1
|
Wang F, Lu X, Chen X, Wang Q, Li Q, Li H. Connectivity Reveals the Relationships between Human Brain Areas Associated with High-Level Linguistic Processing and Macaque Brain Areas. Tomography 2024; 10:1089-1098. [PMID: 39058054 PMCID: PMC11280774 DOI: 10.3390/tomography10070082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2024] [Revised: 06/14/2024] [Accepted: 07/04/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Cross-species research has advanced human understanding of brain regions, with cross-species comparisons using magnetic resonance imaging technology becoming increasingly common. Currently, cross-species research on human language regions has primarily focused on traditional brain areas such as the Broca region. While some studies have indicated that human language function also involves other language regions, the corresponding relationships between these brain regions in humans and macaques remain unclear. This study calculated the strength of the connections between the high-level language processing regions in human and macaque brains, identified homologous target areas based on the structural connections of white-matter fiber bundles, and compared the connectivity profiles of both species. The results of the experiment demonstrated that macaques possess brain regions which exhibit connectivity patterns resembling those found in human high-level language processing regions. This discovery suggests that while the function of a human brain region is specialized, it still maintains a structural connectivity similar to that seen in macaques.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fangyuan Wang
- School of Computer Information Engineering, Shanxi Technology and Business University, Taiyuan 030024, China; (F.W.); (X.L.)
| | - Xiaohua Lu
- School of Computer Information Engineering, Shanxi Technology and Business University, Taiyuan 030024, China; (F.W.); (X.L.)
| | - Xiaofeng Chen
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China; (X.C.); (Q.W.); (Q.L.)
| | - Qianshan Wang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China; (X.C.); (Q.W.); (Q.L.)
| | - Qi Li
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China; (X.C.); (Q.W.); (Q.L.)
| | - Haifang Li
- School of Computer Information Engineering, Shanxi Technology and Business University, Taiyuan 030024, China; (F.W.); (X.L.)
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China; (X.C.); (Q.W.); (Q.L.)
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Kauf C, Kim HS, Lee EJ, Jhingan N, Selena She J, Taliaferro M, Gibson E, Fedorenko E. Linguistic inputs must be syntactically parsable to fully engage the language network. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.06.21.599332. [PMID: 38948870 PMCID: PMC11212959 DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.21.599332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/02/2024]
Abstract
Human language comprehension is remarkably robust to ill-formed inputs (e.g., word transpositions). This robustness has led some to argue that syntactic parsing is largely an illusion, and that incremental comprehension is more heuristic, shallow, and semantics-based than is often assumed. However, the available data are also consistent with the possibility that humans always perform rule-like symbolic parsing and simply deploy error correction mechanisms to reconstruct ill-formed inputs when needed. We put these hypotheses to a new stringent test by examining brain responses to a) stimuli that should pose a challenge for syntactic reconstruction but allow for complex meanings to be built within local contexts through associative/shallow processing (sentences presented in a backward word order), and b) grammatically well-formed but semantically implausible sentences that should impede semantics-based heuristic processing. Using a novel behavioral syntactic reconstruction paradigm, we demonstrate that backward-presented sentences indeed impede the recovery of grammatical structure during incremental comprehension. Critically, these backward-presented stimuli elicit a relatively low response in the language areas, as measured with fMRI. In contrast, semantically implausible but grammatically well-formed sentences elicit a response in the language areas similar in magnitude to naturalistic (plausible) sentences. In other words, the ability to build syntactic structures during incremental language processing is both necessary and sufficient to fully engage the language network. Taken together, these results provide strongest to date support for a generalized reliance of human language comprehension on syntactic parsing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carina Kauf
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
| | - Hee So Kim
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
| | - Elizabeth J. Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
| | - Niharika Jhingan
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
| | - Jingyuan Selena She
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
| | - Maya Taliaferro
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10012 USA
| | - Edward Gibson
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
- The Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Ozernov-Palchik O, O’Brien AM, Jiachen Lee E, Richardson H, Romeo R, Lipkin B, Small H, Capella J, Nieto-Castañón A, Saxe R, Gabrieli JDE, Fedorenko E. Precision fMRI reveals that the language network exhibits adult-like left-hemispheric lateralization by 4 years of age. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.15.594172. [PMID: 38798360 PMCID: PMC11118489 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.15.594172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Left hemisphere damage in adulthood often leads to linguistic deficits, but many cases of early damage leave linguistic processing preserved, and a functional language system can develop in the right hemisphere. To explain this early apparent equipotentiality of the two hemispheres for language, some have proposed that the language system is bilateral during early development and only becomes left-lateralized with age. We examined language lateralization using functional magnetic resonance imaging with two large pediatric cohorts (total n=273 children ages 4-16; n=107 adults). Strong, adult-level left-hemispheric lateralization (in activation volume and response magnitude) was evident by age 4. Thus, although the right hemisphere can take over language function in some cases of early brain damage, and although some features of the language system do show protracted development (magnitude of language response and strength of inter-regional correlations in the language network), the left-hemisphere bias for language is robustly present by 4 years of age. These results call for alternative accounts of early equipotentiality of the two hemispheres for language.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ola Ozernov-Palchik
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Amanda M. O’Brien
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
| | - Elizabeth Jiachen Lee
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Hilary Richardson
- School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, United Kingdom
| | - Rachel Romeo
- Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
| | - Benjamin Lipkin
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Hannah Small
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
| | - Jimmy Capella
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
| | | | - Rebecca Saxe
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Sueoka Y, Paunov A, Tanner A, Blank IA, Ivanova A, Fedorenko E. The Language Network Reliably "Tracks" Naturalistic Meaningful Nonverbal Stimuli. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2024; 5:385-408. [PMID: 38911462 PMCID: PMC11192443 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 06/25/2024]
Abstract
The language network, comprised of brain regions in the left frontal and temporal cortex, responds robustly and reliably during language comprehension but shows little or no response during many nonlinguistic cognitive tasks (e.g., Fedorenko & Blank, 2020). However, one domain whose relationship with language remains debated is semantics-our conceptual knowledge of the world. Given that the language network responds strongly to meaningful linguistic stimuli, could some of this response be driven by the presence of rich conceptual representations encoded in linguistic inputs? In this study, we used a naturalistic cognition paradigm to test whether the cognitive and neural resources that are responsible for language processing are also recruited for processing semantically rich nonverbal stimuli. To do so, we measured BOLD responses to a set of ∼5-minute-long video and audio clips that consisted of meaningful event sequences but did not contain any linguistic content. We then used the intersubject correlation (ISC) approach (Hasson et al., 2004) to examine the extent to which the language network "tracks" these stimuli, that is, exhibits stimulus-related variation. Across all the regions of the language network, meaningful nonverbal stimuli elicited reliable ISCs. These ISCs were higher than the ISCs elicited by semantically impoverished nonverbal stimuli (e.g., a music clip), but substantially lower than the ISCs elicited by linguistic stimuli. Our results complement earlier findings from controlled experiments (e.g., Ivanova et al., 2021) in providing further evidence that the language network shows some sensitivity to semantic content in nonverbal stimuli.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yotaro Sueoka
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Instititute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Alexander Paunov
