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Verbal fluency activates the left medial temporal lobe: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Author(s) -
Pihlajamäki Maija,
Tanila Heikki,
Hänninen Tuomo,
Könönen Mervi,
Laakso Mikko,
Partanen Kaarina,
Soininen Hilkka,
Aronen Hannu J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/1531-8249(200004)47:4<470::aid-ana10>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - functional magnetic resonance imaging , temporal lobe , frontal lobe , psychology , verbal fluency test , magnetic resonance imaging , neuroscience , parietal lobe , functional imaging , fluency , inferior parietal lobule , medicine , audiology , neuropsychology , radiology , epilepsy , cognition , mathematics education
Verbal fluency tests (VFTs) are suggested to assess frontal lobe function. This view is supported by functional imaging studies that report left frontal activation during VFTs. VFTs require retrieval of semantically associated words from long‐term memory storage. The neural networks that participate in this process, however, are largely unknown. These neural networks are of interest, given that patients with early Alzheimer's disease, typically without frontal pathology, are often impaired in VFTs. In the present study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed to determine brain activation areas during VFTs in young subjects. In the activation task, category fluency was contrasted with orderly listing of numbers. As judged from using this comparison, there was activation in the left medial temporal lobe, in the inferior frontal and retrosplenial cortices bilaterally, and in the left superior parietal lobule. Left medial temporal lobe activation was present in 13 of the 14 study subjects either in the hippocampal formation (11 of 14) or in the posterior parahippocampal gyrus (12 of 14). These results suggest that the medial temporal lobe is required for the process of retrieval by category. Functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with a category fluency task may provide a new method to study patients with early Alzheimer's disease. Ann Neurol 2000;47:470–476.