Open AccessModality independence of word comprehension
Author(s) -
Booth James R.,
Burman Douglas D.,
Meyer Joel R.,
Gitelman Darren R.,
Parrish Todd B.,
Mesulam M. Marsel
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.10054
Subject(s) - fusiform gyrus , psychology , modality (human–computer interaction) , functional magnetic resonance imaging , stimulus modality , comprehension , gyrus , inferior frontal gyrus , middle temporal gyrus , supramarginal gyrus , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , sensory system , linguistics , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine the functional anatomy of word comprehension in the auditory and visual modalities of presentation. We asked our subjects to determine if word pairs were semantically associated (e.g., table, chair) and compared this to a reference task where they were asked to judge whether word pairs rhymed (e.g., bank, tank). This comparison showed task‐specific and modality‐independent activation for semantic processing in the heteromodal cortices of the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 46, 47) and left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21). There were also modality‐specific activations in the fusiform gyrus (BA 37) for written words and in the superior temporal gyrus (BA 22) for spoken words. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that word form recognition (lexical encoding) occurs in unimodal cortices and that heteromodal brain regions in the anterior as well as posterior components of the language network subserve word comprehension (semantic decoding). Hum. Brain Mapping 16:251–261, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.