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Instititute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Instititute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin center, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Alyx Tanner
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Instititute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Idan A. Blank
- Department of Psychology and Linguistics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Anna Ivanova
- School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Instititute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Instititute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Program in Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Fedorenko E, Ivanova AA, Regev TI. The language network as a natural kind within the broader landscape of the human brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 2024; 25:289-312. [PMID: 38609551 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00802-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024]
Abstract
Language behaviour is complex, but neuroscientific evidence disentangles it into distinct components supported by dedicated brain areas or networks. In this Review, we describe the 'core' language network, which includes left-hemisphere frontal and temporal areas, and show that it is strongly interconnected, independent of input and output modalities, causally important for language and language-selective. We discuss evidence that this language network plausibly stores language knowledge and supports core linguistic computations related to accessing words and constructions from memory and combining them to interpret (decode) or generate (encode) linguistic messages. We emphasize that the language network works closely with, but is distinct from, both lower-level - perceptual and motor - mechanisms and higher-level systems of knowledge and reasoning. The perceptual and motor mechanisms process linguistic signals, but, in contrast to the language network, are sensitive only to these signals' surface properties, not their meanings; the systems of knowledge and reasoning (such as the system that supports social reasoning) are sometimes engaged during language use but are not language-selective. This Review lays a foundation both for in-depth investigations of these different components of the language processing pipeline and for probing inter-component interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Evelina Fedorenko
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- The Program in Speech and Hearing in Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Anna A Ivanova
- School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Tamar I Regev
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Malik-Moraleda S, Jouravlev O, Taliaferro M, Mineroff Z, Cucu T, Mahowald K, Blank IA, Fedorenko E. Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae049. [PMID: 38466812 PMCID: PMC10928488 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 01/25/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
How do polyglots-individuals who speak five or more languages-process their languages, and what can this population tell us about the language system? Using fMRI, we identified the language network in each of 34 polyglots (including 16 hyperpolyglots with knowledge of 10+ languages) and examined its response to the native language, non-native languages of varying proficiency, and unfamiliar languages. All language conditions engaged all areas of the language network relative to a control condition. Languages that participants rated as higher proficiency elicited stronger responses, except for the native language, which elicited a similar or lower response than a non-native language of similar proficiency. Furthermore, unfamiliar languages that were typologically related to the participants' high-to-moderate-proficiency languages elicited a stronger response than unfamiliar unrelated languages. The results suggest that the language network's response magnitude scales with the degree of engagement of linguistic computations (e.g. related to lexical access and syntactic-structure building). We also replicated a prior finding of weaker responses to native language in polyglots than non-polyglot bilinguals. These results contribute to our understanding of how multiple languages coexist within a single brain and provide new evidence that the language network responds more strongly to stimuli that more fully engage linguistic computations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Saima Malik-Moraleda
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02114, United States
| | - Olessia Jouravlev
- Department of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa K1S 5B6, Canada
| | - Maya Taliaferro
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Zachary Mineroff
- Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15289, United States
| | - Theodore Cucu
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15289, United States
| | - Kyle Mahowald
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, United States
| | - Idan A Blank
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02114, United States
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Malik-Moraleda S, Jouravlev O, Taliaferro M, Mineroff Z, Cucu T, Mahowald K, Blank IA, Fedorenko E. Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.01.19.524657. [PMID: 36711949 PMCID: PMC9882290 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.19.524657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
How do polyglots-individuals who speak five or more languages-process their languages, and what can this population tell us about the language system? Using fMRI, we identified the language network in each of 34 polyglots (including 16 hyperpolyglots with knowledge of 10+ languages) and examined its response to the native language, non-native languages of varying proficiency, and unfamiliar languages. All language conditions engaged all areas of the language network relative to a control condition. Languages that participants rated as higher-proficiency elicited stronger responses, except for the native language, which elicited a similar or lower response than a non-native language of similar proficiency. Furthermore, unfamiliar languages that were typologically related to the participants' high-to-moderate-proficiency languages elicited a stronger response than unfamiliar unrelated languages. The results suggest that the language network's response magnitude scales with the degree of engagement of linguistic computations (e.g., related to lexical access and syntactic-structure building). We also replicated a prior finding of weaker responses to native language in polyglots than non-polyglot bilinguals. These results contribute to our understanding of how multiple languages co-exist within a single brain and provide new evidence that the language network responds more strongly to stimuli that more fully engage linguistic computations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Saima Malik-Moraleda
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02114
| | - Olessia Jouravlev
- Department of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, K1S 5B6
| | - Maya Taliaferro
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | | | - Theodore Cucu
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15289
| | - Kyle Mahowald
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
| | - Idan A. Blank
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02114
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Olson HA, Chen EM, Lydic KO, Saxe RR. Left-Hemisphere Cortical Language Regions Respond Equally to Observed Dialogue and Monologue. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2023; 4:575-610. [PMID: 38144236 PMCID: PMC10745132 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023]
Abstract
Much of the language we encounter in our everyday lives comes in the form of conversation, yet the majority of research on the neural basis of language comprehension has used input from only one speaker at a time. Twenty adults were scanned while passively observing audiovisual conversations using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In a block-design task, participants watched 20 s videos of puppets speaking either to another puppet (the dialogue condition) or directly to the viewer (the monologue condition), while the audio was either comprehensible (played forward) or incomprehensible (played backward). Individually functionally localized left-hemisphere language regions responded more to comprehensible than incomprehensible speech but did not respond differently to dialogue than monologue. In a second task, participants watched videos (1-3 min each) of two puppets conversing with each other, in which one puppet was comprehensible while the other's speech was reversed. All participants saw the same visual input but were randomly assigned which character's speech was comprehensible. In left-hemisphere cortical language regions, the time course of activity was correlated only among participants who heard the same character speaking comprehensibly, despite identical visual input across all participants. For comparison, some individually localized theory of mind regions and right-hemisphere homologues of language regions responded more to dialogue than monologue in the first task, and in the second task, activity in some regions was correlated across all participants regardless of which character was speaking comprehensibly. Together, these results suggest that canonical left-hemisphere cortical language regions are not sensitive to differences between observed dialogue and monologue.
