Faculty Collaboration Database

Role of anterior temporal cortex in auditory sentence comprehension: an fMRI study. Neuroreport 2001 Jun 13;12(8):1749-52

Date

06/21/2001

Pubmed ID

11409752

DOI

10.1097/00001756-200106130-00046

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0035854096 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   184 Citations

Abstract

Recent neuropsychological and functional imaging evidence has suggested a role for anterior temporal cortex in sentence-level comprehension. We explored this hypothesis using event-related fMRI. Subjects were scanned while they listened to either a sequence of environmental sounds describing an event or a corresponding sentence matched as closely as possible in meaning. Both types of stimuli required subjects to integrate auditory information over time to derive a similar meaning, but differ in the processing mechanisms leading to the integration of that information, with speech input requiring syntactic mechanisms and environmental sounds utilizing non-linguistic mechanisms. Consistent with recent claims, sentences produced greater activation than environmental sounds in anterior superior temporal lobe bilaterally. A similar speech > sound activation pattern was noted also in posterior superior temporal regions in the left. Envirornmental sounds produced greater activation than sentences in right inferior frontal gyrus. The results provide support for the view that anterior temporal cortex plays an important role in sentence-level comprehension.

Author List

Humphries C, Willard K, Buchsbaum B, Hickok G

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Dominance, Cerebral
Environment
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mental Processes
Sound
Speech Perception
Temporal Lobe