Embodied Comprehension of Stories: Interactions between Language Regions and Modality-specific Neural Systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Ming Chow ◽  
Raymond A. Mar ◽  
Yisheng Xu ◽  
Siyuan Liu ◽  
Suraji Wagage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Story Comprehension ◽  
Story Content ◽  
Visual Spatial

The embodied view of language processing proposes that comprehension involves multimodal simulations, a process that retrieves a comprehender's perceptual, motor, and affective knowledge through reactivation of the neural systems responsible for perception, action, and emotion. Although evidence in support of this idea is growing, the contemporary neuroanatomical model of language suggests that comprehension largely emerges as a result of interactions between frontotemporal language areas in the left hemisphere. If modality-specific neural systems are involved in comprehension, they are not likely to operate in isolation but should interact with the brain regions critical to language processing. However, little is known about the ways in which language and modality-specific neural systems interact. To investigate this issue, we conducted a functional MRI study in which participants listened to stories that contained visually vivid, action-based, and emotionally charged content. Activity of neural systems associated with visual-spatial, motor, and affective processing were selectively modulated by the relevant story content. Importantly, when functional connectivity patterns associated with the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), and the bilateral anterior temporal lobes (aTL) were compared, both LIFG and pMTG, but not the aTL, showed enhanced connectivity with the three modality-specific systems relevant to the story content. Taken together, our results suggest that language regions are engaged in perceptual, motor, and affective simulations of the described situation, which manifest through their interactions with modality-specific systems. On the basis of our results and past research, we propose that the LIFG and pMTG play unique roles in multimodal simulations during story comprehension.

scholarly journals Functional Neuroanatomy of Meaning Acquisition from Context

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 2153-2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mestres-Missé ◽  
Estela Càmara ◽  
Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells ◽  
Michael Rotte ◽  
Thomas F. Münte
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Subcortical Structures ◽  
The Brain

An important issue in language learning is how new words are integrated in the brain representations that sustain language processing. To identify the brain regions involved in meaning acquisition and word learning, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Young participants were required to deduce the meaning of a novel word presented within increasingly constrained sentence contexts that were read silently during the scanning session. Inconsistent contexts were also presented in which no meaning could be assigned to the novel word. Participants showed meaning acquisition in the consistent but not in the inconsistent condition. A distributed brain network was identified comprising the left anterior inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45), the middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), the parahippocampal gyrus, and several subcortical structures (the thalamus and the striatum). Drawing on previous neuroimaging evidence, we tentatively identify the roles of these brain areas in the retrieval, selection, and encoding of the meaning.

Humor Comprehension and Appreciation: An fMRI Study

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 1789-1798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Bartolo ◽  
Francesca Benuzzi ◽  
Luca Nocetti ◽  
Patrizia Baraldi ◽  
Paolo Nichelli
Keyword(s):  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Lesion ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
The Right

Humor is a unique ability in human beings. Suls [A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons. In P. E. Goldstein & J. H. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humour. Theoretical perspectives and empirical issues. New York: Academic Press, 1972, pp. 81–100] proposed a two-stage model of humor: detection and resolution of incongruity. Incongruity is generated when a prediction is not confirmed in the final part of a story. To comprehend humor, it is necessary to revisit the story, transforming an incongruous situation into a funny, congruous one. Patient and neuroimaging studies carried out until now lead to different outcomes. In particular, patient studies found that right brain-lesion patients have difficulties in humor comprehension, whereas neuroimaging studies suggested a major involvement of the left hemisphere in both humor detection and comprehension. To prevent activation of the left hemisphere due to language processing, we devised a nonverbal task comprising cartoon pairs. Our findings demonstrate activation of both the left and the right hemispheres when comparing funny versus nonfunny cartoons. In particular, we found activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47), the left superior temporal gyrus (BA 38), the left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), and the left cerebellum. These areas were also activated in a nonverbal task exploring attribution of intention [Brunet, E., Sarfati, Y., Hardy-Bayle, M. C., & Decety, J. A PET investigation of the attribution of intentions with a nonverbal task. Neuroimage, 11, 157–166, 2000]. We hypothesize that the resolution of incongruity might occur through a process of intention attribution. We also asked subjects to rate the funniness of each cartoon pair. A parametric analysis showed that the left amygdala was activated in relation to subjective amusement. We hypothesize that the amygdala plays a key role in giving humor an emotional dimension.

scholarly journals Brain Activation of College Students in China With Premenstrual Syndrome Localized by BOLD-fMRI

