASL when working with Deaf individuals, as to not display any audism and make sure that they feel respected and equal. I have personally witnessed a lot of tension between the SLP field and the Deaf world, and would like to explore this relationship further. It is important to look at both the history of the relationship between the two fields, as well as the current relationship, in order to find ways for the SLP field to make the Deaf community feel included in the future.

Linguistic discourse arises from the multiple areas: from studies of primate social behavior, from the comparison of existing human languages, from research on the development of language in children, from studies of genetic and anatomical structures, from cross-cultural studies, from the observation of earning and forming lexicon, and from the studies of the communication of bees, birds, and mammals (cit). Initially, though, language, spoken or signed, was a gestural system that evolved from so-called “mirror system” in the primate brain. Mirror system is a mechanism that allows to equate self actions with actions of others; mirror system's neurons are part of dorsal visual system (citation). The dorsal pathway projects visual information

The study of the communication of animals and the comparison of their communication to ours as humans is linguistic ethology (McNulty, 2017). And with all discussions of animal communication, it is important to remember that communication, and even language doesn’t necessarily equate to speech. The species of monkeys has been the most commonly discussed concept of animal communication that I have been exposed to, which is what interested me in this topic. Reading Ammie Kalan’s research on this, she focuses on the communication amongst wild chimpanzees and their food calls. However, their ability for communication has the ability to extend further. It has been discovered many times in the past that chimpanzees have the capacity to communicate

By 12,000 B.C.E., humans had evolved to more easily facilitate the social and physical demands of everyday life. The average Homo sapiens evolved to have a brain capacity nearly equal to one of a modern human, along with an erect posture and opposable thumbs. These adaptations contributed to their mental state on a day to day basis, allowing them to logically think through their actions. The larger brain capacity soon allowed series of grunts to evolve into a pattern that could be classified as language, making interaction

How is a person’s sense of self, or a society’s sense of that person—specifically, their class position—bound to speech, dialect, sociolect, and the phonological components of language?

Humans use language to communicate to each other. Communication can take many complex forms such as body language, sign language, oral and written language. Gee and Hayes (2011), inform the reader that oral language is the part of a language that has evolved over time to become humans inherited language. Throughout history, humans have changed the spoken words to suit their culture and specific rituals. Over time, the spoken word was adapted to “engage in language varieties for mathematics, science, law, medicine, engineering, game design, anime fandom, and many others” (Hayes, 2011. P.8). Writing is only a relatively recent transformation and, therefore, is not considered to be part of evolution.

The ability of humans to speak and understand language is made possible by one of the most complex and vital organs in the human body, the

These discoveries bring to light the complexities of the brain – not just the science behind animal communication, but also the human brain. If animals can communicate with each other without words, can humans do the same? We already know that humans can communicate with gestures, eye contact, and other subtle movements, but if we cut off verbal communication entirely, how would our brains transfer information from one person to another? The intricacies and mechanics of the brain are still a mysterious abyss of unknown information, and the brain is a tough code to crack. Brains were first thought to be compartmentalized, but with cases of humans being born with half a brain and still having normal motor and cognitive functions, it changes everything we thought about the brain.

Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that words are made up of phonemes, the smallest units of sound in a word. Phonemic awareness also involves being able to manipulate sounds by blending them, taking them apart, and changing them. For example, the word “bat,” is made up of three phonemes. The first is /b/, the second is /a/, and the third is /t/. Putting all of these graphemes together makes the word “bat.” If I were to change the /b/ to a /r/, the word would change to an entirely different animal (Cunningham & Allington, 2007).