Collapse
|
9
|
Wilmskoetter J, Busby N, He X, Caciagli L, Roth R, Kristinsson S, Davis KA, Rorden C, Bassett DS, Fridriksson J, Bonilha L. Dynamic network properties of the superior temporal gyrus mediate the impact of brain age gap on chronic aphasia severity. Commun Biol 2023; 6:727. [PMID: 37452209 PMCID: PMC10349039 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05119-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Brain structure deteriorates with aging and predisposes an individual to more severe language impairments (aphasia) after a stroke. However, the underlying mechanisms of this relation are not well understood. Here we use an approach to model brain network properties outside the stroke lesion, network controllability, to investigate relations among individualized structural brain connections, brain age, and aphasia severity in 93 participants with chronic post-stroke aphasia. Controlling for the stroke lesion size, we observe that lower average controllability of the posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) mediates the relation between advanced brain aging and aphasia severity. Lower controllability of the left posterior STG signifies that activity in the left posterior STG is less likely to yield a response in other brain regions due to the topological properties of the structural brain networks. These results indicate that advanced brain aging among individuals with post-stroke aphasia is associated with disruption of dynamic properties of a critical language-related area, the STG, which contributes to worse aphasic symptoms. Because brain aging is variable among individuals with aphasia, our results provide further insight into the mechanisms underlying the variance in clinical trajectories in post-stroke aphasia.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Janina Wilmskoetter
- Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Health Professions, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.
| | - Natalie Busby
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Xiaosong He
- Department of Psychology, University of Science and Technology of China, Beijing, China
| | - Lorenzo Caciagli
- Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Rebecca Roth
- Department of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Sigfus Kristinsson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Kathryn A Davis
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Chris Rorden
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Dani S Bassett
- Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, NM, USA
| | - Julius Fridriksson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
10
|
Chen X, Affourtit J, Ryskin R, Regev TI, Norman-Haignere S, Jouravlev O, Malik-Moraleda S, Kean H, Varley R, Fedorenko E. The human language system, including its inferior frontal component in "Broca's area," does not support music perception. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:7904-7929. [PMID: 37005063 PMCID: PMC10505454 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Revised: 01/02/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Language and music are two human-unique capacities whose relationship remains debated. Some have argued for overlap in processing mechanisms, especially for structure processing. Such claims often concern the inferior frontal component of the language system located within "Broca's area." However, others have failed to find overlap. Using a robust individual-subject fMRI approach, we examined the responses of language brain regions to music stimuli, and probed the musical abilities of individuals with severe aphasia. Across 4 experiments, we obtained a clear answer: music perception does not engage the language system, and judgments about music structure are possible even in the presence of severe damage to the language network. In particular, the language regions' responses to music are generally low, often below the fixation baseline, and never exceed responses elicited by nonmusic auditory conditions, like animal sounds. Furthermore, the language regions are not sensitive to music structure: they show low responses to both intact and structure-scrambled music, and to melodies with vs. without structural violations. Finally, in line with past patient investigations, individuals with aphasia, who cannot judge sentence grammaticality, perform well on melody well-formedness judgments. Thus, the mechanisms that process structure in language do not appear to process music, including music syntax.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xuanyi Chen
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, Rice University, TX 77005, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Josef Affourtit
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Rachel Ryskin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Cognitive & Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343, United States
| | - Tamar I Regev
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Samuel Norman-Haignere
- Department of Biostatistics & Computational Biology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States
| | - Olessia Jouravlev
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Department of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Saima Malik-Moraleda
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- The Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
| | - Hope Kean
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Rosemary Varley
- Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL, London, WCN1 1PF, United Kingdom
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- The Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Shain C, Paunov A, Chen X, Lipkin B, Fedorenko E. No evidence of theory of mind reasoning in the human language network. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:6299-6319. [PMID: 36585774 PMCID: PMC10183748 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Revised: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Language comprehension and the ability to infer others' thoughts (theory of mind [ToM]) are interrelated during development and language use. However, neural evidence that bears on the relationship between language and ToM mechanisms is mixed. Although robust dissociations have been reported in brain disorders, brain activations for contrasts that target language and ToM bear similarities, and some have reported overlap. We take another look at the language-ToM relationship by evaluating the response of the language network, as measured with fMRI, to verbal and nonverbal ToM across 151 participants. Individual-participant analyses reveal that all core language regions respond more strongly when participants read vignettes about false beliefs compared to the control vignettes. However, we show that these differences are largely due to linguistic confounds, and no such effects appear in a nonverbal ToM task. These results argue against cognitive and neural overlap between language processing and ToM. In exploratory analyses, we find responses to social processing in the "periphery" of the language network-right-hemisphere homotopes of core language areas and areas in bilateral angular gyri-but these responses are not selectively ToM-related and may reflect general visual semantic processing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cory Shain
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT Bldg 46-316077 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Alexander Paunov
- INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit (UNICOG), NeuroSpin Center, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France
| | - Xuanyi Chen
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, United States
| | - Benjamin Lipkin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT Bldg 46-316077 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT Bldg 46-316077 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
- Program in Speech Hearing in Bioscience and Technology, Harvard Medical School, 260 Longwood Avenue, TMEC 333, Boston, MA 02115, United States
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Paunov AM, Blank IA, Jouravlev O, Mineroff Z, Gallée J, Fedorenko E. Differential Tracking of Linguistic vs. Mental State Content in Naturalistic Stimuli by Language and Theory of Mind (ToM) Brain Networks. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2022; 3:413-440. [PMID: 37216061 PMCID: PMC10158571 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Language and social cognition, especially the ability to reason about mental states, known as theory of mind (ToM), are deeply related in development and everyday use. However, whether these cognitive faculties rely on distinct, overlapping, or the same mechanisms remains debated. Some evidence suggests that, by adulthood, language and ToM draw on largely distinct-though plausibly interacting-cortical networks. However, the broad topography of these networks is similar, and some have emphasized the importance of social content / communicative intent in the linguistic signal for eliciting responses in the language areas. Here, we combine the power of individual-subject functional localization with the naturalistic-cognition inter-subject correlation approach to illuminate the language-ToM relationship. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we recorded neural activity as participants (n = 43) listened to stories and dialogues with mental state content (+linguistic, +ToM), viewed silent animations and live action films with mental state content but no language (-linguistic, +ToM), or listened to an expository text (+linguistic, -ToM). The ToM network robustly tracked stimuli rich in mental state information regardless of whether mental states were conveyed linguistically or non-linguistically, while tracking a +linguistic / -ToM stimulus only weakly. In contrast, the language network tracked linguistic stimuli more strongly than (a) non-linguistic stimuli, and than (b) the ToM network, and showed reliable tracking even for the linguistic condition devoid of mental state content. These findings suggest that in spite of their indisputably close links, language and ToM dissociate robustly in their neural substrates-and thus plausibly cognitive mechanisms-including during the processing of rich naturalistic materials.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alexander M. Paunov