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongmei Gao ◽  
Mingzhou Gao ◽  
Li An ◽  
Yanhong Yu ◽  
Jieqiong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Premenstrual Syndrome ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Lobe ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Cerebellar Tonsil ◽  
Bold Fmri ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Background: Most studies on the mechanism behind premenstrual syndrome (PMS) have focused on fluctuating hormones, but little evidence exists regarding functional abnormalities in the affected brain regions of college students. Thus, the aim of this study is to localize PMS's abnormal brain regions by BOLD-fMRI in college students.Methods: Thirteen PMS patients and fifteen healthy control (HC) subjects underwent a BOLD-fMRI scan during the luteal phase induced by depressive emotion pictures. The BOLD-fMRI data were processed by SPM 8 software and rest software based on MATLAB platform. Each cluster volume threshold (cluster) was greater than 389 continuous voxels, and the brain area with single voxel threshold P < 0.05 (after correction) was defined as the area with a significant difference. The emotion report form and the instruction implementation checklist were used to evaluate the emotion induced by picture.Results: Compared to the HC, right inferior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, right lingual gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, cerebelum_crus1_R，cerebelum_6_R, culmen, the cerebellum anterior lobe, tuber, cerebellar tonsil of PMS patients were enhanced activation. Sub-lobar，sub-gyral，extra-nuclear，right orbit part of superior frontal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, right Orbit part of inferior frontal gyrus, limbic lobe, right insula, bilateral anterior and adjacent cingulate gyrus, bilateral caudate, caudate head, bilateral putamen, left globus pallidus were decreased activation.Conclusion: Our findings may improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in PMS.

scholarly journals Imagining Sounds and Images: Decoding the Contribution of Unimodal and Transmodal Brain Regions to Semantic Retrieval in the Absence of Meaningful Input

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1599-1616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Murphy ◽  
Shirley-Ann Rueschemeyer ◽  
Jonathan Smallwood ◽  
Elizabeth Jefferies
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
External Input ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Auditory Features

In the absence of sensory information, we can generate meaningful images and sounds from representations in memory. However, it remains unclear which neural systems underpin this process and whether tasks requiring the top–down generation of different kinds of features recruit similar or different neural networks. We asked people to internally generate the visual and auditory features of objects, either in isolation (car, dog) or in specific and complex meaning-based contexts (car/dog race). Using an fMRI decoding approach, in conjunction with functional connectivity analysis, we examined the role of auditory/visual cortex and transmodal brain regions. Conceptual retrieval in the absence of external input recruited sensory and transmodal cortex. The response in transmodal regions—including anterior middle temporal gyrus—was of equal magnitude for visual and auditory features yet nevertheless captured modality information in the pattern of response across voxels. In contrast, sensory regions showed greater activation for modality-relevant features in imagination (even when external inputs did not differ). These data are consistent with the view that transmodal regions support internally generated experiences and that they play a role in integrating perceptual features encoded in memory.

scholarly journals The neural bases of program comprehension: a coordinate-based fMRI meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiharu Ikutani ◽  
Takeshi D. Itoh ◽  
Takatomi Kubo
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Program Comprehension ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Neural Bases ◽  
Kernel Density Analysis

AbstractThe understanding of brain activity during program comprehension have advanced thanks to noninvasive neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, individual neuroimaging studies of program comprehension often provided inconsistent results and made it difficult to identify the neural bases. To identify the essential brain regions, this study performed a small meta-analysis on recent fMRI studies of program comprehension using multilevel kernel density analysis (MKDA). Our analysis identified a set of brain regions consistently activated in various program comprehension tasks. These regions consisted of three clusters, each of which centered at the left inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis (IFG Tri), posterior part of middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Additionally, subsequent analyses revealed relationships among the activation patterns in the previous studies and multiple cognitive functions. These findings suggest that program comprehension mainly recycles the language-related networks and partially employs other domain-general resources in the human brain.

scholarly journals Parental education is associated with differential engagement of neural pathways during inhibitory control

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher N. Cascio ◽  
Nina Lauharatanahirun ◽  
Gwendolyn M. Lawson ◽  
Martha J. Farah ◽  
Emily B. Falk
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Performance Differences ◽  
Education Performance

AbstractResponse inhibition and socioeconomic status (SES) are critical predictors of many important outcomes, including educational attainment and health. The current study extends our understanding of SES and cognition by examining brain activity associated with response inhibition, during the key developmental period of adolescence. Adolescent males (N = 81), aged 16–17, completed a response inhibition task while undergoing fMRI brain imaging and reported on their parents’ education, one component of socioeconomic status. A region of interest analysis showed that parental education was associated with brain activation differences in the classic response inhibition network (right inferior frontal gyrus + subthalamic nucleus + globus pallidus) despite the absence of consistent parental education-performance effects. Further, although activity in our main regions of interest was not associated with performance differences, several regions that were associated with better inhibitory performance (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, amygdala/hippocampus) also differed in their levels of activation according to parental education. Taken together, these results suggest that individuals from households with higher versus lower parental education engage key brain regions involved in response inhibition to differing degrees, though these differences may not translate into performance differences.

scholarly journals Neural Representation of Articulable and Inarticulable Novel Sound Contrasts: The Role of the Dorsal Stream

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-364
Author(s):  
David I. Saltzman ◽  
Emily B. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Dorsal Stream ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

