Language and the Brain (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics) Review

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(More customer reviews)Overview:
I read this book as part of an in-depth research project on language processing for an introduction to neuroscience class. I was highly disappointed in the use of content based solely on behavioral studies rather than imaging studies and the poor organization of information being presented. Although the focus is based on behavioral case studies as support for its findings, very little of the claims are grounded in quantitative imaging data. While the authors of Language and the Brain wrote the book in 1999 when this field was less commonly used than it is now, the glossing-over of this technology and its importance to the field of neurolinguistics is disappointing. Updated editions of this book are necessary in order to fully describe neurolinguistics and how the brain permits us to have language
Synopsis of Parts:
The first three chapters briefly introduce neurolinguistics and its subparts phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse, and semantics; the general localizationism or connectionism approaches to studying neurolinguistics; an introduction to the brain and nervous system important for linguistic study, and a brief overview of the methods for brain analysis including imaging but with a large focus on history. These descriptions are fairly simple and easy to understand - one of the authors' goals for the book outlined in the preface.

The subsequent three chapters on aphasia proceed to try and describe the different types of language disorders due to brain injury. They begin with aphasia classifications including accounts of Broca's research on the ability to produce speech, Wernicke's research on the ability to understand speech, and conduction aphasia, the ability to repeat spoken language. In the next chapter, it develops the underlying causes for each of these patterns and links them to a particular brain area that, when damaged, results in the deficit. Then the book describes the study of children with developmental language disorders in order to investigate the syntactic abilities of the left hemisphere, but claims that they are "hard to evaluate in terms of brain regions because the nature of brain malfunction is rarely, if ever, clear." Finally, the book discusses right brain damage, in order to investigate how it participates in the perception or production of language.
The next group of chapters outlines other language issues not associated with brain injury like the loss of language due to dementia, difficulties with reading known as dyslexia or alexia, and issues with writing knows as dysgraphia.
Finally the books describe other aspects of language and the brain including bilingualism and the interactions between two or more languages in processing; language organization including in-depth discussions of phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and semantics; and, finally, the future of neurolinguistics including artificial intelligence, the relationship between language and cognition, and brain imaging.
Style and Structure:
The authors of the book focused on case studies of patients and their brain lesions, or damage areas, to explain their behaviors in most of the highlighted studies. It is much more of a discussion on linguistics and the brain areas associated with the various aspects of linguistics than it is an exploration of language processing.
Specific Opinions:
This book opens under the pretense that it's dealing with the study of neurolinguistics, or "how the brain (neuro) permits us to have language(linguistics)". In the preface the authors claim, "We assume that many readers of this volume will not have such a background, and thus we chose to focus, in the majority of chapters, on the special populations who provide us with knowledge of language organization in the brain." However the case study methods only deal with lesion patients and their language behavior with little attention to the quantitative fMRI or ERP data.
As a neuroscience student, I read the book in hopes of gaining insight into language processing and the relationship to not only brain areas, but also brain functionality. The localizationism approach in this book using the case study method provides ample support for which areas of the brain are associated with the different types of language disorders, but provides almost no insight into the aspects of processing other than timing, or how the brain really permits us to have language. While the individual region of the brain that contribute to language are important, the interaction and integration of these parts that allows us to speak, write, read, and comprehend language is what interested me in neurolinguistics in the first place and led me to reading this book.
The organization of "Language and the Brain" also contributed to my disappointment. In the introduction, the authors claim that neurolinguistics is often subcategorized into the areas of phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse, and semantics. These concepts, while referenced throughout the book, are not fully developed until the penultimate chapter, Language Organization, right before the discussion of the future of linguistics. As I read the Language and the Brain, I was often confused frustrated with its use of terms that weren't explained until the end of the book, if ever.
Overall I would not recommend Language and the Brain to other readers. It is outdated, disorganized, and, in my opinion, does not accomplish the goals it sets out to achieve in the preface. It adequately describes the areas associated with language function by highlighting the behavioral studies associated with damage and processing. These case studies and discussions on the types of language disorders may provide useful information for the study of linguistics, but they do so from more of a psycholinguistic perspective than a neurolinguistic one.
Readers should look elsewhere for information about how the brain allows us to have language. Many advancements in understanding in this field have been achieved through the use of imaging techniques such as Event Related Potential (ERP) recordings which allow temporal analysis and fMRI recordings which allow spatial analysis of brain activity but little mention of those techniques and none of the evidence that they provide are included in this text. To be useful in the current study of neurolinguistics, the authors should consider printing updated editions to include more details on the use and findings of newer technologies rather than continuing subsequent printings of this book.

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How do our brains enable us to speak creatively and build up an understanding of language?This accessible book examines the linguistic and neuro-anatomical underpinnings of language and considers how language skills can systematically break down in individuals with different types of brain damage. By studying children with language disorders, adults with right-hemisphere brain damage, demented patients and people with reading problems, the authors provide an understanding of how language is organized in the brain.

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