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin Center, 91191Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Idan A. Blank
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA
- Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Olessia Jouravlev
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Zachary Mineroff
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Jeanne Gallée
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Limb Preference in Animals: New Insights into the Evolution of Manual Laterality in Hominids. Symmetry (Basel) 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/sym14010096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Until the 1990s, the notion of brain lateralization—the division of labor between the two hemispheres—and its more visible behavioral manifestation, handedness, remained fiercely defined as a human specific trait. Since then, many studies have evidenced lateralized functions in a wide range of species, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In this review, we highlight the great contribution of comparative research to the understanding of human handedness’ evolutionary and developmental pathways, by distinguishing animal forelimb asymmetries for functionally different actions—i.e., potentially depending on different hemispheric specializations. Firstly, lateralization for the manipulation of inanimate objects has been associated with genetic and ontogenetic factors, with specific brain regions’ activity, and with morphological limb specializations. These could have emerged under selective pressures notably related to the animal locomotion and social styles. Secondly, lateralization for actions directed to living targets (to self or conspecifics) seems to be in relationship with the brain lateralization for emotion processing. Thirdly, findings on primates’ hand preferences for communicative gestures accounts for a link between gestural laterality and a left-hemispheric specialization for intentional communication and language. Throughout this review, we highlight the value of functional neuroimaging and developmental approaches to shed light on the mechanisms underlying human handedness.
Collapse
|
14
|
White PA. The extended present: an informational context for perception. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2021; 220:103403. [PMID: 34454251 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2021] [Revised: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 08/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Several previous authors have proposed a kind of specious or subjective present moment that covers a few seconds of recent information. This article proposes a new hypothesis about the subjective present, renamed the extended present, defined not in terms of time covered but as a thematically connected information structure held in working memory and in transiently accessible form in long-term memory. The three key features of the extended present are that information in it is thematically connected, both internally and to current attended perceptual input, it is organised in a hierarchical structure, and all information in it is marked with temporal information, specifically ordinal and duration information. Temporal boundaries to the information structure are determined by hierarchical structure processing and by limits on processing and storage capacity. Supporting evidence for the importance of hierarchical structure analysis is found in the domains of music perception, speech and language processing, perception and production of goal-directed action, and exact arithmetical calculation. Temporal information marking is also discussed and a possible mechanism for representing ordinal and duration information on the time scale of the extended present is proposed. It is hypothesised that the extended present functions primarily as an informational context for making sense of current perceptual input, and as an enabler for perception and generation of complex structures and operations in language, action, music, exact calculation, and other domains.
Collapse
|
15
|
Wehbe L, Blank IA, Shain C, Futrell R, Levy R, von der Malsburg T, Smith N, Gibson E, Fedorenko E. Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network. Cereb Cortex 2021. [PMID: 33895807 DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.15.043844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023] Open
Abstract
What role do domain-general executive functions play in human language comprehension? To address this question, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of comprehension and neural activity in the domain-general "multiple demand" (MD) network, which has been linked to constructs like attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and selection, and implicated in diverse goal-directed behaviors. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected during naturalistic story listening are compared with theory-neutral measures of online comprehension difficulty and incremental processing load (reading times and eye-fixation durations). Critically, to ensure that variance in these measures is driven by features of the linguistic stimulus rather than reflecting participant- or trial-level variability, the neuroimaging and behavioral datasets were collected in nonoverlapping samples. We find no behavioral-neural link in functionally localized MD regions; instead, this link is found in the domain-specific, fronto-temporal "core language network," in both left-hemispheric areas and their right hemispheric homotopic areas. These results argue against strong involvement of domain-general executive circuits in language comprehension.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leila Wehbe
- Carnegie Mellon University, Machine Learning Department PA 15213, USA
| | - Idan Asher Blank
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
- University of California Los Angeles, Department of Psychology CA 90095, USA
| | - Cory Shain
- Ohio State University, Department of Linguistics OH 43210, USA
| | - Richard Futrell
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
- University of California Irvine, Department of Linguistics CA 92697, USA
| | - Roger Levy
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
- University of California San Diego, Department of Linguistics CA 92161, USA
| | - Titus von der Malsburg
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
- University of Stuttgart, Institute of Linguistics, 70049 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Nathaniel Smith
- University of California San Diego, Department of Linguistics CA 92161, USA
| | - Edward Gibson
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McGovern Institute for Brain ResearchMA 02139, USA
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Wehbe L, Blank IA, Shain C, Futrell R, Levy R, von der Malsburg T, Smith N, Gibson E, Fedorenko E. Incremental Language Comprehension Difficulty Predicts Activity in the Language Network but Not the Multiple Demand Network. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4006-4023. [PMID: 33895807 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2020] [Revised: 01/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
What role do domain-general executive functions play in human language comprehension? To address this question, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of comprehension and neural activity in the domain-general "multiple demand" (MD) network, which has been linked to constructs like attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and selection, and implicated in diverse goal-directed behaviors. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected during naturalistic story listening are compared with theory-neutral measures of online comprehension difficulty and incremental processing load (reading times and eye-fixation durations). Critically, to ensure that variance in these measures is driven by features of the linguistic stimulus rather than reflecting participant- or trial-level variability, the neuroimaging and behavioral datasets were collected in nonoverlapping samples. We find no behavioral-neural link in functionally localized MD regions; instead, this link is found in the domain-specific, fronto-temporal "core language network," in both left-hemispheric areas and their right hemispheric homotopic areas. These results argue against strong involvement of domain-general executive circuits in language comprehension.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leila Wehbe
- Carnegie Mellon University, Machine Learning Department PA 15213, USA
| | - Idan Asher Blank
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA.,University of California Los Angeles, Department of Psychology CA 90095, USA
| | - Cory Shain
- Ohio State University, Department of Linguistics OH 43210, USA
| | - Richard Futrell
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA.,University of California Irvine, Department of Linguistics CA 92697, USA
| | - Roger Levy
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA.,University of California San Diego, Department of Linguistics CA 92161, USA
