NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE - Carlo Semenza

 

This program will be adapted, in order to avoid possible overlap with the content of other courses. The historical and methodological parts will be given special emphasis, as well as the cognitive approach. Prof. Semenza's own work on both methodology and lexical semantics will be  reported in detail if  enough of the general program will be covered by others.

 

 

The history of aphasiology. The "diagram makers" and their models. Criticisms to the diagram makers. The rediscovery of the Wernicke-Lichtheim model in the second part of the 20th century: the neuroanatomical model of Geschwind. The foundation of neurolinguistics. Cognitive neuropsychology.

 

Neurological foundations of language and clinical aspects of aphasia: update and modern views.

 

Phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics: The psycholinguistic approach.

 

The talking machine: The cognitive approach. The organisation of the lexical system. The internal structure of words. Reading and spelling of single words. Spoken word production. The production of different word categories. Sentence production and comprehension. Semantic memory.

 

Bibliography:

 

Denes G and Pizzamiglio L (Eds). Handbook of Neuropsychology. Psychology Press (1999). Chapters 7,8,9,10,11,12,14.

 

Rapp B (Ed).  The Handbook of Cognitive Neuropsychology. Psychology Press (2001). Chapters 8,9,10,11,12, 14,15, 17.

 

Semenza C.  Methodological Issues. In Beaumont, Kenealy and Rogers (Eds) The Blackwell Dictionary of Neuropsychology. Blackwell (1996).