scholarly journals Language Processing in the Human Brain of Literate and Illiterate Subjects

2014 ◽  
pp. 1391-1400
Author(s):  
Xiujun Li ◽  
Zhenglong Lin ◽  
Jinglong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Inferior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Few Data ◽  
Naming Tasks

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET), much knowledge has been gained in understanding how the brain is activated during controlled experiments of language tasks in educated healthy subjects and in uneducated healthy subjects. While previous studies have compared performance between alphabetic subjects, few data were about Chinese-speaking individuals. In alphabetic subjects, studies indicate that the literates surpass the illiterates, especially in tasks involving phonological processing, and that different activation regions in fMRI are located between Broca's area and the inferior parietal cortex, as well as the posterior-mid-insula bridge between Wernicke's and Broca's area. In Chinese subjects, the results were shown in silent word recognition tasks (the left inferior/middle frontal gyrus and bilateral superior temporal gyri) and in silent picture-naming tasks (the bilateral inferior/middle fontal gyri and left limbic cingulated gyrus). In this study, the authors use some recent fMRI data to investigate language processing in the human brain of literate and illiterate subjects.

Language Processing in the Human Brain of Literate and Illiterate Subjects

2013 ◽  
pp. 201-209
Author(s):  
Xiujun Li ◽  
Zhenglong Lin ◽  
Jinglong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Inferior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Few Data ◽  
Naming Tasks

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET), much knowledge has been gained in understanding how the brain is activated during controlled experiments of language tasks in educated healthy subjects and in uneducated healthy subjects. While previous studies have compared performance between alphabetic subjects, few data were about Chinese-speaking individuals. In alphabetic subjects, studies indicate that the literates surpass the illiterates, especially in tasks involving phonological processing, and that different activation regions in fMRI are located between Broca’s area and the inferior parietal cortex, as well as the posterior-mid-insula bridge between Wernicke’s and Broca’s area. In Chinese subjects, the results were shown in silent word recognition tasks (the left inferior/middle frontal gyrus and bilateral superior temporal gyri) and in silent picture-naming tasks (the bilateral inferior/middle fontal gyri and left limbic cingulated gyrus). In this study, the authors use some recent fMRI data to investigate language processing in the human brain of literate and illiterate subjects.

scholarly journals Some Regions within Broca's Area Do Respond More Strongly to Sentences than to Linguistically Degraded Stimuli: A Comment on Rogalsky and Hickok ()

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2632-2635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelina Fedorenko ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Random Effects ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Review Of The Literature

On the basis of their review of the literature, Rogalsky and Hickok [Rogalsky, C., & Hickok, G. The role of Broca's area in sentence comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 1664–1680, 2011] conclude that there is currently no strong evidence for the existence of “sentence-specific processing regions within Broca's area” (p. 1664). Their argument is based, in part, on the observation that many previous studies have failed to detect an effect in the left inferior frontal regions for contrasts between sentences and linguistically degraded control conditions (e.g., lists of unconnected words, lists of nonwords, or acoustically degraded sentence stimuli). Our data largely replicate this lack of activation in inferior frontal regions when traditional random-effects group analyses are conducted but crucially show robust activations in the same data for the same contrasts in almost every subject individually. Thus, it is the use of group analyses in studies of language processing, not the idea that sentences robustly activate frontal regions, that needs to be reconsidered. This reconsideration has important methodological and theoretical implications.

scholarly journals Co-localization of Stroop and Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution in Broca's Area: Implications for the Neural Basis of Sentence Processing

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2434-2444 ◽  
Author(s):  
David January ◽  
John C. Trueswell ◽  
Sharon L. Thompson-Schill
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Control Processes

For over a century, a link between left prefrontal cortex and language processing has been accepted, yet the precise characterization of this link remains elusive. Recent advances in both the study of sentence processing and the neuroscientific study of frontal lobe function suggest an intriguing possibility: The demands to resolve competition between incompatible characterizations of a linguistic stimulus may recruit top–down cognitive control processes mediated by prefrontal cortex. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that individuals use shared prefrontal neural circuitry during two very different tasks—color identification under Stroop conflict and sentence comprehension under conditions of syntactic ambiguity—both of which putatively rely on cognitive control processes. We report the first demonstration of within-subject overlap in neural responses to syntactic and nonsyntactic conflict. These findings serve to clarify the role of Broca's area in, and the neural and psychological organization of, the language processing system.

