Selective impairment of On-reading (Chinese-style pronunciation) in alexia with agraphia for kanji due to subcortical hemorrhage in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus

ABSTRACTThis study investigated two questions. One is to which degree sentence processing beyond single words is independent of the input modality (speech vs. reading). The second question is which parts of the network recruited by both modalities is sensitive to syntactic complexity. These questions were investigated by having more than 200 participants read or listen to well-formed sentences or series of unconnected words. A largely left-hemisphere fronto-temporoparietal network was found to be supramodal in nature, i.e. independent of input modality. In addition, the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) were most clearly associated with left-branching complexity. The left anterior middle temporal gyrus (LaMTG) showed the greatest sensitivity to sentences that differed in right-branching complexity. Moreover, activity in LIFG and LpMTG increased from sentence onset to end, in parallel with an increase of the left-branching complexity. While LIFG, bilateral anterior and posterior MTG and left inferior parietal lobe (LIPL) all contribute to the supramodal unification processes, the results suggest that these regions differ in their respective contributions to syntactic complexity related processing. The consequences of these findings for neurobiological models of language processing are discussed.

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Independent Representations of Verbs and Actions in Left Lateral Temporal Cortex

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00257 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 24 (10) ◽

pp. 2096-2107 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Marius V. Peelen ◽

Domenica Romagno ◽

Alfonso Caramazza

Keyword(s):

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Group Analysis ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Memory Task ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Semantic Features ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Action Verbs ◽

Action Representations

Verbs and nouns differ not only on formal linguistic grounds but also in what they typically refer to: Verbs typically refer to actions, whereas nouns typically refer to objects. Prior neuroimaging studies have revealed that regions in the left lateral temporal cortex (LTC), including the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), respond selectively to action verbs relative to object nouns. Other studies have implicated the left pMTG in action knowledge, raising the possibility that verb selectivity in LTC may primarily reflect action-specific semantic features. Here, using functional neuroimaging, we test this hypothesis. Participants performed a simple memory task on visually presented verbs and nouns that described either events (e.g., “he eats” and “the conversation”) or states (e.g., “he exists” and “the value”). Verb-selective regions in the left pMTG and the left STS were defined in individual participants by an independent localizer contrast between action verbs and object nouns. Both regions showed equally strong selectivity for event and state verbs relative to semantically matched nouns. The left STS responded more to states than events, whereas there was no difference between states and events in the left pMTG. Finally, whole-brain group analysis revealed that action verbs, relative to state verbs, activated a cluster in pMTG that was located posterior to the verb-selective pMTG clusters. Together, these results indicate that verb selectivity in LTC is independent of action representations. We consider other differences between verbs and nouns that may underlie verb selectivity in LTC, including the verb property of predication.

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BOLD response to motion verbs in left posterior middle temporal gyrus during story comprehension

Brain and Language ◽

10.1016/j.bandl.2011.04.006 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 119 (3) ◽

pp. 221-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Mikkel Wallentin ◽

Andreas Højlund Nielsen ◽

Peter Vuust ◽

Anders Dohn ◽

Andreas Roepstorff ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Story Comprehension ◽

Motion Verbs ◽

Bold Response ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Left Posterior

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The regional neuronal activity in left posterior middle temporal gyrus is correlated with the severity of chronic aphasia

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment ◽

10.2147/ndt.s140091 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol Volume 13 ◽

pp. 1937-1945 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jianlin Li ◽

Dunren Du ◽

Wei Gao ◽

Xichun Sun ◽

Haizhu Xie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Neuronal Activity ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Chronic Aphasia

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Recursive hierarchical embedding in vision is impaired by posterior middle temporal gyrus lesions

Brain ◽

10.1093/brain/awz242 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 142 (10) ◽

pp. 3217-3229

Author(s):

Mauricio J D Martins ◽

Carina Krause ◽

David A Neville ◽

Daniele Pino ◽

Arno Villringer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hierarchical Structures ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Hierarchical Levels

Hierarchical structures are central to language, music and complex actions. Martins et al. demonstrate that the ability to represent visuospatial hierarchies shares cognitive and neural resources with the processing of linguistic syntax. Left posterior middle temporal gyrus lesions impair the integration of information during the generation of new hierarchical levels.

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Agraphia for Kanji Resulting From a Left Posterior Middle Temporal Gyrus Lesion

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2008/393912 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 93-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Yasuhisa Sakurai ◽

Imari Mimura ◽

Toru Mannen

Keyword(s):

Occipital Cortex ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Reading And Writing ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Nonword Reading ◽

Pure Alexia ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Left Middle ◽

Post Onset

Objective:To clarify whether agraphia or alexia occurs in lesions of the left posterior middle temporal gyrus.Methods:We assessed the reading and writing abilities of two patients with this lesion using kanji (Japanese morphograms) and kana (Japanese syllabograms).Results:Patient 1 first presented with pure alexia more impaired for kana after an infarction in the left middle and inferior occipital gyri and right basal occipital cortex, and after a second infarction in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus adjoining the first lesion he showed alexia with agraphia for kanji and worsened alexia for kana; kanji alexia recovered over the following six to 10 months. Patient 2 presented with alexia with agraphia for kanji following a hemorrhage in the left posterior middle and inferior temporal gyri, which resolved to agraphia for kanji at two months after onset. Kana nonword reading was also slightly impaired, but became normal by six months post-onset. In both patients, kanji agraphia was mostly due to impaired character recall.Conclusion:The present patients demonstrate that damage to the left posterior middle temporal gyrus alone can cause agraphia for kanji. If the adjacent mid fusiform/inferior temporal gyri (Area 37) are spared, the kanji alexia is transient.

