Prosody

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From the course by The University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

626 ratings

The University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

626 ratings

Learn how the nervous system produces behavior, how we use our brain every day, and how neuroscience can explain the common problems afflicting people today. We will study functional human neuroanatomy and neuronal communication, and then use this information to understand how we perceive the outside world, move our bodies voluntarily, stay alive, and play well with others.

From the lesson

Hearing

The sound of birds chirping in the morning, a babbling brook or crashing waves on the beach, or warm conversation with the ones you love. The experience of all these things requires the ability to hear. Arguably the most important sense for human communication, it is also the most commonly impaired of our senses. In this module, you will learn how the human ear is artfully designed to enhance our ability to hear the human voice. You will follow sound waves as they travel from the external world, to the eardrum, through the bones of the middle ear, and to the cochlea that transduces sound information into neural impulses.

Expectation: Interpreting Sound3:49

Communication2:59

Wrap-up: Hearing2:02

Meet the Instructors

Peggy Mason
Professor
Neurobiology

[MUSIC]

Okay.

So, expectation is a huge piece of understanding verbal language.

And another huge piece is what we call prosody.

And prosody is not the semantic content of words.

It's the, in English anyway, it's the sing-song, content of wo, words.

The non-semantic, the non-linguistic content.

So let's first look at how we understand the, the linguistic content.

We know that primary auditory cortex is contained in the temporal lobe.

And it's on both sides, there is a primary auditory cortex.

But on the left side of the brain there is an area back here

which is called Wernicke's area.

And this is necessary for understanding language.

Okay? So for

understanding the semantic content of language.

And so it, on,

one of the big inputs to Wernicke's area is coming from our auditory cortex.

And Wernicke's area is then connected to an, a, an area back in the frontal lobe.

This is the central sulcus and this area is called Broca's area.

And in 90% of us,

language is is, is handled by the left hemisphere.

Language is a lateralized function.

Broca's area, and Wernicke's area are responsible for

understanding what words, that are spoken actually mean.

Now there is a mirror system over on the right hemisphere.

Where there's an area back here which is a responsible for

understanding not the the words.

But the meaning, the prosody.

Understanding prosody.

And there is a area up here in an analogous area to where Broca's is on

the left, which is responsible for producing prosody.

So what is this prosody that I'm talking about?

Well, in English prosody is is, is the expression.

It's, it's anything that takes us away from a monotone of talking.

So if I say to my cats, you're a very, very good girl.

Or if I say to my cats, you are such a bad girl.

Those two statements to my cat are the same thing, because they share a prosody.

The cat does not hear that in one case I said good and in one case I said bad.

The cat hears my, my intonation.

And, and the same word can have all sorts of different meanings.

The same actual semantic word can have different meanings

under when it's spoken with different persodic elements.

So for example, I can say, I can say good morning.

And its, it's a off the cuff, no big deal statement.

It's, I say it every day.

It sounds routine, it means almost nothing.

And I can say good morning.

And that has a different, a whole different meaning.

That is a, I am communicating something very positive.

And then I, I can, I can give it a more negative connotation as well.

Good morning.

Good morning, not really a good morning.

Prosody can be revealing of an underlying intent that

the semantic words do not do not speak to.

So, in English, prosody is typically,

done with, changing the, the timbre or the tone.

Changing the frequency of your, of your speech.

In languages where frequency is a component of the linguistic,

of the semantics.

Prosody can be accomplished with changes in rhythm or changes in loudness.

And, and in English those are used as, as well.

And finally what I, I what I want to say is that

we all know that that, damage to Broca's and Wernicke's.

Can result in very devastating conditions of aphasia,

different, two different types of aphasia.

But it shouldn't be overlooked that damage on the right hemisphere can

also impact communication.

It's not impacting the semantic con, content of communication.

But it is certainly impacting prosody.

And prosody is such a huge piece of how we actually,

of what we actually communicate to each other.

That this could be very devastating, when it occurs.

Okay, and in the final, segment of this module, we'll talk about.

How semantic and prosodic elements interact to produce communication.

[MUSIC]

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