ling411 03

History of Aphasiology: 

History of Aphasiology Early Workers Broca, Wernicke, Lichtheim Reactions to Connectionism Geschwind and Modern Workers Reactions to Geschwind Ling 411 – 03

Outline of major historical periods: 

Outline of major historical periods Early studies: Up to Broca Broca, Wernicke, Lichtheim – Connectionism The decades following Wernicke & Lichtheim Luria, Geschwind and the return of connectionism Present and recent past Goodglass Benson and Ardila Damasio Psychologists

Early Studies: 

Early Studies From ancient Egypt to Broca

An Egyptian surgeon, ca. 3000 B.C.: 

An Egyptian surgeon, ca. 3000 B.C. “If you examine a man with a broken temple, … when you speak to him, he does not answer, he has lost his use of words.”

Early European thinking: 

Early European thinking Aristotle Heart is the center of intelligence Brain is for cooling blood Galen (Greek, 130? – 201? a.d.) Dissected animals Brain is center of thinking and feeling Vesalius (16th century, worked on cadavers) Steno (Late 17th century) Brain is the seat of both thought and soul

Franz Joseph Gall: 

Franz Joseph Gall By early 1800’s, aphasia became a focus of intellectual speculation Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) Localization of function (good idea) Phrenology (bad idea)

Gall’s Phrenology Theory: 

Gall’s Phrenology Theory

Reactions to Gall: 

Reactions to Gall Pierre Flourens – Attacked Gall The brain functions holistically Supporters of Gall Jean-Baptiste Bouillard (1825–1881) Ernst Aubertin (son-in-law of Bouillard) Pierre Gratiolet

A decades-long debate: 

A decades-long debate Locationism vs. Holism Started with reactions to Gall Gall: a naïve locationist At first, it was assumed that all locationalism was necessarily naïve The only alternative seen was holism Debate flourished for decades

Marc Dax: 

Marc Dax In unublished work of 1836 he anticipated the later major contribution of Broca

Jean-Baptiste Bouillard (France): 

Jean-Baptiste Bouillard (France) 1825-1881 Improved Gall’s methods Anticipated later theories Did post-mortem exams of aphasics Proposed left frontal lobe (sometimes right) as the locus of speech

Ernst Auburtin: 

Ernst Auburtin Son-in-law of Bouillard Supported the theory of localization of brain functions in discrete brain areas Presented an important paper in 1861 Broca was in the audience Broca invited Aubertin to examine one of his patients

Broca, Wernicke, Lichtheim: 

Broca, Wernicke, Lichtheim The rise of connectionism: A sophisticated form of locationalism

Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880): 

Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880)

Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880): 

Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880) Heard important presentation by Auburtin in 1861 Two days later, he got a patient who Couldn’t talk Had malfunction of right side of body Died 5 days later Broca performed autopsy Found lesion in “third frontal convolution” Second patient, also aphasic, also had lesion in inferior frontal gyrus

Pierre Paul Broca (cont’d): 

Pierre Paul Broca (cont’d) Some patients were found to have right hemisphere damage, but were right-handed In 1870’s, started localizing other functions Did neuroanatomical studies of dogs to investigate localization hypotheses Also recognized a different language disorder – “verbal amnesia” – but didn’t propose a location Was criticized on the grounds that some aphasics didn’t have lesion in 3rd frontal gyrus

Broca’s contributions: 

Broca’s contributions Cerebral dominance “We speak with the left side of our brains” Inferior frontal gyrus for speech production Localization of function based on convolutional anatomy

Karl Wernicke (1848-1905): 

Karl Wernicke (1848-1905)

Karl Wernicke (1848-1905): 

Karl Wernicke (1848-1905) Studied neuroanatomy with Meinert in Vienna Important paper published in 1874 (at age 26) Criticized Broca on grounds of failure to distinguish language form thought Otherwise, generally supported Broca Identified “Broca’s aphasia” as difficulty with speech production, especially of function words Also identified a posterior language area

