Comparison of baseline conditions to investigate syntactic production using functional magnetic resonance imaging (original) (raw)
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Clinical fMRI of language function
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Neural substrates of syntactic mapping treatment: An fMRI study of two cases
Journal of The International Neuropsychological Society, 2006
Two patients (G01, J02) with chronic nonfluent aphasia and sentence production deficits received syntactic mapping treatment to improve sentence production. The patients had dramatically different outcomes in that improved syntax production generalized to nontreatment tasks for G01, but not for JO2. To learn how treatment influenced the neural substrates for syntax production, both patients underwent pre-and posttreatment functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI) of sentence generation. G01 showed more robust activity posttreatment than pretreatment in Broca's area; ventral temporal activity decreased slightly from pre-to posttreatment. Comparison of J02's pretreatment and posttreatment images revealed little change, although activity was more diffuse pre-than posttreatment. Findings suggest that for G01, rehabilitation led to engagement of an area (Broca's area) used minimally during the pretreatment scan, whereas for J02, rehabilitation may have led to more efficient use of areas already involved in sentence generation during the pretreatment scan. f MRI findings are discussed in the context of sentence-production outcome and generalization. (JINS, 2006, 12, 132-146.)
NeuroImage, 2012
Spontaneous language has rarely been subjected to neuroimaging studies. This study therefore introduces a newly developed method for the analysis of linguistic phenomena observed in continuous language production during fMRI. Most neuroimaging studies investigating language have so far focussed on single word orto a smaller extentsentence processing, mostly due to methodological considerations. Natural language production, however, is far more than the mere combination of words to larger units. Therefore, the present study aimed at relating brain activation to linguistic phenomena like word-finding difficulties or syntactic completeness in a continuous language fMRI paradigm. A picture description task with special constraints was used to provoke hesitation phenomena and speech errors. The transcribed speech sample was segmented into events of one second and each event was assigned to one category of a complex schema especially developed for this purpose. The main results were: conceptual planning engages bilateral activation of the precuneus. Successful lexical retrieval is accompaniedparticularly in comparison to unsolved word-finding difficultiesby the left middle and superior temporal gyrus. Syntactic completeness is reflected in activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (area 44). In sum, the method has proven to be useful for investigating the neural correlates of lexical and syntactic phenomena in an overt picture description task. This opens up new prospects for the analysis of spontaneous language production during fMRI.
The Neural Reality of Syntactic Transformations: Evidence From Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Psychological Science, 2003
The functional anatomy of syntactic transformations, a major computational operation invoked in sentence processing, was identified through a functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation. A grammaticality judgment task was used, presented through a novel hidden-blocks design. Subjects listened to transformational and nontransformational sentences in which a host of other complexity generators (number of words, prepositions, embeddings, etc.)
Canadian Association of Radiologists journal = Journal l'Association canadienne des radiologistes, 2005
To implement and evaluate a multiple-process functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm designed to effectively and efficiently activate several language-related regions for use with neurosurgical patients. Both overt and covert response conditions were examined. The fMRI experiments compared the traditional silent word-generation condition versus an overt one as they engage frontal language regions (Experiment 1) and silent versus overt semantic association conditions as they engage multiple language processing regions (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, the overt condition yielded greater magnitude of activation, but not volume of activation, in the left inferior frontal and insular cortices than did the silent condition for most, but not all, participants. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the activation of multiple established language processing regions (ie, orthographic, phonological, and semantic) can be achieved in a significant number of participants, particularly unde...
Speaking in the brain: The interaction between words and syntax in producing sentences
This neuroimaging study investigated the neural infrastructure of sentence-level language production. We compared brain activation patterns, as measured with BOLD-fMRI, during production of sentences which differed in verb argument structures (intransitives, transitives, ditransitives) and the lexical status of the verb (known verbs or pseudo-verbs). An example for the type of sentence to be produced started a mini-block of six sentences with the same structure. For each trial, participants were first given the (pseudo-)verb followed by three geometric shapes to serve as verb arguments in the sentences. Production of sentences with known verbs yielded greater activation compared to those with pseudo-verbs in the core language network of left inferior frontal gyrus, the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, and a more posterior middle temporal region extending into the angular gyrus (LpMTG/AG), analogous to effects observed in language comprehension. Increasing the number of verb arg...
Journal of clinical …, 2006
To determine whether frontal lobe regions, including BrocaÕs area, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and supplementary motor area (SMA), are differentially activated during lexical and semantic language tasks, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging in eight healthy right-handed subjects silently performing two semantic tasks (adjective and verb generation) and a lexical retrieval task (noun recall). Activation was observed in BrocaÕs area, DLPFC and SMA for all tasks. BrocaÕs area activation was approximately doubled during the semantic tasks compared with the lexical task (verbs vs nouns: 19.1 ± 4.5 vs 8.9 ± 1.6 voxels, p = 0.02; adjectives vs nouns 24.4 ± 7.5 vs 10.1 ± 2.8 voxels, p = 0.04); however, there were no significant differences in the DLFPC or SMA across tasks. We conclude that BrocaÕs area is more active during tasks that have a semantic content, whereas areas involved in preparatory processing (SMA) and memory retrieval (DLPFC) are engaged equally during both types of task.
Application of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Neurolinguistics: A Systematic Review
Frontiers in biomedical technologies, 2020
Purpose: This paper aims to review the recent linguistic research carried out with the help of fMRI. Materials and Methods: We performed a comprehensive search on ProQuest and Scopus search engines using keywords: "functional MRI", "fMRI", and "linguistics", "phonetics", "semantics", and their synonyms, yielding to a total of 343 articles. We included 23 articles based on full-text review which conducted original research on different aspects of language processing using fMRI. Studies regarding applied linguistics, as well as studies using subjects with any neuropsychological disorders, were excluded. Results: Included studies were categorized according to the language areas they investigated, including phonetics and phonological processing; semantics; and syntax. The results show that the auditory cortex of both hemispheres is responsible for phonological comprehension of language at the first level, followed by left dominant processing of suprasegmental language in the superior temporal gyrus and the inferior frontal cortices and the supplementary motor area. During semantic processing of the language, lexical entry takes place in the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus, while sentential semantic aspects of the language are predominantly processed in the left anterior temporal cortex. The BA 44 area is the major active region during syntax processing. Conclusion: The experimental methods in studying language such as fMRI and other neurolinguistics techniques could provide scientific evidence for proving theoretical assumption. Besides, results of such researches can help other scientific developments such as brain mapping and pre-surgical planning.