Summary Of Broca's Ability To Speak

According to Dr. Michael Posner, Bilingual epileptic patients can lose the capability to speak one language during a seizure, while retaining the other one. The operational definition (the meaning of the question being observed) of "losing the capability to speak" is unclear. If Dr. Posner meant the definition to be how we execute speech, then there was damage to the patients Broca's area. Broca's area is in the frontal lobe, and is responsible for the production of speech. So if this is true, Dr. Posner believes two languages are processed in two different parts is false.
Wernicke's area is responsible for simple semantics in language. The patient lost the ability to speak one language, not the ability to understand it.
Thus, both of the languages' semantic understandings are not proven to be processed in different parts of the brain.

2.

Dr.
Gutin is the hospital's chief of neurosurgery. The removal of a tumor during neurosurgery requires surgeons to remove tissue. He states that most aspects of language are found on one hemisphere of the brain, whereas visual and hearing are found on both sides of the brain.
This is a dilemma for surgeons he says, because when removing a tumor, if tissue is cut out of a language aspect area, the ability to speak or understand language can be lost. This is not the case with visual and hearing areas, which can handle the removal of tissue because the other part of the brain will take over. The visual cortex is located in the occipital lobes. The cortex visual signals are in charge of the opposite hemispheres vision. This being true, the removal of tissue from a visual area of one hemisphere, WILL damage visual signals to the opposite hemisphere.
The writer also states that if a language aspect area in the brain gets tissue removed, one can lose the ability to speak or understand English. But if the tumor is left untreated, that ability plus other major health complications are likely. The surgeon is better off giving precise language tests to figure out where these critical areas are located, and/or making more careful tissue
removals. 3.

Gutin statement that language aspects are found on one hemisphere of the brain is very vague. The "high-level aspects of language" are found in Wernicke's area, which handles language comprehension, and Broca's area, speech production. Both Wernicke's area and Broca's area are located in the LEFT hemisphere.

5.
Dr. Hirsch's study suggests that a bilingual infant will have a more difficult time learning a third language when he/she is in adolescence. This idea is faulty, because for one, there is no change in the Wernicke's area between all the patients studied. And if an additional Broca's area is formed in those who became bilingual in adolescence, there is no explanation on how that would make speech production harder. Also, we also have to take in consideration of what that third language is. For instance, German, Spanish, and English have similar (forgot what word to use), whereas English and Chinese have almost no similarities. As discussed in chapter three of our psychology book, basic grammatical rules are learned in childhood. If a German, English bilingual student takes a Spanish class, he/she will understand the basic (same as above). This would mean the process would be very similar to languages learned in infancy and much easier than if the student took a Mandarin class.

Final
question.

If I have to pick one negative aspect of this paper, it easily would be a crucial faulty fact. Dr. Gutin statement that cutting out visual tissue does not cause great harm to the patient can lead to malpractice. As stated in chapter four of our book, damage to the visual cortex, which houses "visual tissue", can lead to impaired vision or blindness. Dr. Gutin says that the "other side of the brain will take over" the visuals of the side being cut. But we know that the visual cortex of the brain is in charge the opposite eyes vision. The vision of both eyes can not be determined by one hemisphere.