The extent that articulatory information embedded in incoming speech contributes to the formation of new perceptual categories for speech sounds has been a matter of discourse for decades. It has been theorized that the acquisition of new speech sound categories requires a network of sensory and speech motor cortical areas (the “dorsal stream”) to successfully integrate auditory and articulatory information. However, it is possible that these brain regions are not sensitive specifically to articulatory information, but instead are sensitive to the abstract phonological categories being learned. We tested this hypothesis by training participants over the course of several days on an articulable non-native speech contrast and acoustically matched inarticulable nonspeech analogues. After reaching comparable levels of proficiency with the two sets of stimuli, activation was measured in fMRI as participants passively listened to both sound types. Decoding of category membership for the articulable speech contrast alone revealed a series of left and right hemisphere regions outside of the dorsal stream that have previously been implicated in the emergence of non-native speech sound categories, while no regions could successfully decode the inarticulable nonspeech contrast. Although activation patterns in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, and the supplementary motor area provided better information for decoding articulable (speech) sounds compared to the inarticulable (sine wave) sounds, the finding that dorsal stream regions do not emerge as good decoders of the articulable contrast alone suggests that other factors, including the strength and structure of the emerging speech categories are more likely drivers of dorsal stream activation for novel sound learning.

Is Morality Unified? Evidence that Distinct Neural Systems Underlie Moral Judgments of Harm, Dishonesty, and Disgust

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 3162-3180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Parkinson ◽  
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong ◽  
Philipp E. Koralus ◽  
Angela Mendelovici ◽  
Victoria McGeer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
General Role ◽  
Moral Decisions ◽  
Sexual Disgust ◽  
Medial Pfc

Much recent research has sought to uncover the neural basis of moral judgment. However, it has remained unclear whether “moral judgments” are sufficiently homogenous to be studied scientifically as a unified category. We tested this assumption by using fMRI to examine the neural correlates of moral judgments within three moral areas: (physical) harm, dishonesty, and (sexual) disgust. We found that the judgment of moral wrongness was subserved by distinct neural systems for each of the different moral areas and that these differences were much more robust than differences in wrongness judgments within a moral area. Dishonest, disgusting, and harmful moral transgression recruited networks of brain regions associated with mentalizing, affective processing, and action understanding, respectively. Dorsal medial pFC was the only region activated by all scenarios judged to be morally wrong in comparison with neutral scenarios. However, this region was also activated by dishonest and harmful scenarios judged not to be morally wrong, suggestive of a domain-general role that is neither peculiar to nor predictive of moral decisions. These results suggest that moral judgment is not a wholly unified faculty in the human brain, but rather, instantiated in dissociable neural systems that are engaged differentially depending on the type of transgression being judged.

scholarly journals Unification of Speaker and Meaning in Language Comprehension: An fMRI Study

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2085-2099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathelijne M. J. Y. Tesink ◽  
Karl Magnus Petersson ◽  
Jos J. A. van Berkum ◽  
Daniëlle van den Brink ◽  
Jan K. Buitelaar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Crucial Component

When interpreting a message, a listener takes into account several sources of linguistic and extralinguistic information. Here we focused on one particular form of extralinguistic information, certain speaker characteristics as conveyed by the voice. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the neural structures involved in the unification of sentence meaning and voice-based inferences about the speaker's age, sex, or social background. We found enhanced activation in the inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally (BA 45/47) during listening to sentences whose meaning was incongruent with inferred speaker characteristics. Furthermore, our results showed an overlap in brain regions involved in unification of speaker-related information and those used for the unification of semantic and world knowledge information [inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally (BA 45/47) and left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21)]. These findings provide evidence for a shared neural unification system for linguistic and extralinguistic sources of information and extend the existing knowledge about the role of inferior frontal cortex as a crucial component for unification during language comprehension.

scholarly journals A double dissociation in sensitivity to verb and noun semantics across cortical networks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia V. Elli ◽  
Connor Lane ◽  
Marina Bedny
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Light Emission ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Cortical Networks ◽  
Multivoxel Pattern Analysis ◽  
Double Dissociation ◽  
Neural Organization ◽  
Left Posterior

AbstractWhat is the neural organization of the mental lexicon? Previous research suggests that partially distinct cortical networks are active during verb and noun processing. Are these networks preferentially involved in representing the meanings of verbs as opposed to nouns? We used multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate whether brain regions that are more active during verb than noun processing are also more sensitive to distinctions among their preferred lexical class. Participants heard four types of verbs (light emission, sound emission, hand-related actions, mouth-related actions) and four types of nouns (birds, mammals, manmade places, natural places). As previously shown, the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) responded more to verbs, whereas areas in the inferior parietal lobule (LIP), precuneus (LPC), and inferior temporal (LIT) cortex responded more to nouns. MVPA revealed a double-dissociation in semantic sensitivity: classification was more accurate among verbs than nouns in the LMTG, and among nouns than verbs in the LIP, LPC, and LIT. However, classification was similar for verbs and nouns in the LIFG, and above chance for the non-preferred category in all regions. These results suggest that the meanings of verbs and nouns are represented in partially non-overlapping networks.

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