Faculty Collaboration Database

Late dominance of the right hemisphere during narrative comprehension. Neuroimage 2022 Dec 01;264:119749

Date

11/16/2022

Pubmed ID

36379420

Pubmed Central ID

PMC9772156

DOI

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119749

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85141915479 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   2 Citations

Abstract

PET and fMRI studies suggest that auditory narrative comprehension is supported by a bilateral multilobar cortical network. The superior temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) makes it an attractive tool to investigate the dynamics of how different neuroanatomic substrates engage during narrative comprehension. Using beta-band power changes as a marker of cortical engagement, we studied MEG responses during an auditory story comprehension task in 31 healthy adults. The protocol consisted of two runs, each interleaving 7 blocks of the story comprehension task with 15 blocks of an auditorily presented math task as a control for phonological processing, working memory, and attention processes. Sources at the cortical surface were estimated with a frequency-resolved beamformer. Beta-band power was estimated in the frequency range of 16-24 Hz over 1-sec epochs starting from 400 msec after stimulus onset until the end of a story or math problem presentation. These power estimates were compared to 1-second epochs of data before the stimulus block onset. The task-related cortical engagement was inferred from beta-band power decrements. Group-level source activations were statistically compared using non-parametric permutation testing. A story-math contrast of beta-band power changes showed greater bilateral cortical engagement within the fusiform gyrus, inferior and middle temporal gyri, parahippocampal gyrus, and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during story comprehension. A math-story contrast of beta power decrements showed greater bilateral but left-lateralized engagement of the middle frontal gyrus and superior parietal lobule. The evolution of cortical engagement during five temporal windows across the presentation of stories showed significant involvement during the first interval of the narrative of bilateral opercular and insular regions as well as the ventral and lateral temporal cortex, extending more posteriorly on the left and medially on the right. Over time, there continued to be sustained right anterior ventral temporal engagement, with increasing involvement of the right anterior parahippocampal gyrus, STG, MTG, posterior superior temporal sulcus, inferior parietal lobule, frontal operculum, and insula, while left hemisphere engagement decreased. Our findings are consistent with prior imaging studies of narrative comprehension, but in addition, they demonstrate increasing right-lateralized engagement over the course of narratives, suggesting an important role for these right-hemispheric regions in semantic integration as well as social and pragmatic inference processing.

Author List

Youssofzadeh V, Conant L, Stout J, Ustine C, Humphries C, Gross WL, Shah-Basak P, Mathis J, Awe E, Allen L, DeYoe EA, Carlson C, Anderson CT, Maganti R, Hermann B, Nair VA, Prabhakaran V, Meyerand B, Binder JR, Raghavan M

Authors

Jeffrey R. Binder MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Chad Carlson MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
William Gross MD, PhD Assistant Professor in the Anesthesiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Manoj Raghavan MD, PhD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Priyanka P. Shah PhD Assistant Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Vahab Youssofzadeh PhD Assistant Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

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

Adult
Brain Mapping
Comprehension
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetoencephalography
Temporal Lobe