| | - Titus von der Malsburg
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA.,University of Stuttgart, Institute of Linguistics, 70049 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Nathaniel Smith
- University of California San Diego, Department of Linguistics CA 92161, USA
| | - Edward Gibson
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MA 02139, USA.,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McGovern Institute for Brain ResearchMA 02139, USA
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Papitto G, Lugli L, Borghi AM, Pellicano A, Binkofski F. Embodied negation and levels of concreteness: A TMS study on German and Italian language processing. Brain Res 2021; 1767:147523. [PMID: 34010607 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
According to the embodied cognition perspective, linguistic negation may block the motor simulations induced by language processing. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the left primary motor cortex (hand area) of monolingual Italian and German healthy participants during a rapid serial visual presentation of sentences from their own language. In these languages, the negative particle is located at the beginning and at the end of the sentence, respectively. The study investigated whether the interruption of the motor simulation processes, accounted for by reduced motor evoked potentials (MEPs), takes place similarly in two languages differing on the position of the negative marker. Different levels of sentence concreteness were also manipulated to investigate if negation exerts generalized effects or if it is affected by the semantic features of the sentence. Our findings indicate that negation acts as a block on motor representations, but independently from the language and words concreteness level.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Giorgio Papitto
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany; International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Function, Structure, and Plasticity, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Luisa Lugli
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Anna M Borghi
- Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonello Pellicano
- Division of Clinical Cognitive Sciences, Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Ferdinand Binkofski
- Division of Clinical Cognitive Sciences, Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-4), Research Center Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Ivanova AA, Mineroff Z, Zimmerer V, Kanwisher N, Varley R, Fedorenko E. The Language Network Is Recruited but Not Required for Nonverbal Event Semantics. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2021; 2:176-201. [PMID: 37216147 PMCID: PMC10158592 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
The ability to combine individual concepts of objects, properties, and actions into complex representations of the world is often associated with language. Yet combinatorial event-level representations can also be constructed from nonverbal input, such as visual scenes. Here, we test whether the language network in the human brain is involved in and necessary for semantic processing of events presented nonverbally. In Experiment 1, we scanned participants with fMRI while they performed a semantic plausibility judgment task versus a difficult perceptual control task on sentences and line drawings that describe/depict simple agent-patient interactions. We found that the language network responded robustly during the semantic task performed on both sentences and pictures (although its response to sentences was stronger). Thus, language regions in healthy adults are engaged during a semantic task performed on pictorial depictions of events. But is this engagement necessary? In Experiment 2, we tested two individuals with global aphasia, who have sustained massive damage to perisylvian language areas and display severe language difficulties, against a group of age-matched control participants. Individuals with aphasia were severely impaired on the task of matching sentences to pictures. However, they performed close to controls in assessing the plausibility of pictorial depictions of agent-patient interactions. Overall, our results indicate that the left frontotemporal language network is recruited but not necessary for semantic processing of nonverbally presented events.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna A. Ivanova
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Zachary Mineroff
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Vitor Zimmerer
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Nancy Kanwisher
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rosemary Varley
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Stefaniak JD, Alyahya RSW, Lambon Ralph MA. Language networks in aphasia and health: A 1000 participant activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. Neuroimage 2021; 233:117960. [PMID: 33744459 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 02/28/2021] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Aphasia recovery post-stroke is classically and most commonly hypothesised to rely on regions that were not involved in language premorbidly, through 'neurocomputational invasion' or engagement of 'quiescent homologues'. Contemporary accounts have suggested, instead, that recovery might be supported by under-utilised areas of the premorbid language network, which are downregulated in health to save neural resources ('variable neurodisplacement'). Despite the importance of understanding the neural bases of language recovery clinically and theoretically, there is no consensus as to which specific regions are more likely to be activated in post-stroke aphasia (PSA) than healthy individuals. Accordingly, we performed an Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of language functional neuroimaging studies in PSA. We obtained coordinate-based functional neuroimaging data for 481 individuals with aphasia following left-hemisphere stroke and 530 linked controls from 33 studies that met predefined inclusion criteria. ALE identified regions of consistent, above-chance spatial convergence of activation, as well as regions of significantly different activation likelihood, between participant groups and language tasks. Overall, these findings dispute the prevailing theory that aphasia recovery involves recruitment of novel right hemisphere territory into the language network post-stroke. Instead, multiple regions throughout both hemispheres were consistently activated during language tasks in both PSA and controls. Regions of the right anterior insula, frontal operculum and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) pars opercularis were more likely to be activated across all language tasks in PSA than controls. Similar regions were more likely to be activated during higher than lower demand comprehension or production tasks, consistent with them representing enhanced utilisation of spare capacity within right hemisphere executive-control related regions. This provides novel evidence that 'variable neurodisplacement' underlies language network changes that occur post-stroke. Conversely, multiple undamaged regions were less likely to be activated across all language tasks in PSA than controls, including domain-general regions of medial superior frontal and paracingulate cortex, right IFG pars triangularis and temporal pole. These changes might represent functional diaschisis, and demonstrate that there is not global, undifferentiated upregulation of all domain-general neural resources during language in PSA. Such knowledge is essential if we are to design neurobiologically-informed therapeutic interventions to facilitate language recovery.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- James D Stefaniak
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
| | - Reem S W Alyahya
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | | |
Collapse
|
20
|
Ivanova AA, Srikant S, Sueoka Y, Kean HH, Dhamala R, O'Reilly UM, Bers MU, Fedorenko E. Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions. eLife 2020; 9:e58906. [PMID: 33319744 PMCID: PMC7738192 DOI: 10.7554/elife.58906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Computer programming is a novel cognitive tool that has transformed modern society. What cognitive and neural mechanisms support this skill? Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate two candidate brain systems: the multiple demand (MD) system, typically recruited during math, logic, problem solving, and executive tasks, and the language system, typically recruited during linguistic processing. We examined MD and language system responses to code written in Python, a text-based programming language (Experiment 1) and in ScratchJr, a graphical programming language (Experiment 2); for both, we contrasted responses to code problems with responses to content-matched sentence problems. We found that the MD system exhibited strong bilateral responses to code in both experiments, whereas the language system responded strongly to sentence problems, but weakly or not at all to code problems. Thus, the MD system supports the use of novel cognitive tools even when the input is structurally similar to natural language.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna A Ivanova
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
| | - Shashank Srikant
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
| | - Yotaro Sueoka
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
| | - Hope H Kean
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
| | - Riva Dhamala
- Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts UniversityMedfordUnited States
