Foundation

Course

  1. Know who your professor is
  2. Know how I will assess your mastery of course content

Brain anatomy

  1. Name and identify
    1. the components of the Central Nervous System
    2. the two cerebral hemishperes
    3. the four lobes of the brain
  2. Roughly locate Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area on a side view of the brain
  3. Locate the following major sulci on an image of the brain’s surface: longitudinal, central, lateral
  4. (In progress) “Navigate” to a region of the brain using the following neuroanatomical and directional terms: frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital, anterior, posterior, inferior, superior, lateral, medial, sulcus, gyrus, left, right

Basic principles & foundational evidence

  1. Define the following terms: localization, lateralization, aphasia
  2. Describe the characteristics of language production and comprehension that are traditionally associated with non-fluent and fluent aphasia
  3. Describe the “Classical Model” of language in the brain and explain the 19th-century evidence for this model

The toolbox

  1. Explain the logic of the lesion/deficit mapping method
  2. Describe two methods that can be used to assess lateralization of language

Scientific inquiry

  1. Distinguish evidence, inferences, and ideas in scientific text
  2. For the following claim, (a) describe scientific evidence that supports the claim and (b) explain why the evidence supports the claim
    • Language processing in humans is lateralized to the left hemisphere.
Date Class Topic Due
Thurs 8/27 Course Introduction Baggio 2022
Tues 9/1 Language as computation
Thurs 9/3 Brain anatomy SGN p. 18-25
Fri 9/4 Pick a controversy
Tues 9/8 No class (Monday schedule)
Thurs 9/10 Localization of function, classical model SGN p. 10-15, 27-31
Geschwind 1970 p. 940-942 (until “Pure Alexia without Agraphia”)
Fri 9/11 AI use policy
Tues 9/15 Sign language aphasia
Dr. Carolyn Gershman, Gallaudet University		 Hickok et al. 1998
Weds 9/16 Aphasia Lab
Thurs 9/17 Lateralization
Natalya Vladyko, Georgetown University		 MacNeilage et al. 2009
Optional: The left brain vs. right brain myth
Friday 9/19
Tues 9/22 Exam #1 EXAM

Mentimeter Poll Results, Unit 1

Legend

Lecture slides
Group work in class
Read normally
Podcast episode
Project deadline
Some other thing is due
Exam
SGN
Our textbook
TLNP
The Language Neuroscience Podcast

Resources

Anatomy:
BrainFacts.org Interactive 3D Brain Viewer
Neurotorium brain atlas
UBC: The Cortex
Showercap Mindmap activity
Neuroscientifically Challenged
Brainnetome Atlas

History of the field:
Race & Popular Science in Early America
TLNP #11: Dr. Levelt

Aphasia:
Dronkers & Baldo 2009
Aphasia (NIDCD)
Aphasia simulations