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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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yet another fascinating synapse to explore, Helen!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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I don't know how a stroke would affect speaking a tonal language but I can tell you that my Cantonese speaking patients with language impairments had much more difficulty understanding my "Cantonese" than those with truly intact language. (my Cantonese is limited to: good morning, how are you, slow down, stand up, sit down, does it hurt, and are you dizzy. functional but not very sociable.)
On a slight tangent I would frequently have patients who spoke English to some degree before their stroke but not after yet their first language was left unimpaired. Even one lovely lady who had not spoken French since leaving France at age 5. After her stroke she became fluent at French but not a word of English. She started English lessons and her husband of 54 years started French lessons.
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People have to use more of their brain to understand Mandarin (emphasis mine)
Do highly trained speakers with very musical voices use the right brain at all? ...And if they do, then the rest of us might a little
Speech and language centres are located in the LEFT hemisphere of the brain in well over 95 percent of all right handed people. However, paralanguage, whish is the associations of language like melody, intonation, pitch, rhythm, gesturing, expressions are predominantly controlled by the RIGHT brain. ALL of us, whatever language we speak, use both the right brain and the left brain to converse. Speakers of languages (like Mandarin), that place great emphasis on intonation would use their right brain more *frequently, or rather, their right brains probably demonstrate more *constant activity during conversation, than ours. As to whether, this translates into more integrated circuitry between the right and the left halves of the brain is not, as yet, established (to the best of my knowledge, but I am not on top of the latest research in this field)
Stroke in the left brain in Broca's area, Wernicke's area and their association areas affects speech and language. The degree to which these faculties are impaired and recovery therefore, depends on the type and extent of the injury. Specific functions have been assigned to each of these areas, (Borca's (frontal)- speech production; Wernickes' (temporal) - speech comprehension) and so, clincial assessment of the different presentations of aphasia, itself can predict location of the injury, even prior to brain imaging.
Stroke in the right brain in the mirror locations of the left's speech and language areas, results in a condition called, "Aprosodia", which, as the name suggests, is associated with loss of the paralanguage components of language. Aprosodia patients have loss of intonation, rhythm, pitch, gesturing, expression, etc.
Also, in many patients with stroke in the left brain's speech and language areas, the right brain does, compensatorily, increase its activity and, consequently, aids recovery of function.
A *most interesting thread, Bingley; thank you.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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wow, thanks for all of that, maahey! very interesting! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yeah, eta, ain't it great? i just know enough to ask simple minded questions most of the time,(stales helped me, and gave me the describe as having knowledge base as a mile wide, and a micron deep)but what is great is, there is always some one here who has some sort of Mile deep knowledge! and i get to add a half micron of information to my store!
i love that i get to hang out with all these knowledgible people all the time, and don't have to pay tuition! and besides, were else could i collect such esoteric information-- bits and pieces and details about linotype machines, neurology, oceanography, sheep!and other things welsh (and aussie!) in nature... some one should make A book of Uncommon Knowledge. they could just cut and paste the whole thing together from the archives of this board!
(the second volume could be a cookbook!)
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I've just watched a recent French movie 'Beautiful memories' about people with a variety of memory loss in an institution. One man can only say the word "To, to, to, to … " but a Vietnamese character [delightfully named Mr Bong] listens to the inflections of his voice and translates perfectly.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thank you SO much, maahey! I've copied your info. and saved it to my personal files. They didn't tell me what part(s) of my mother's brain were affected by her stroke; they just told me that she would never talk or understand speech again. Words were important to her, which is probably why they have always been to me. So I told them to let her go. It took ten days. (That was 1995. There was a bit more to it than that, but.) i love that i get to hang out with all these knowledgible people all the time, and don't have to pay tuition! and besides, were else could i collect such esoteric information-- bits and pieces and details about linotype machines, neurology, oceanography, sheep!and other things welsh (and aussie!) in nature... some one should make A book of Uncommon Knowledge. they could just cut and paste the whole thing together from the archives of this board! Yes! Yes! I love this place! a Vietnamese character [delightfully named Mr Bong] listens to the inflections of his voice and translates perfectly. That sounds like a wonderful film, paulb. [HUG]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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when stroke victims have damage to broca's area, their speech is effected, but many times they can still sing, .. they sometimes ...can summon up bits of songs, melodies and words, and begin ... communication.
Stutterers can often sing clearly with no impediments on certain consonants .... now, wait a sec ... do people who stutter have trouble just with consonants? Never heard of anyone's having trouble with vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
Years ago there was a joke that gained wide currency about a stuttering sailor who had to sing about a man falling overboard for the Captain to understand. The punch line had to be sung for full impact!
Anyone remember it?
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From my very limited exposure to the problem, stuttering is not limited to consonants. I had the uncomfortable experience many years ago of being briefed on the "Chi-yi-yi-yi-nese" situation by an area specialist at the National Security Agency.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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Again dragging an "old" thread up to the top...
We have more tonal sense in English than you'd first think. Have you even been in a church full of people reciting a prayer? There's some kind of common tone (or maybe two, one for men, one for women) that everyone settles down to for the duration of the prayer. You'll notice it if you consciously try to say the prayer in a "normal" voice - you'll stick out like a sore thumb, partly because your pitch doesn't match the group, and partly because prayers are more monotonic than speech.
Another example I like to think of is the notes for "I don't know". If your mouth is full when someone asks you something, you can avoid being rude by sort of humming the correct notes for "I don't know" and they understand you perfectly every time.
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