Activity in the paracingulate and cingulate sulci during word generation: an fMRI study of functional anatomy. Cereb Cortex 1999 Jun;9(4):307-16
Date
07/30/1999Pubmed ID
10426410DOI
10.1093/cercor/9.4.307Scopus ID
2-s2.0-17444376387 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 112 CitationsAbstract
The supracallosal medial frontal cortex can be divided into three functional domains: a ventral region with connections to the limbic system, an anterior dorsal region with connections to lateral prefrontal systems, and a posterior dorsal region with connections to lateral motor systems. Lesion and functional imaging studies implicate this medial frontal cortex in speech and language generation. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of word generation was designed to determine which of these three functional domains was substantially involved by mapping individual subjects' functional activity onto structural images of their left medial frontal cortex. Of 28 neurologically normal right-handed participants, 21 demonstrated a prominent paracingu- late sulcus (PCS), which lies in the anterior dorsal region with connections to lateral prefrontal systems. Activity increases for word generation centered in the PCS in 18 of these 21 cases. The posterior dorsal region also demonstrated significant activity in a majority of participants (16/28 cases). Activity rarely extended into the cingulate sulcus (CS) (3/21 cases) when there was a prominent PCS. If there was no prominent PCS, however, activity did extend into the CS (6/7 cases). In no case was activity present on the crest of the cingulate gyrus, which is heavily connected to the limbic system. Thus, current findings suggest that medial frontal activity during word generation reflects cognitive and motor rather than limbic system participation. The current study demonstrates that suitably designed fMRI studies can be used to determine the functional significance of anatomic variants in human cortex.
Author List
Crosson B, Sadek JR, Bobholz JA, Gökçay D, Mohr CM, Leonard CM, Maron L, Auerbach EJ, Browd SR, Freeman AJ, Briggs RWMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultCerebrovascular Circulation
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Prefrontal Cortex
Speech