| | - Una-May O'Reilly
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
| | - Marina U Bers
- Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts UniversityMedfordUnited States
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUnited States
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
de Zubicaray GI, McMahon KL, Arciuli J. A Sound Explanation for Motor Cortex Engagement during Action Word Comprehension. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 33:129-145. [PMID: 33054555 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Comprehending action words often engages similar brain regions to those involved in perceiving and executing actions. This finding has been interpreted as support for grounding of conceptual processing in motor representations or that conceptual processing involves motor simulation. However, such demonstrations cannot confirm the nature of the mechanism(s) responsible, as word comprehension involves multiple processes (e.g., lexical, semantic, morphological, phonological). In this study, we tested whether this motor cortex engagement instead reflects processing of statistical regularities in sublexical phonological features. Specifically, we measured brain activity in healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed an auditory lexical decision paradigm involving monosyllabic action words associated with specific effectors (face, arm, and leg). We show that nonwords matched to the action words in terms of their phonotactic probability elicit common patterns of activation. In addition, we show that a measure of the action words' phonological typicality, the extent to which a word's phonology is typical of other words in the grammatical category to which it belongs (i.e., more or less verb-like), is responsible for their activating a significant portion of primary and premotor cortices. These results indicate motor cortex engagement during action word comprehension is more likely to reflect processing of statistical regularities in sublexical phonological features than conceptual processing. We discuss the implications for current neurobiological models of language, all of which implicitly or explicitly assume that the relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning is arbitrary.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Katie L McMahon
- Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia.,Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital, Australia
| | | |
Collapse
|
22
|
Courson M, Tremblay P. Neural correlates of manual action language: Comparative review, ALE meta-analysis and ROI meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 116:221-238. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.06.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2019] [Revised: 03/30/2020] [Accepted: 06/18/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
|
23
|
Maffei V, Indovina I, Mazzarella E, Giusti MA, Macaluso E, Lacquaniti F, Viviani P. Sensitivity of occipito-temporal cortex, premotor and Broca's areas to visible speech gestures in a familiar language. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0234695. [PMID: 32559213 PMCID: PMC7304574 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2019] [Accepted: 06/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
When looking at a speaking person, the analysis of facial kinematics contributes to language discrimination and to the decoding of the time flow of visual speech. To disentangle these two factors, we investigated behavioural and fMRI responses to familiar and unfamiliar languages when observing speech gestures with natural or reversed kinematics. Twenty Italian volunteers viewed silent video-clips of speech shown as recorded (Forward, biological motion) or reversed in time (Backward, non-biological motion), in Italian (familiar language) or Arabic (non-familiar language). fMRI revealed that language (Italian/Arabic) and time-rendering (Forward/Backward) modulated distinct areas in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, suggesting that visual speech analysis begins in this region, earlier than previously thought. Left premotor ventral (superior subdivision) and dorsal areas were preferentially activated with the familiar language independently of time-rendering, challenging the view that the role of these regions in speech processing is purely articulatory. The left premotor ventral region in the frontal operculum, thought to include part of the Broca's area, responded to the natural familiar language, consistent with the hypothesis of motor simulation of speech gestures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo Maffei
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
- Centre of Space BioMedicine and Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- Data Lake & BI, DOT - Technology, Poste Italiane, Rome, Italy
| | - Iole Indovina
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
- Departmental Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Maria Assunta Giusti
- Centre of Space BioMedicine and Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Emiliano Macaluso
- ImpAct Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Lyon, France
- Laboratory of Neuroimaging, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Lacquaniti
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
- Centre of Space BioMedicine and Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paolo Viviani
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
- Centre of Space BioMedicine and Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Diachek E, Blank I, Siegelman M, Affourtit J, Fedorenko E. The Domain-General Multiple Demand (MD) Network Does Not Support Core Aspects of Language Comprehension: A Large-Scale fMRI Investigation. J Neurosci 2020; 40:4536-4550. [PMID: 32317387 PMCID: PMC7275862 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2036-19.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2019] [Revised: 03/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Aside from the language-selective left-lateralized frontotemporal network, language comprehension sometimes recruits a domain-general bilateral frontoparietal network implicated in executive functions: the multiple demand (MD) network. However, the nature of the MD network's contributions to language comprehension remains debated. To illuminate the role of this network in language processing in humans, we conducted a large-scale fMRI investigation using data from 30 diverse word and sentence comprehension experiments (481 unique participants [female and male], 678 scanning sessions). In line with prior findings, the MD network was active during many language tasks. Moreover, similar to the language-selective network, which is robustly lateralized to the left hemisphere, these responses were stronger in the left-hemisphere MD regions. However, in contrast with the language-selective network, the MD network responded more strongly (1) to lists of unconnected words than to sentences, and (2) in paradigms with an explicit task compared with passive comprehension paradigms. Indeed, many passive comprehension tasks failed to elicit a response above the fixation baseline in the MD network, in contrast to strong responses in the language-selective network. Together, these results argue against a role for the MD network in core aspects of sentence comprehension, such as inhibiting irrelevant meanings or parses, keeping intermediate representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming words or structures. These results align with recent evidence of relatively poor tracking of the linguistic signal by the MD regions during naturalistic comprehension, and instead suggest that the MD network's engagement during language processing reflects effort associated with extraneous task demands.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Domain-general executive processes, such as working memory and cognitive control, have long been implicated in language comprehension, including in neuroimaging studies that have reported activation in domain-general multiple demand (MD) regions for linguistic manipulations. However, much prior evidence has come from paradigms where language interpretation is accompanied by extraneous tasks. Using a large fMRI dataset (30 experiments/481 participants/678 sessions), we demonstrate that MD regions are engaged during language comprehension in the presence of task demands, but not during passive reading/listening, conditions that strongly activate the frontotemporal language network. These results present a fundamental challenge to proposals whereby linguistic computations, such as inhibiting irrelevant meanings, keeping representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming elements, draw on domain-general executive resources.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Evgeniia Diachek
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203
| | - Idan Blank
- Department of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095
| | - Matthew Siegelman
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027
| | - Josef Affourtit
