Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of the Organs of Hearing, Vision, and Speech - Shvetsov A.G. 2006

Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of Speech

Speech is one of the fundamental mental Functions that set humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. It is commonly defined by its communicative capacity—that is, as a historically established form of human communication mediated by auditory and visual signs. This capacity enables the transmission of information not only directly from person to person but also across vast distances, allowing us to retrieve knowledge from the past and pass it on to the future.

At the same time, beyond its communicative role, speech is involved in other phenomena. The mnemonic (memory-carrying) function of speech is highly apparent, since The transfer of information into the registers of Primary and secondary memory relies on its mandatory verbalization—that is, putting it into words. Speech is also directly linked to conscious forms of mental and voluntary activity (its regulatory function) and serves as the foundation of thought (its cognitive function).

To this day, many complexities remain in understanding The Nature of speech. Currently, the most constructive approach appears to be that of I. P. Pavlov, who as early as 1932 formulated METABOLISM/2.html">THE CONCEPT OF signaling systems of reality. By the first signaling system, he meant conditioned-reflex responding through the direct sensory perception of the energy of conditioned stimuli; by the second signaling system, he meant responding to a word that designates a specific stimulus. He established that speech development in a child is only possible if they are immersed in a human linguistic environment during the early stage of development—up to 10 years of age. This is the critical window, beyond which The ability to acquire language in a primary (native) way drops sharply (as seen in feral "Mowgli" children). Naturally, other mental functions associated with speech suffer just as severely As a result.