The role of the arcuate fasciculus in conduction aphasia

In aphasia literature, it has been considered that a speech repetition defect represents the main constituent of conduction aphasia. Conduction aphasia has frequently been interpreted as a language impairment due to lesions of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) that disconnect receptive language areas from expressive ones. Modern neuroradiological studies suggest that the AF connects posterior receptive areas with premotor/motor areas, and not with Broca’s area. Some clinical and neurophysiological findings challenge the role of the AF in language transferring. Unusual cases of inter-hemispheric dissociation of language lateralization (e.g. Broca’s area in the left, and Wernicke’s area in the right hemisphere) have been reported without evident repetition defects; electrocortical studies have found that the AF not only transmits information from temporal to frontal areas, but also in the opposite direction; transferring of speech information from the temporal to the frontal lobe utilizes two different streams and conduction aphasia can be found in cases of cortical damage without subcortical extension. Taken altogether, these findings may suggest that the AF is not required for repetition although could have a subsidiary role in it. A new language network model is proposed, emphasizing that the AF connects posterior brain areas with Broca’s area via a relay station in the premotor/motor areas.

from the Journal of Neurology

A Strictly Millian Approach to the Definition of the Proper Name

A strictly Millian approach to proper names is defended, i.e. one in which expressions when used properly (‘onymically’) refer directly, i.e. without the semantic intermediaryship of the words that appear to comprise them. The approach may appear self-evident for names which appear to have no component parts (in current English) but less so for others. Two modes of reference are distinguished for potentially ambiguous expressions such as The Long Island. A consequence of this distinction is to allow a speculative neurolinguistics of proper (‘onymic’) and semantic (‘non-onymic’) reference. A further consequence is that translation of onymically referring expressions is impossible (since they have no semantic content), and some apparently self-evident objections to this view are met by insisting on a distinction between a proper name as a referring expression and its etymology. The nature of the linguistic mechanism(s) by which an expression becomes proper (i.e. loses sense) shows that etymological opacity is a precondition for the survival of words in certain proper names, furnishing evidence for reference without sense. The process of becoming proper amounts to abrogation of sense for the purpose of reference, which is precisely the requirement for a systematic defence of Mill.

from Mind and Language

Experimental Philosophy and the Theory of Reference

It is argued on a variety of grounds that recent results in ‘experimental philosophy of language’, which appear to show that there are significant cross-cultural differences in intuitions about the reference of proper names, do not pose a threat to a more traditional mode of philosophizing about reference. Some of these same grounds justify a complaint about experimental philosophy as a whole.

from Mind and Language

Indexical Predicates

We discuss the challenge to truth-conditional semantics presented by apparent shifts in extension of predicates such as ‘red’. We propose an explicit indexical semantics for ‘red’ and argue that our account is preferable to the alternatives on conceptual and empirical grounds.

from Mind and Language

Proper Names in Early Word Learning: Rethinking a Theoretical Account of Lexical Development

ABSTRACT
There is evidence that children learn both proper names and count nouns from the outset of lexical development. Furthermore, children’s first proper names are typically words for people, whereas their first count nouns are commonly terms for other objects, including artifacts. I argue that these facts represent a challenge for two well-known theoretical accounts of object word learning. I defend an alternative account, which credits young children with conceptual resources to acquire words for both individual objects and object categories, and conceptual biases to construe some objects (notably people) as individuals in their own right and most other objects as instances of their category.

from Mind and Language

The Neuropsychology of Proper Names

ABSTRACT
The difference between common and proper names seems to derive from specific semantic characteristics of proper names. In particular, proper names refer to specific individual entities or events, and unlike common names, rarely map onto more general semantic characteristics (attributes, concepts, categories). This fact makes the link proper names have with their reference particularly fragile. Processing proper names seems, as a consequence, to require special cognitive and neural resources. Neuropsychological findings show that proper names and common names follow functionally distinct processing pathways. These pathways are neurally distinct and differently sensitive to focal or generalized brain damage, cognitive changes with age or lack of organic resources. Their precise location, depending on specific tasks, is still partly unknown.

from Mind and Language

The Significance of Names

ABSTRACT
As a class of terms and mental representations, proper names and mental names possess an important function that outstrips their semantic and psycho-semantic functions as common, rigid devices of direct reference and singular mental representations of their referents, respectively. They also function as abstract linguistic markers that signal and underscore their referents’ individuality. I promote this thesis to explain why we give proper names to certain particulars, but not others; to account for the transfer of singular thought via communication with proper names; and, more generally, to support a cognitivist, not acquaintance or instrumentalist, theory of singular thought.

from Mind and Language

Development of the FOCUS (Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six), a communication outcome measure for preschool children

Interpretation The FOCUS is a usable measure of a child’s ability to communicate and participate in his or her community. It demonstrates high internal consistency and construct validity.

from Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology

Bilateral progressive hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction with inner ear antibodies

Autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) is a clinical syndrome of uncertain etiology. We present the neuro-otological findings of 2 cases of bilateral hearing loss, dizziness and the antibody profiles of the inner ears. Case 1 had bilateral progressive hearing loss, vestibular dysfunction and abnormal eye movement as the disease progressed. She had inner ear antibodies against 42 and 58 kDa protein antigency on Western blot immune assay, and responded to glycocorticosteroid but not to immunosuppressant treatment. Intratympanic steroid injection temporally eliminated her symptoms. However, she developed idiopathic Cushing’s syndrome and underwent labyrinthectomy. Case 2 became deaf as a teenager and experienced dizziness 10 years after becoming deaf. He reacted strongly to 68 kDa protein and was a good responder to immunosuppressant with steroid. As we still lack a definitive diagnostic test for AIED, careful observation of the clinical course is critical for differential diagnosis regarding the bilateral progressive hearing loss.

from Auris Nasus Larynx

Follow up of P1 peak amplitude and peak latency in a group of specific language-impaired children

Conclusions
Considering the heterogeneity of the SLI group, P1 peak amplitude and peak latency may be valuable to follow up the maturation of the auditory system on individual basis rather than for differential diagnosis of SLI patient from normal. P1 does not show dramatic developmental change in the age range 5–10 years to be used clinically. Further researches are needed to standardize statistical method for analyzing P1 waveform.

from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

The high prevalence of otitis media with effusion in children with cleft lip and palate as compared to children without clefts

Conclusions
Children with unilateral cleft lip and palate present with a significantly higher prevalence of otitis media with effusion than children without cleft. Also, the hearing loss associated with otitis media with effusion is demonstrated in this study. Furthermore, the method of audiometry has been examined and children with unilateral cleft lip and palate had to be assessed with a lower level of method than children without cleft.

from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

Discrimination of Time-Reversed Harmonic Complexes by Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

Abstract Normal-hearing (NH) listeners and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners detected and discriminated time-reversed harmonic complexes constructed of equal-amplitude harmonic components with fundamental frequencies (F0s) ranging from 50 to 800 Hz. Component starting phases were selected according to the positive and negative Schroeder-phase algorithms to produce within-period frequency sweeps with relatively flat temporal envelopes. Detection thresholds were not affected by component starting phases for either group of listeners. At presentation levels of 80 dB SPL, NH listeners could discriminate the two waveforms nearly perfectly when the F0s were less than 300–400 Hz but fell to chance performance for higher F0s. HI listeners performed significantly poorer, with reduced discrimination at several of the F0s. In contrast, at a lower presentation level meant to nearly equate sensation levels for the two groups, NH listeners’ discrimination was poorer than HI listeners at most F0s. Roving presentation levels had little effect on performance by NH listeners but reduced performance by HI listeners. The differential impact of roving level suggests a weaker perception of timbre differences and a greater susceptibility to the detrimental effects of experimental uncertainty in HI listeners.

from JARO — Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology

New Technology Helps Parkinson’s Patients Speak Louder

Researchers have developed a new technology that helps Parkinson’s patients overcome the tendency to speak too quietly by playing a recording of ambient sound, which resembles the noisy chatter of a restaurant full of patrons.

from ScienceDaily.com

Early but not late blindness leads to enhanced auditory perception

The notion that blindness leads to superior non-visual abilities has been postulated for centuries. Compared to sighted individuals, blind individuals show different patterns of brain activation when performing auditory tasks. To date, no study has controlled for musical experience, which is known to influence auditory skills. The present study tested 33 blind (11 congenital, 11 early-blind, 11 late-blind) participants and 33 matched sighted controls. We showed that the performance of blind participants was better than that of sighted participants on a range of auditory perception tasks, even when musical experience was controlled for. This advantage was observed only for individuals who became blind early in life, and was even more pronounced for individuals who were blind from birth. Years of blindness did not predict task performance. Here, we provide compelling evidence that superior auditory abilities in blind individuals are not explained by musical experience alone. These results have implications for the development of sensory substitution devices, particularly for late-blind individuals.

from Neuropsychologia

Effects of neonatal partial deafness and chronic intracochlear electrical stimulation on auditory and electrical response characteristics in primary auditory cortex

The use of cochlear implants in patients with severe hearing losses but residual low-frequency hearing raises questions concerning the effects of chronic intracochlear electrical stimulation (ICES) on cortical responses to auditory and electrical stimuli. We investigated these questions by studying responses to tonal and electrical stimuli in primary auditory cortex (AI) of two groups of neonatally-deafened cats with residual high-threshold, low-frequency hearing. One group were implanted with a multi-channel intracochlear electrode at eight weeks of age, and received chronic ICES for up to nine months before cortical recording. Cats in the other group were implanted immediately prior to cortical recording as adults. In all cats in both groups, multi-neuron responses throughout the rostro-caudal extent of AI had low characteristic frequencies (CFs), in the frequency range of the residual hearing, and high-thresholds. Threshold and minimum latency at CF did not differ between the groups, but in the chronic ICES animals there was a higher proportion of electrically but not acoustically excited recording sites. Electrical response thresholds were higher and latencies shorter in the chronically stimulated animals. Thus, chronic implantation and ICES affected the extent of AI that could be activated by acoustic stimuli and resulted in changes in electrical response characteristics.

from Hearing Research