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Blank IA, Fedorenko E. No evidence for differences among language regions in their temporal receptive windows. Neuroimage 2020; 219:116925. [PMID: 32407994 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Revised: 03/20/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The "core language network" consists of left frontal and temporal regions that are selectively engaged in linguistic processing. Whereas functional differences among these regions have long been debated, many accounts propose distinctions in terms of representational grain-size-e.g., words vs. phrases/sentences-or processing time-scale, i.e., operating on local linguistic features vs. larger spans of input. Indeed, the topography of language regions appears to overlap with a cortical hierarchy reported by Lerner et al. (2011) wherein mid-posterior temporal regions are sensitive to low-level features of speech, surrounding areas-to word-level information, and inferior frontal areas-to sentence-level information and beyond. However, the correspondence between the language network and this hierarchy of "temporal receptive windows" (TRWs) is difficult to establish because the precise anatomical locations of language regions vary across individuals. To directly test this correspondence, we first identified language regions in each participant with a well-validated task-based localizer, which confers high functional resolution to the study of TRWs (traditionally based on stereotactic coordinates); then, we characterized regional TRWs with the naturalistic story listening paradigm of Lerner et al. (2011), which augments task-based characterizations of the language network by more closely resembling comprehension "in the wild". We find no region-by-TRW interactions across temporal and inferior frontal regions, which are all sensitive to both word-level and sentence-level information. Therefore, the language network as a whole constitutes a unique stage of information integration within a broader cortical hierarchy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Idan A Blank
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Fedorenko E, Blank IA. Broca's Area Is Not a Natural Kind. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:270-284. [PMID: 32160565 PMCID: PMC7211504 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 129] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2019] [Revised: 12/21/2019] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Theories of human cognition prominently feature 'Broca's area', which causally contributes to a myriad of mental functions. However, Broca's area is not a monolithic, multipurpose unit - it is structurally and functionally heterogeneous. Some functions engaging (subsets of) this area share neurocognitive resources, whereas others rely on separable circuits. A decade of converging evidence has now illuminated a fundamental distinction between two subregions of Broca's area that likely play computationally distinct roles in cognition: one belongs to the domain-specific 'language network', the other to the domain-general 'multiple-demand (MD) network'. Claims about Broca's area should be (re)cast in terms of these (and other, as yet undetermined) functional components, to establish a cumulative research enterprise where empirical findings can be replicated and theoretical proposals can be meaningfully compared and falsified.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Evelina Fedorenko
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| | - Idan A Blank
- Department of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Friederici AD. Hierarchy processing in human neurobiology: how specific is it? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 375:20180391. [PMID: 31735144 PMCID: PMC6895560 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Although human and non-human animals share a number of perceptual and cognitive abilities, they differ in their ability to process hierarchically structured sequences. This becomes most evident in the human capacity to process natural language characterized by structural hierarchies. This capacity is neuroanatomically grounded in the posterior part of left Broca's area (Brodmann area (BA) 44), located in the inferior frontal gyrus, and its dorsal white matter fibre connection to the temporal cortex. Within this neural network, BA 44 itself subserves hierarchy building and the strength of its connection to the temporal cortex correlates with the processing of syntactically complex sentences. Whether these brain structures are also relevant for other human cognitive abilities is a current debate. Here, this question will be evaluated with respect to those human cognitive abilities that are assumed to require hierarchy building, such as music, mathematics and Theory of Mind. Rather than supporting a domain-general view, the data indicate domain-selective neural networks as the neurobiological basis for processing hierarchy in different cognitive domains. Recent cross-species white matter comparisons suggest that particular connections within the networks may make the crucial difference in the brain structure of human and non-human primates, thereby enabling cognitive functions specific to humans. This article is part of the theme issue 'What can animal communication teach us about human language?'
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Angela D. Friederici
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstr. 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Papitto G, Friederici AD, Zaccarella E. The topographical organization of motor processing: An ALE meta-analysis on six action domains and the relevance of Broca's region. Neuroimage 2019; 206:116321. [PMID: 31678500 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2019] [Revised: 09/24/2019] [Accepted: 10/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Action is a cover term used to refer to a large set of motor processes differing in domain specificities (e.g. execution or observation). Here we review neuroimaging evidence on action processing (N = 416; Subjects = 5912) using quantitative Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) and Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modeling (MACM) approaches to delineate the functional specificities of six domains: (1) Action Execution, (2) Action Imitation, (3) Motor Imagery, (4) Action Observation, (5) Motor Learning, (6) Motor Preparation. Our results show distinct functional patterns for the different domains with convergence in posterior BA44 (pBA44) for execution, imitation and imagery processing. The functional connectivity network seeding in the motor-based localized cluster of pBA44 differs from the connectivity network seeding in the (language-related) anterior BA44. The two networks implement distinct cognitive functions. We propose that the motor-related network encompassing pBA44 is recruited when processing movements requiring a mental representation of the action itself.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Giorgio Papitto
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany; International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Function, Structure, and Plasticity, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Angela D Friederici
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Emiliano Zaccarella
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Jouravlev O, Zheng D, Balewski Z, Le Arnz Pongos A, Levan Z, Goldin-Meadow S, Fedorenko E. Speech-accompanying gestures are not processed by the language-processing mechanisms. Neuropsychologia 2019; 132:107132. [PMID: 31276684 PMCID: PMC6708375 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2018] [Revised: 06/01/2019] [Accepted: 06/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Speech-accompanying gestures constitute one information channel during communication. Some have argued that processing gestures engages the brain regions that support language comprehension. However, studies that have been used as evidence for shared mechanisms suffer from one or more of the following limitations: they (a) have not directly compared activations for gesture and language processing in the same study and relied on the fallacious reverse inference (Poldrack, 2006) for interpretation, (b) relied on traditional group analyses, which are bound to overestimate overlap (e.g., Nieto-Castañon and Fedorenko, 2012), (c) failed to directly compare the magnitudes of response (e.g., Chen et al., 2017), and (d) focused on gestures that may have activated the corresponding linguistic representations (e.g., "emblems"). To circumvent these limitations, we used fMRI to examine responses to gesture processing in language regions defined functionally in individual participants (e.g., Fedorenko et al., 2010), including directly comparing effect sizes, and covering a broad range of spontaneously generated co-speech gestures. Whenever speech was present, language regions responded robustly (and to a similar degree regardless of whether the video contained gestures or grooming movements). In contrast, and critically, responses in the language regions were low - at or slightly above the fixation baseline - when silent videos were processed (again, regardless of whether they contained gestures or grooming movements). Brain regions outside of the language network, including some in close proximity to its regions, differentiated between gestures and grooming movements, ruling out the possibility that the gesture/grooming manipulation was too subtle. Behavioral studies on the critical video materials further showed robust differentiation between the gesture and grooming conditions. In summary, contra prior claims, language-processing regions do not respond to co-speech gestures in the absence of speech, suggesting that these regions are selectively driven by linguistic input (e.g., Fedorenko et al., 2011). Although co-speech gestures are uncontroversially important in communication, they appear to be processed in brain regions distinct from those that support language comprehension, similar to other extra-linguistic communicative signals, like facial expressions and prosody.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Olessia Jouravlev
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA; Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.