Wernicke’s posterior language area: 

Wernicke’s posterior language area In posterior superior temporal lobe Important for speech comprehension If damaged, comprehension impaired If damaged, speech is repetitive Patient is unaware of his errors Auditory images of words Now known as Wernicke’s area

Wernicke: Connectionism: 

Wernicke: Connectionism Proposed the theory of connectionism (with Lichtheim) Also favored localization of function, but in a more sophisticated form than predecessors Accepted Meinert’s postulation of a connecting fiber bundle (arcuate fasciculus) Predicted “Conduction Aphasia” based on damage to this bundle

Ludwig Lichtheim (1845-1928): 

Ludwig Lichtheim (1845-1928) Worked with Wernicke Proposed a connectionist-locationist scheme with now-famous diagram, 1885 Accepted by Wernicke The birth of connectionism This scheme was widely criticized for several subsequent decades Revived by Norman Geschwind

The Wernicke-Lichtheim model (1885): 

The Wernicke-Lichtheim model (1885) A – Auditory M – Motor B – Ideation Numbers indicate areas in which disconnection would produce distinct disorder From Lichtheim 1885

Wernicke and Connectionism: 

Wernicke and Connectionism “Based on on his discoveries and those of Broca, Fritsch, and Hitzig, Wernicke proposed (1876) that only the most basic mental functions, those concerned with simple perceptual and motor activities, are localized to single areas of the cortex, and that more complex intellectual functions result from interconnections between several functional sites. In placing the principle of localized function within a connectionist framework, Wernicke appreciated that different components of a single behavior are processed in different regions of the brain. He thus advanced the first evidence for the idea of distributed processing, which is now central to our understanding of brain function.” (Kandel et al. 1995:13)

Kussmaul: 

Kussmaul 1881: Proposes new types of aphasia Agrammatism Amnesia for words

The Decades following Wernicke & Lichtheim: 

The Decades following Wernicke & Lichtheim From Marie to Geschwind

Jules Dejerine: 

Jules Dejerine 1901: Accepted basic ideas of Wernicke and Lichtheim But rejected concept center – no anatomical basis Added account of reading problems: alexia Visual-verbal zone in left angular gyrus

Diverse Views after Wernicke & Lichtheim: 

Diverse Views after Wernicke & Lichtheim Pierre Marie (France) Jules Dejerine (France) J. Hughlings Jackson (England) Henry Head (England) Kurt Goldstein (Germany) Aleksandr Luria (Russia) Color Code: Attacked Wernicke Supported Wernicke Independent innovator

Good and bad localizationist models: 

Good and bad localizationist models Bad (e.g., Gall’s phrenology) Each local center does a fairly large job, all by itself Good (e.g. Wernicke-Lichtheim) Each local center does a small job Large jobs get done by the operation of several or many such local centers working together, partly in serial, partly in parallel — distributed processing A local center can participate in several different kinds of larger jobs, depending on what other centers are working together with it

Geschwind and the return of connectionism: 

Geschwind and the return of connectionism Geschwind Benson Goodglass Damasio

The Current Scene: 

The Current Scene A Great Divide: Clinical Aphasiologists Vs. Psychologists

The Great Divide: 

The Great Divide Clinical Aphasiologists Largely accept modern reformulations of Geschwind-Lichtheim connectionism, following Geschwind E.g., Goodglass, Benson, Damasio Psychologists Tend to reject Wernicke-Geschwind thinking Make unsophisticated assumptions without evidence E.g. Blumstein, Caramazza, Pinker

Modern attacks onWernicke-Geschwind connectionism: 

Modern attacks on Wernicke-Geschwind connectionism John Pinel Surgical excisions of important language areas fail to result in aphasia Blumstein, Pinker, Pulvermüller Erratic speech output of Wernicke’s aphasics

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