Are nonlinguistic functions in “Broca’s area” prerequisites for language acquisition? FMRI findings from an ontogenetic viewpoint
Section snippets
Where?
“Broca’s area” has been traditionally considered a language area, usually with the assumption of a specific or even exclusive linguistic involvement. More recent evidence, which will be discussed in this paper, has undermined this functionally narrow characterization. However, an area’s functional roles cannot be determined unless there is a clear anatomical delineation. Unfortunately, consensus with regard to “Broca’s area” is incomplete. Broca (1861, p352f) described damage in his landmark
Methods
Nine subjects (4 female, 5 male) aged 21–30 years participated in the semantic decision study. Seven of these subjects (4 female, 3 male) also participated in the tone discrimination study. A separate group of 7 men aged 23–46 years participated in the visuomotor study. All subjects were right-handed native speakers of English with no history of developmental, psychiatric, or neurologic disorders.
MR scanning was performed on a GE Signa 1.5 T system using a custom-made headcoil. Echo-planar
Results
For semantic decision, activation clusters were found in the superior frontal lobe (areas 8 and 9), the middle and superior temporal gyri (areas 21 and 22), and the inferior and middle frontal gyri (areas 44–46). Tone discrimination was associated with bilateral activation in the superior and middle temporal gyri (areas 22 and 21), the inferior frontal gyri (areas 44 and 45) and the medial frontal lobe (area 6). For visuomotor learning, activation was identified in bilateral supplementary
Discussion: How, when, and why is “Broca’s area”?
Our findings corroborate that area 44 of the left hemisphere, arguably the core of “Broca’s area,” participates in a great diversity of cognitive functions even beyond the language domain, consistent with previous large-scale reviews (Cabeza & Nyberg, 2000). What could explain left inferior frontal activation in diverse cognitive and perceptuo-motor domains? One possibility concerns the limited spatial resolution in fMRI. Left inferior frontal cortex might contain neuron groups with unrelated
Acknowledgments
Supported by the National Institutes of Health (1R01-NS43999, 1R01-DC6155). Thanks to Liz Bates for support and inspiration.
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