| | - David Zheng
- Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Zuzanna Balewski
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | | | - Zena Levan
- University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | | | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Paunov AM, Blank IA, Fedorenko E. Functionally distinct language and Theory of Mind networks are synchronized at rest and during language comprehension. J Neurophysiol 2019; 121:1244-1265. [PMID: 30601693 PMCID: PMC6485726 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00619.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2018] [Revised: 12/26/2018] [Accepted: 12/30/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Communication requires the abilities to generate and interpret utterances and to infer the beliefs, desires, and goals of others ("Theory of Mind"; ToM). These two abilities have been shown to dissociate: individuals with aphasia retain the ability to think about others' mental states; and individuals with autism are impaired in social reasoning, but their basic language processing is often intact. In line with this evidence from brain disorders, functional MRI (fMRI) studies have shown that linguistic and ToM abilities recruit distinct sets of brain regions. And yet, language is a social tool that allows us to share thoughts with one another. Thus, the language and ToM brain networks must share information despite being implemented in distinct neural circuits. Here, we investigated potential interactions between these networks during naturalistic cognition using functional correlations in fMRI. The networks were functionally defined in individual participants, in terms of preference for sentences over nonwords for language, and for belief inference over physical-event processing for ToM, with both a verbal and a nonverbal paradigm. Although, across experiments, interregion correlations within each network were higher than between-network correlations, we also observed above-baseline synchronization of blood oxygenation level-dependent signal fluctuations between the two networks during rest and story comprehension. This synchronization was functionally specific: neither network was synchronized with the executive control network (functionally defined in terms of preference for a harder over easier version of an executive task). Thus, coordination between the language and ToM networks appears to be an inherent and specific characteristic of their functional architecture. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Humans differ from nonhuman primates in their abilities to communicate linguistically and to infer others' mental states. Although linguistic and social abilities appear to be interlinked onto- and phylogenetically, they are dissociated in the adult human brain. Yet successful communication requires language and social reasoning to work in concert. Using functional MRI, we show that language regions are synchronized with social regions during rest and language comprehension, pointing to a possible mechanism for internetwork interaction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alexander M Paunov
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department , Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Idan A Blank
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department , Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department , Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Harvard Medical School, Psychiatry Department , Boston, Massachusetts
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Psychiatry Department , Boston, Massachusetts
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Mineroff Z, Blank IA, Mahowald K, Fedorenko E. A robust dissociation among the language, multiple demand, and default mode networks: Evidence from inter-region correlations in effect size. Neuropsychologia 2018; 119:501-511. [PMID: 30243926 PMCID: PMC6191329 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2018] [Revised: 09/18/2018] [Accepted: 09/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Complex cognitive processes, including language, rely on multiple mental operations that are carried out by several large-scale functional networks in the frontal, temporal, and parietal association cortices of the human brain. The central division of cognitive labor is between two fronto-parietal bilateral networks: (a) the multiple demand (MD) network, which supports executive processes, such as working memory and cognitive control, and is engaged by diverse task domains, including language, especially when comprehension gets difficult; and (b) the default mode network (DMN), which supports introspective processes, such as mind wandering, and is active when we are not engaged in processing external stimuli. These two networks are strongly dissociated in both their functional profiles and their patterns of activity fluctuations during naturalistic cognition. Here, we focus on the functional relationship between these two networks and a third network: (c) the fronto-temporal left-lateralized "core" language network, which is selectively recruited by linguistic processing. Is the language network distinct and dissociated from both the MD network and the DMN, or is it synchronized and integrated with one or both of them? Recent work has provided evidence for a dissociation between the language network and the MD network. However, the relationship between the language network and the DMN is less clear, with some evidence for coordinated activity patterns and similar response profiles, perhaps due to the role of both in semantic processing. Here we use a novel fMRI approach to examine the relationship among the three networks: we measure the strength of activations in different language, MD, and DMN regions to functional contrasts typically used to identify each network, and then test which regions co-vary in their contrast effect sizes across 60 individuals. We find that effect sizes correlate strongly within each network (e.g., one language region and another language region, or one DMN region and another DMN region), but show little or no correlation for region pairs across networks (e.g., a language region and a DMN region). Thus, using our novel method, we replicate the language/MD network dissociation discovered previously with other approaches, and also show that the language network is robustly dissociated from the DMN, overall suggesting that these three networks contribute to high-level cognition in different ways and, perhaps, support distinct computations. Inter-individual differences in effect sizes therefore do not simply reflect general differences in vascularization or attention, but exhibit sensitivity to the functional architecture of the brain. The strength of activation in each network can thus be probed separately in studies that attempt to link neural variability to behavioral or genetic variability.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Evelina Fedorenko
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Harvard Medical School, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital, USA.
| |
Collapse
|