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The Interaction of Lexical Semantics and Cohort Competition in Spoken Word Recognition: An fMRI Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00046 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (12) ◽

pp. 3778-3790 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Jie Zhuang ◽

Billi Randall ◽

Emmanuel A. Stamatakis ◽

William D. Marslen-Wilson ◽

Lorraine K. Tyler

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Spoken Word Recognition ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Cohort Competition ◽

Semantic Properties

Spoken word recognition involves the activation of multiple word candidates on the basis of the initial speech input—the “cohort”—and selection among these competitors. Selection may be driven primarily by bottom–up acoustic–phonetic inputs or it may be modulated by other aspects of lexical representation, such as a word's meaning [Marslen-Wilson, W. D. Functional parallelism in spoken word-recognition. Cognition, 25, 71–102, 1987]. We examined these potential interactions in an fMRI study by presenting participants with words and pseudowords for lexical decision. In a factorial design, we manipulated (a) cohort competition (high/low competitive cohorts which vary the number of competing word candidates) and (b) the word's semantic properties (high/low imageability). A previous behavioral study [Tyler, L. K., Voice, J. K., & Moss, H. E. The interaction of meaning and sound in spoken word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7, 320–326, 2000] showed that imageability facilitated word recognition but only for words in high competition cohorts. Here we found greater activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45, 47) and the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47) with increased cohort competition, an imageability effect in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus/angular gyrus (BA 39), and a significant interaction between imageability and cohort competition in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus/middle temporal gyrus (BA 21, 22). In words with high competition cohorts, high imageability words generated stronger activity than low imageability words, indicating a facilitatory role of imageability in a highly competitive cohort context. For words in low competition cohorts, there was no effect of imageability. These results support the behavioral data in showing that selection processes do not rely solely on bottom–up acoustic–phonetic cues but rather that the semantic properties of candidate words facilitate discrimination between competitors.

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Speaking in the Brain: The Interaction between Words and Syntax in Sentence Production

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01563 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (8) ◽

pp. 1466-1483

Author(s):

Atsuko Takashima ◽

Agnieszka Konopka ◽

Antje Meyer ◽

Peter Hagoort ◽

Kirsten Weber

Keyword(s):

Language Production ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Sentence Production ◽

Angular Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Temporal Region ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Sentence Level ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Language Network

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 that differed in verb argument structures (intransitives, transitives, ditransitives) and the lexical status of the verb (known verbs or pseudoverbs). The experiment consisted of 30 mini-blocks of six sentences each. Each mini-block started with an example for the type of sentence to be produced in that block. On each trial in the mini-blocks, 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 sentences with pseudoverbs in the core language network of the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, and a more posterior middle temporal region extending into the angular gyrus, analogous to effects observed in language comprehension. Increasing the number of verb arguments led to greater activation in an overlapping left posterior middle temporal gyrus/angular gyrus area, particularly for known verbs, as well as in the bilateral precuneus. Thus, producing sentences with more complex structures using existing verbs leads to increased activation in the language network, suggesting some reliance on memory retrieval of stored lexical–syntactic information during sentence production. This study thus provides evidence from sentence-level language production in line with functional models of the language network that have so far been mainly based on single-word production, comprehension, and language processing in aphasia.

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Cortical Differentiation for Nouns and Verbs Depends on Grammatical Markers

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.20095 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (8) ◽

pp. 1381-1389 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

L. K. Tyler ◽

B. Randall ◽

E. A. Stamatakis

Keyword(s):

Imaging Study ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽

Grammatical Function ◽

Function Words ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Left Posterior ◽

Linguistic Functions ◽

The Brain ◽

Role Activity

Here we address the contentious issue of how nouns and verbs are represented in the brain. The co-occurrence of noun and verb deficits with damage to different neural regions has led to the view that they are differentially represented in the brain. Recent neuroimaging evidence and inconsistent lesion–behavior associations challenge this view. We have suggested that nouns and verbs are not differentially represented in the brain, but that different patterns of neural activity are triggered by the different linguistic functions carried by nouns and verbs. We test these claims in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using homophones—words which function grammatically as nouns or verbs but have the same form and meaning—ensuring that any neural differences reflect differences in grammatical function. Words were presented as single stems and in phrases in which each homophone was preceded by an article to create a noun phrase (NP) or a pronoun to create a verb phrase (VP), thus establishing the word's functional linguistic role. Activity for single-word homophones was not modulated by their frequency of usage as a noun or verb. In contrast, homophones marked as verbs by appearing in VPs elicited greater activity in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) compared to homophones marked as nouns by occurring in NPs. Neuropsychological patients with grammatical deficits had lesions which overlapped with the greater LpMTG activity found for VPs. These results suggest that nouns and verbs do not invariably activate different neural regions; rather, differential cortical activity depends on the extent to which their different grammatical functions are engaged.

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