7 - Hierarchical models

Summary

In the previous chapter, we have seen several reasons to be less than completely sure that the way language is represented in the brain is through a number of centers, each responsible for a particular psycholinguistic function in a particular area of the brain, connected through tracts of white matter. But if this is not the correct general framework for viewing neurolinguistics, what is? In this and the next two chapters, we shall consider three other approaches to models of language–brain relationships, each of which answers this question somewhat differently. In this chapter, we shall consider models which view both language and brain in hierarchical terms, considering behavior to be the result of the functioning of successive levels of the nervous system, rather than the build-up of complex behaviors from simple components. In Chapter 8, we shall consider the view which sees linguistic (and other) behavior to be the result of the operation of the nervous system, and the psyche, as integrated wholes. In Chapter 9, we shall examine models in which none of the components carry out the entirety of a psychological function. In each case, after presenting work which is typical of the particular approach, we shall try to indicate strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and the ways it differs from others.

John Hughlings Jackson was one of the founders of the field of clinical neurology, and, along with William Gowers, the pre-eminent English neurologist of his day. Among his many interests was the analysis of language disorders and their anatomical basis.