scholarly journals Towards a causal role of Broca's area in language: A TMS-EEG study on syntactic prediction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Maran ◽  
Ole Numssen ◽  
Gesa Hartwigsen ◽  
Angela D. Friederici ◽  
Emiliano Zaccarella
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Predictive Mechanisms

Categorical predictions have been proposed as the key mechanism supporting the fast pace of syntactic composition in human language. Accordingly, grammar-based expectations facilitate the analysis of incoming syntactic information - e.g., hearing the determiner 'the' enhances the prediction of a noun - which is then checked against a single or few other word categories. Previous functional neuroimaging studies point towards Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) as one fundamental cortical region involved in categorical prediction during on-line language processing. Causal evidence for this hypothesis is however still missing. In this study, we combined Electroencephalography (EEG) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to test whether Broca's area is functionally relevant in predictive mechanisms for language. Specifically, we transiently perturbed Broca's area during the categorical prediction phase in two-word constructions, while simultaneously measuring the Event-Related Potential (ERP) correlates of syntactic composition. We reasoned that if Broca's area is involved in predictive mechanisms for syntax, disruptive TMS during the processing of the first word (determiner/pronoun) would mitigate the difference in ERP responses for predicted and unpredicted categories when composing basic phrases and sentences. Contrary to our hypothesis, perturbation of Broca's area at the predictive stage did not affect the ERP correlates of basic composition. The correlation strength between the electrical field induced by TMS and the magnitude of the EEG response on the scalp further confirmed this pattern. We discuss the present results in light of an alternative account of the role of Broca's area in syntactic composition, namely the bottom-up integration of words into constituents.

Where and how does grammatically geared processing take place—and why is Broca’s area often involved. A coordinated fMRI/ERBP study of language processing

2004 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Dogil ◽  
Inga Frese ◽  
Hubert Haider ◽  
Dietmar Röhm ◽  
Wolfgang Wokurek
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area

The syntactic motor system

Gesture ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice C. Roy ◽  
Michael A. Arbib
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Manual Dexterity ◽  
Mirror System ◽  
Hand Movements ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Motor Theory ◽  
Sentential Form

The human brain has mechanisms that can support production and perception of language. We ground the evolution of these mechanisms in primate systems that support manual dexterity, especially the mirror system that integrates execution and observation of hand movements. We relate the motor theory of speech perception to the mirror system hypothesis for language and evolution; explore links between manual actions and speech; contrast “language” in apes with language in humans; show in what sense the “syntax” implemented in Broca’s area is a “motor syntax” far more general than the syntax of linguistics; and relate communicative goals to sentential form.

A Role for Broca’s Area Beyond Language Processing: Evidence from Neuropsychology and fMRI

2006 ◽  
pp. 254-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gereon R. Fink ◽  
Zina M. Manjaly ◽  
Klaas E. Stephan ◽  
Jennifer M. Gurd ◽  
Karl Zilles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area

Effects of Syntactic Structure and Propositional Number on Patterns of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Caplan ◽  
Nathaniel Alpert ◽  
Gloria Waters
Keyword(s):  
Blood Flow ◽  
Cerebral Blood Flow ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Regional Cerebral Blood Flow ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Association Cortex ◽  
Broca’S Area ◽  
Broca's Area ◽  
Regional Cerebral Blood ◽  
Syntactic Form

Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to determine regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as a function of the syntactic form and propositional density of sentences. rCBF increased in the left pars opercularis, part of Broca's area, when subjects processed syntactically more complex sentences. There were no differences in rCBF in the perisylvian association cortex traditionally associated with language processing when subjects made plausibility judgments about sentences with two propositions as compared to sentences with one proposition, but rCBF increased in infero-posterior brain regions. These results suggest that there is a specialization of neural tissue in Broca's area for constructing aspects of the syntactic form of sentences to determine sentence meaning. They also suggest that this specialization is separate from the brain systems that are involved in utilizing the meaning of a sentence that has been understood to accomplish a task.

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